Loco Lighting Suggestions?

[evertrainz]

Hello all

Does anyone know if the AC Electrics (85, 86, 87 come to mind) had the same marker/tail light behavior as the diesels?

I want to borrow the script for directional lighting from that found on most diesels such as the Class 37, 55, 31, etc..

Do you guys have any additional comments or suggestions? I'm currently working on the Class 85, and am currently scripting it.

Ron

[blackwatch13]

I would have thought that the "marker/tail light behavior" would be the same for all mainline loco's running
under BR rules & regulations.

[cyberdonblue]

It depends on what you mean by "behaviour." Lights were switched on and off from the desk in exactly the same way as a diesel loco and, like a diesel loco, they displayed marker lights and/or tail lights for the end in which the light switches were operated in. However, for many years, only ONE tail light could be illuminated at any given time (and DMU's had oil tail lamps until much, much later still - well into the mid 1980's.)

The tail light switch on locos, diesel or electric, had 3 positions (EMU's did too.) Looking out from the cab, "up" was the tail lamp immediately in front of the driving seat. "Centre" was off and "down" was the tail lamp on the secondman's side. Displaying two tail lights was a later addition that was employed as lighting techniques improved. When headlights began to appear they were switched on/off from their own separate switches because they were not part of the original cab design and were often just "botched" in wherever the fitters found a space on the desk initially.

The arrival of the Class 56's is about my earliest recollection of headlights on locos (1980 ish?**) We (traincrews) hated the concept and couldn't understand why trains needed headlights (most of my age group still can't.) Nowadays the railway is set up for simpletons. Massive speed boards that a blind man could see from a mile away, headlights that can blind passing aircraft, LED signals that totally ruin a driver's night vision, instantaneous braking on every vehicle and speed control systems that are a whisker away from total automation. You could train a monkey to drive now. Progress, I think they call it.

Cheers

Dave

** Wikipedia says the Class 56's were first introduced in 1976. I certainly don't recall them being around that early and would dispute that statement. I clearly recall 56001 arriving on the shed at Saltley for crew training and that DEFINITELY was not before 1979 at the very earliest and was more likely to have been about late 1982 early 83 if I recall right. I remember it quite clearly because everything on them was marked up in Romanian - including the driver's manuals - and it caused quite a bit of upset (and above 70 mph they rocked and swayed like they were running on T:ANE track.)

[klambert]

We (traincrews) hated the concept and couldn't understand why trains needed headlights (most of my age group still can't.)

I think even Speedo's were also a relatively new concept from the 50s onwards, most steam engines weren't fitted with them and the 4-SUBs which lasted until the early 80s never had them.

I do agree about headlights being too bright nowadays, even in cars the white LEDs dazzle rather than warn of a cars approach which is about as safe as having no headlights switched on at all.

[blackwatch13]

** Wikipedia says the Class 56's were first introduced in 1976. I certainly don't recall them being around that early and would dispute that statement.

Dave, the 1st of the Rumanian built class 56's was delivered in Aug.76, but due to faults, was not accepted into stock until Feb.77.
The rest of the 30 loco's built in Rumania were accepted in stages, the last one in mid Oct 1977.
The second order of 30 loco's was built at Doncaster works, the first one being accepted in in mid May 1977.

I remember this as I was an active 'spotter' at Donny in that era.

(This info can also be found in 'British Locomotives' Vol.3, by O.S.Nock)

[cyberdonblue]

Cheers blackwatch. My poor old brain can't cope with thinking back that far. It all blurs into one . It would probably make sense though because I think the training began in the Doncaster area initially and spread to their surrounding depots and on up towards York because of the large amounts of coal traffic in the north at that time. When you learnt the road up that way it was usually by learning the names of the pits like people used to learn the names of the pubs when navigating by road . I really didn't think it was that long ago though but I assume that might be because we probably saw little of the 56's at first. (There must be some bloody big holes in the ground up north considering the amount of coal that came out in those days too!)

Back then, at Saltley, we had quite a few through MGR trains from Barrow Hill or Toton to Didcot - as well as the more local stuff from Kingsbury, Daw Mill and Three Spires. Didcot burnt an awful lot of coal - although we worked into quite a few other power stations at that time too (Hams Hall, Buildwas, Ratcliffe, Drakelow and a few more besides.) We always relieved the Barrow Hill and Toton crews at Landor Street (outside our depot) but, as the 56's became more well used, anything with a Class 56 on it was turned into Washwood Heath West End Yard and the loco detached. We would then take a 47 off the shed and pick up the train for ourselves. On returning we would usually be told by Saltley powerbox "Over the top" which meant Washwood Heath Up Side (over the hump) and light to the shed.

Landor Street Junction was our "Iron Curtain" back in those days. Saltley was a very powerful depot at the time and often called the shots with management. No cooperation from Saltley meant that very little, if anything, ran at all. It didn't make us very popular with other depots at times though.

As the Class 56's began to turn up ever more often at Saltley, we started to get trained on them. There were so many of them about by then it didn't make sense not to train us. This eventually turned out to be to BR's great advantage though because we went from pulling 32 MGRs with a Class 47 to regularly pulling 45 MGRs with a Class 56. We even ran several test trains pulling 60 MGRs with TWO Class 56's in multiple and then one Class 56 on it's own. There were, however, too few loops that could accommodate a train of that size so the idea was eventually dropped. At 45mph loaded and 55mph empty, these trains got in the way of much faster passenger traffic. Nowadays, 75 mph 100 tonners do the job - although most of the old coal fired powerstations are long gone. Incidently, I've never seen any lineside photos of those 60 wagon trains from back then. Maybe because we ran the test trains on lates and nights, I don't know.

Anyway, thanks again, blackwatch. You sent me off down memory lane again though

Cheers all

Dave