The door mounted light you refer to was called a Mars Light (the
makers plate calls it a GYRALITE)
It was a warning light and the reflector moved in such a way as to
give a "lazy eight" sort of movement to the beam. Once you see one
working there is no mistaking what it is coming at you.
It was portable and yes, only 1 used on leading end. You could not
have them on door between cars as it would interfere with passage.
The actual headlights are the twin sealed beams above the door.
The Mars Light was removed because it was felt it caused a
mesmerizing effect on the Engineer in night visibility conditions.
As for modelling, if you have a 1 or two car RDC set and want a Mars
light at each end you could do that and just say somebody at the shop
forgot to take the rear one off!
RLK
-- In cpsig@xxxxxxxxxxx, Andrew Jeanes <ajeanes@c...> wrote:
the
Thanks to Mike and Peter for their responses.
About these Gyrolights, as Peter describes--these were the
door-mounted lights, correct? Did they strobe in a similar way to
roof-mounted lights on the FP-7s? It's interesting that they wouldthat
be, as Mike says, removable and only mounted on whichever end of the
car was running forward. For modelling purposes, this would mean
any RDC so equipped would effectively become single-ended (unlessyou
wanted to make it removable on the model--difficult).have
When multiple RDCs were coupled together, did only the first car
the light mounted? Would they have one light on the front door ofthe
forward unit and one on the rear of the last?
Finally, is there a casting of this Gyrolight available in HO scale?
Regards,
Andrew
--
"Sea language would be a very terse and economical speech if the
Old Man didn't lose the advantage by padding it with unnecessary
expletives." --Robert Cushman Murphy, _Logbook for Grace_
