RE: Roof Mounted Mars Lights on CP FP7,s and CP FP9's

  • From: G Burridge <gburridge@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: cpsig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Fri, 26 Nov 2010 03:04:44 -0500

At 26/11/2010 12:58 AM (), you wrote:

I know David Hanna and knew the late Murray Dean in the 1970s. They were
both careful and thorough researchers (David is a university professor) and
had access to CP Archives and to Mechanical Department personnel and files
during that time. Murray in particular was familiar with the Archives,
having inventoried much of its contents. Anything they put in their book had
to be documented. That said; some of the documentation itself may have been
incomplete. If a letter stated that the lights were to give advance warning,
a researcher can report the fact. This doesn't mean that other
justifications weren't put forward by others, such as illuminating scenery
for tourists or perhaps other purposes; it just means the researcher wasn't
aware of them at the time, or couldn't find a document to prove anecdotal
claims about them. At the time Murray and David wrote their book there were
fewer files available than there are now. Perhaps the story will come out
when somebody sits down to examine them.

 Don

        May as well enter the fray ...

Those oscillating lights were there simply and solely to draw attention to the train and its passage, that train being The Canadian, the star of the CPR passenger train fleet. This served the comparable purpose as having searchlights at movie premiers, gala events, and on skyscraper rooftops, a common practice during the same general period as the introduction of The Canadian.
Just because the type of light used was a "highway grade crossing safety headlight", it doesn't necessarily follow that the goal was to increase driver awareness at level crossings. Rather it is an example of adapting an existing, readily available, and _suitable for the purpose_, railway industry fixture to an alternate use.
Consider too that of all the diesel units on the CPR, only passenger cab units, and of those, only those series normally assigned(though they could naturally stray elsewhere) to The Canadian, were fitted with these lights. That left a lot of locomotives without this added warning bearing down on crossings across the country. If it did improve crossing safety, well and good, even if that was an incidental result(though since one had to look UP to appreciate the effect, it might be argued to be just as much a distraction for a driver as a warning).
As for the beaming angle allowing crew to check tunnel roofs or portals, or whatever, for icicles, beyond having a better look at icicles before hitting them, they obviously and absolutely don't provide any actual protection for either dome cars or excessive height freight cars. For that purpose, you have the roof mounted breakers or breaker cars.



I'm not telling you anything other than to cite the caption in Dean and
Hanna, and offer my elucidation on same which you can take or leave.
>
> "Guelph Junction...April 1960...1410, an FP9A outfitted with icicle
breakers
> and highway grade crossing safety headlight on the rooftop, heads Train 21
> on its way to Detroit from Toronto."
>
> So Dean and Hanna cite the purpose of this light as being for "safety"
i.e.
> visual conspicuity at public crossings.
>
> Note also that power normally assigned to "The Canadian" found itself
> working other trains out of Toronto as well at this time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  Gerry Burridge - P.O. Box 152 - Pte.Claire, Que. - H9R 4N9 - CANADA
        Railways of Quebec City and South-Eastern Quebec:
         <http://pages.globetrotter.net/burridge/index.htm>
=====================================================================


Other related posts:

  1. Home
  2. cpha
  3. Archive
  4. 11-2010