RE: [CBQ] Head Light Operation on Steam Engines

["'Tom Kline' TKline@airmail.net [CBQ]" <CBQ@yahoogroups.com>]

I want to say it was the 1950’s when the headlight rule came about but I could be wrong.  Hopefully someone can post the exact date and specific rule.

 

Decades ago Trains Magazine ran a photo by a prominent photographer (R. V. Nixon?) of a steam passenger train with the headlight on in the 1940’s(?).  The caption told the story of the photographer who was experimenting with taking photos of a solar eclipse earlier that day prior to seeing the train.  Back then you had to manually advance the film (either by crank or inserting a new film magazine) after you took a picture or the next photo you made would be a double exposure on the same negative frame-one picture on top of the other.  In this case the photographer forgot to advance the film to a blank frame before making a picture of the steam engine.  In almost all cases a double exposure ruins both photos but in this instance the first exposure of the solar eclipse lined up exactly with the headlight reflector on the steam engine making it look like the headlight was on.  A one in a million random occurrence!  After developing the negatives the photographer was shocked at what he saw and knowing the headlight was not on when he made the photo and shelved the negative as a ‘bad shot’ since trains didn’t run with their headlights on during daylight hours back then.

 

As a child learning about railroads in the mid-sixties I can remember asking why trains ran with the headlights on when the sun was out.

 

Tom Kline

Houston

 

From: CBQ@yahoogroups.com [mailto:CBQ@yahoogroups.com]
Sent: Sunday, May 07, 2017 10:59 AM
To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [CBQ] Head Light Operation on Steam Engines

 

 

Good question, experts!  I myself have been trying to figure out when the practice of having the headlight on started for steamers.  Also: did diesels (especially passenger diesels) use lit headlights earlier than steamers in the daytime?

Doug (the less knowledgeable Doug).

On 5/7/17, 9:52 AM, "tczephyr@hotmail.com [CBQ]" <CBQ@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

   

Just going through several hundred photos I have of Q steam dating between 1930's and 1960. Although may are of engines that are not moving, there are a lot of photos of engines hauling loads. Most all do not have the head light on, the photos where all taken during daylight hours.



Was it a practice for the Q and other RR's to run steam (freight) without the headlight on during the day?



Ray




 
   

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Posted by: "Tom Kline" <tkline@airmail.net>

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