Re: [cpsig] Roof Mounted Mars Lights on CP FP7,s and CP FP9's

  • From: "K V Railway" <kvrailway@xxxxxxx>
  • To: <cpsig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 24 Nov 2010 20:48:46 -0800

Bang on the money, Roger. I remember watching the lights on the head end of No. 1 and No. 2 at Kamloops on different occasions. When I asked about the Mars lights when I first got to Kamloops in September 1975, I was told by the old-timers (guys who went well back into the steam era) that the Mars lights were strictly a PR thing to draw attention to the train. They were useless for spotting purposes, especially for anything ahead of the units at cab level or lower. For one thing, even if they did light up the roof of a tunnel, the regular headlight would illuminate the tunnel bore sufficiently to warn a crew of a hazardous icicle. That was not the case with the Mars. The train would have had to be crawling before the Mars lights would have been any use in a tunnel roof situation. The idea of the beam angled up that way was quite effective at night. There were a number of times that even though we couldn't actually see the train or its headlight, we could tell exactly where it was because we could see the rotating beam moving along, lighting up mist or dust or the clear, cold night air as the train went. As for the FPA7 or 9 headlights, the old standard single bulb headlights with the big reflector on those FPA units were exceedingly bright, especially when they were new or still relatively new. In my time, you still couldn't look directly at them without seeing spots.

Joe Smuin


-----Original Message----- From: Roger Traviss
Sent: Wednesday, November 24, 2010 7:27 PM
To: cpsig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [cpsig] Roof Mounted Mars Lights on CP FP7,s and CP FP9's

Because of the rotation of the light the lower limit of the light would be
about even with the top of the roof of the locomotive. The light
oscillates.
I doubt if they installed them just so the public could see them as the
main
headlight would do that job rather nicely.

The beams of light would oscillate up into the night sky, not along the
length of the car body.  If you look at the photo and that is plainly
obvious.  The lights are aimed up into the air at about a 45 degree angle.
They won't come anywhere near the car body.  Projecting up into the night
sky made them visible from some distance away, possible well over a mile and
before the headlight came into view.  That's what I believe they were
designed for.  Just as the Mars rotating beacon was for.  To draw attention
to the train before the headlight became visible.

Nothing to do with tunnels, nor passengers, just vehicles at grade
crossings.

Roger Traviss

Photos of the late GER: -
http://www.highspeedplus.com/~rogertra/

For more photos not in the above album and kitbashes etc..:-
http://s94.photobucket.com/albums/l99/rogertra/Great_Eastern/



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