Gordon Davids wrote: snip > > Marker lamps were normally carried in a box or out of sight on the > tender deck unless they had been placed in their brackets at the rear > corners of the tender to indicate the rear of a train. Any marker > lamp, lighted by night or dark by day, indicated the rear of a train, > and that the train was complete. They showed red to the rear and > yellow to the front and sides (green in Canada and some US railroads) The PRR marker lamps had only a red indication. > when the train was occupying a main track, with some other > combinations when running against the current of traffic. The markers > on a steam locomotive running in reverse, light or at the rear of a > train, were placed in brackets on the pilot beam. > > Classification lamps (combined with flags by day) were always placed > on the smokebox front of the locomotive, even when it was operating in > reverse. Classification lamps not lighted indicated nothing. No!. No classification lights indicate the the train was a scheduled train > Green flags (and green lamp lighted by night) indicated that another > section of the same schedule was following. White indicated an extra > train (a train operating with no time-table schedule). > > A principle difference is that the mere presence of marker lamps > indicated the rear of a train, but classification lamps had to be > lighted (and accompanied by flags in daylight) in order to convey a > valid signal. The PRR did it differently, but that's off-topic. Some > railroads carried both green and white classification lamps on the > smokebox front for convenience, with the flags stored in the cab. > They would light and mount the correct lamps on the higher brackets > and put up the corresponding flags whenever they needed them. To go back to the original query. I think he thought that the locomotives had built in marker lamps as some later steam had and diesels have. He did not see or recognize the lamp holders on the tender. bob gillis The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List Sponsored by the ELH&TS http://www.elhts.org ------------------------------
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