by eurorail
Hi guys,
Hope you can help me out with my quest for some information. As you can tell, I am quite new on this forum. Additionally, as you may have guessed already, I am originally from Europe. As a result, there are quite a few interesting railroad differences I have been observing between Europe and North America. One difference I find particularly intriguing is the use of headlights on locomotives.
Most, if not all, European countries have clear rules that a locomotive must display a triangular light pattern in the direction of travel. There's just those three lamps, all three lights are equal, of the same size and all three of them must be on at all times (i.e. there's no equivalent to "flashing ditch lights" or anything like that). The idea of the triangle, of course, is to allow for easy distinction between trains and cars at night time. Two headlights at the same hight = car or truck, three headlights in a triangle = train. (This goes as far as requiring that maintenance trucks travelling on railway tracks display the triangle pattern, also.)
There's no notion of ditch lights, and, as far as I know, there never was. Even if you go all the way back to steam locomotives, many of them already use the triangle light pattern. (See, for instance, this locomotive built in 1918: http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?tit ... 1205225316.)
I am curious where the North American tradition comes from to mount the main headlights in the center, why they are always doubled up (horizontally or vertically) and why, for the longest time, the center headlights where the only ones being used. Even today, the ditch lights on locomotives are often smaller and nearly always not as bright as the main headlights and, depending on the circumstances, sometimes they may not even have to be switched on.
Thanks.
Hope you can help me out with my quest for some information. As you can tell, I am quite new on this forum. Additionally, as you may have guessed already, I am originally from Europe. As a result, there are quite a few interesting railroad differences I have been observing between Europe and North America. One difference I find particularly intriguing is the use of headlights on locomotives.
Most, if not all, European countries have clear rules that a locomotive must display a triangular light pattern in the direction of travel. There's just those three lamps, all three lights are equal, of the same size and all three of them must be on at all times (i.e. there's no equivalent to "flashing ditch lights" or anything like that). The idea of the triangle, of course, is to allow for easy distinction between trains and cars at night time. Two headlights at the same hight = car or truck, three headlights in a triangle = train. (This goes as far as requiring that maintenance trucks travelling on railway tracks display the triangle pattern, also.)
There's no notion of ditch lights, and, as far as I know, there never was. Even if you go all the way back to steam locomotives, many of them already use the triangle light pattern. (See, for instance, this locomotive built in 1918: http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?tit ... 1205225316.)
I am curious where the North American tradition comes from to mount the main headlights in the center, why they are always doubled up (horizontally or vertically) and why, for the longest time, the center headlights where the only ones being used. Even today, the ditch lights on locomotives are often smaller and nearly always not as bright as the main headlights and, depending on the circumstances, sometimes they may not even have to be switched on.
Thanks.