RE: [CBQ] Re: Mars Light Operation

["Charlie Vlk" <cvlk@comcast.net>]

Bill-

I suspect that by the time the CB&Q started using MARS lights the functions were pretty well established.  The C&NW was the earliest user with applications on the “400” modernized Pacifics being the first.  I think the UP Streamliners had them (at first mounted skyward to warn of the approaching high speed train) long before they were applied to the Shovelnoses and S4, O5 and M4 locomotives.

The MARS light was invented by a City of Chicago fireman who was funded by the Mars (of candy bar fame) family, hence the name.  The original application was for fire trucks.  The Mars shipping connection was probably used to gain a foothold in the C&NW for the product.

Charlie Vlk

 

While I don't have first hand experience, I am fairly certain that the Mars light function were the same on the shovel nose Zephyrs. In fact, I suspect that those functions may have been developed with the Zephyr applications and were carried over to the later steam and diesel locomotive applications. 

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