As you may have seen in the HO recent purchases thread, I bought a Con-Cor Zephyr. I am looking at buying a sound decoder for it, and while I was at it, work on the lighting. My main question is regarding the class lights. The model has white/clear ones, but at the Museum of Science and Industry, the real lights are greenish/lunar looking. My question is what color should they be? My understanding of class lights is that green means an extra section will be following and white is an extra/off-timetable train. Since there is only one Zephyr, isn’t an extra section impossible? And the Zephyr was a regularly scheduled train, so they probably wouldn’t be white either. Would they even be on in the first place? Why did this train have class lights?
Green lights mean that there is an additional section of the SCHEDULE following and white means that it is an extra. It is entirely possible that the train could be operated as an extra (they want to run the train set someplace else or run an additional train on an off day). The initial run of the Zephyr that set the speed record was probably done entirely as an extra. Any time they ran the train set to put it on display someplace, it probably ran extra. Its also possible there could be an additional section of the schedule. Its a section of the SCHEDULE, not a copy of the train set. A section doesn't mean a copy of the train equipment, it means another train running on the same timetable schedule. If they had too many people for one train set they could run a second section with conventional equipment to carry the over flow. Or if the dispatcher wanted to expedite a freight train he could run the freight as a second section of the Zephyr. Not likely, but within the rules.
Right. But the question remains, and I've been curious about it too. Did a single section, regularly scheduled train run amber class lights? Did some railroads just turn those lights off? I've never seen or heard of yellow flags on a locomotive, so I always assumed the amber was just a default--a way to burn those bulbs out faster--sort of a precursor to the rotating safety beacons of the 1970s. Or did they mean something?
A regularly scheduled train used no signals. They might, depending upon company practices, display the train designation in their number boards. Otherwise only (white) extras and (green) sections signals. Virtually all the time, non-scheduled freights displayed white, no matter how many extras. Again, depending upon... they might show an "X" in their number boards. A passenger that fell a certain time behind it's schedule lost that right and could then be a section (green signals) of another train or a passenger (white signals) extra.
You could put in green and white LED's wired to separate function outputs. Then you could determine the function when you dispatch the train. The Kingbright APTB1612CGKQWDF is a 0605 form factor SMD LED with green & white LED's.
