Locomotive & Caboose Lanterns

[Weißbrot]

Can anyone explain the use of green, orange and red light on locomotives (front and end) and on cabooses, i know that red was/still is used to mark the end of a train but for what green and orange and why can you mix the lantern lights?!

[Avarus_Lux]

A quick search gave me this:

At the turn of the 20th century, railroad operators used colored globe lanterns for illumination and signaling at night. The meanings of the colors were the precursors to our modern traffic light system.
White was used to indicate that it was safe to proceed,
Green signaled caution,
and
Red meant stop or danger.

So basically, if your train is on a side track and safe to pass, white lantern.
Is it on the main track and moving and moving in the same direction as everything else, green lantern.
For other situations, use red to indicate if you see it one needs to stop.

Orange? No idea.

I generally mark my train with red at the end, ir use red and green like you'd see on a boat... not that you can see the lights past a certain amount of cars though. Past think 8-10 they're invisible?

[Weißbrot]

Originally posted by Avarus_Lux:

A quick search gave me this:

At the turn of the 20th century, railroad operators used colored globe lanterns for illumination and signaling at night. The meanings of the colors were the precursors to our modern traffic light system.
White was used to indicate that it was safe to proceed,
Green signaled caution,
and
Red meant stop or danger.

So basically, if your train is on a side track and safe to pass, white lantern.
Is it on the main track and moving and moving in the same direction as everything else, green lantern.
For other situations, use red to indicate if you see it one needs to stop.

Orange? No idea.

I generally mark my train with red at the end, ir use red and green like you'd see on a boat... not that you can see the lights past a certain amount of cars though. Past think 8-10 they're invisible?

Thx for the comment, i found a video about the marker lanterns.

https://youtu.be/s0kArB-S2MI

And i found this page, the orange looking lantern is yellow.

"The yellow lens looks more like amber or orange, but it's still officially yellow."

https://www.jeffpolston.com/lantern.htm

[Kitsune Dawn]

Marker light use varied by railroad. There was no one standard way to handle it.

More often than not though, railroads used markers on the front of the train to show what type of train it was, and red lanterns on the back of the train to show the end of it.

These lights weren't for other trains, but rather for signal boxes and station crews. Keep in mind, this is before radios to tell what the trains were doing, and with freight trains, you rarely ran to an actual schedule.

As I said, it varies by railroad, but with the head end marker lights, the following is generally true:

Trains with no marker lights on the front were operating to schedule, or just your regular freight.

Trains with two green lights on the front were the second section of the train that had just passed, and were operating to the same schedule (or timetable) of the train that previously passed. All sections except the last section would display green.

Trains running two white marker lights were "Extra" trains not operating to any specific schedule or timetable.

Locomotives running light would display two red marker lights on the front, and rear, to designate them as a trailing engine with no train.

[Avarus_Lux]

Originally posted by Weißbrot:

Thx for the comment, i found a video about the marker lanterns.

https://youtu.be/s0kArB-S2MI

And i found this page, the orange looking lantern is yellow.

"The yellow lens looks more like amber or orange, but it's still officially yellow."

https://www.jeffpolston.com/lantern.htm

thanks, that site looks ancient, yet its neat table for five colours on there is really nice to have handy. print screened that for reference :D