Hi Folks:
To expand on Marshall's explanation....the first Mars lights were built by
the owner of the Mars Candy Company in Chicago for the "E" (4-6-2) engines
used on the C & N-W Ry's "400" service between Chicago and the Twin
Cities...of which you may have heard :>) The idea was that since it was
higher speed service (400 miles in 400 minutes) than most people expected to
see at a crossing, the locos would have a distinctive light to warn the
public at crossings. The light was mounted at the top of the smokebox,
pointing diagonally up into the sky. Whether it worked or not, I can't say.
When I came to work in Edgemont, we still had motors running around with
Gyra-lights, and I would run them every chance I had a working one. After
the Frisco motors started showing up, most of them were likewise equipped,
but after a while, the (presumably) shops cut the wires to the motors in the
lights, and I couldn't play passenger train anymore :>) Eventually, they
were all removed. The last working one I saw is (was) on the motor they
used...until two years ago...on the "Santa Train", a Geep38, I think.
Best,
Mike Decker
----- Original Message -----
From: <BRHSlist@yahoogroups.com>
To: <BRHSlist@yahoogroups.com>
> Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2003 21:01:40 -0600
> From: "zephyr9903" <zephyr9903@iowatelecom.net>
> Subject: Re: Re: What's a "gyra-light"?
>
> Oh, darn! I'm gonna have to play pedantic historian again! (there will
be a
> brief pause while most of you delete this message) -
>
> A patent company called "MARS" (and I think it was an acronym for
something,
> but don't remember what it stood for) came up with a standard headlight
> mounted in a motorized bracket, whose beam swept an oval pattern head of
the
> locomotive . . .
> Pyle, therefore, set out to design something which would be patentable
and
> (if possible) more effective . . . the Pyle National "Gyralight" used
extra
> linkeages to trace a horizontally oriented "Figure Eight" pattern,
>
> Marshall Thayer
>
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