Why is it only recently most trains had headlights?

[kermit]

Was it not scary driving into inky darkness, especially at high speed?

 

[Tim R-T-C]

Was it not scary driving into inky darkness, especially at high speed?

Simple fact was that headlights until modern LED lights could only illuminate a short distance ahead and the stopping distance of a train is far more than that.

Even now, AFAIK, the lights are more for the benefit of people seeing the train coming than giving the driver much better visibility ahead on the line.

 

[reb0118]

The implication was that whatever was on the line would fare much worse than the locomotive thundering towards it!

Was it the case that headlights were used to identify the class of passing train for the benefit of the signalman?

Now tail lights on the other hand.............

 

[physics34]

Headlights arent for helping the driver to see where he is going but to warn people on the track that you are coming and also for the driver to see reflective speed boards.

 

[apk55]

Most railways throught the world have had a requirment for powerfull headlamps as most did not have the same stringent requirments for fenceing that British railways had. Therefore an aproaching train could be easily seen. (Picture a wild west loco with its masive headlamp). Even in Europe in places like Germany one can see railways running unfenced through fields etc.

 

[sprinterguy]

Was it the case that headlights were used to identify the class of passing train for the benefit of the signalman.

In steam days, yes, headlights were used to identify the type and characteristics of the train for the signalman's benefit. This was also the purpose of the white indicator discs fitted to many of the early modernisation plan diesel classes, before four character headcodes became the norm.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Spotlights came in around the mid 1980's - class 50s first as an experiment - as the old SR units with illuminated headcode blinds were not exactly perfectly visible in the murk - I speak from the odd near miss - when an approaching 50 , came at me like a star as I was throwing a trespasser off the right of way. Saved me and him - though I should really have blocked both roads before doing that...

 

[edwin_m]

Retrofitting may have been in the 80s but they were fitted to new stock built from the early 70s onwards - I think Class 87 were first.

 

[kermit]

Thanks for all the replies.

A couple of thoughts;

The "there's no way to stop" argument may be true at speed - but clearly there will be times when lower speed makes stopping an option. The lamps fitted these days may be more use to tell when a train approaches, but there must have been times when some forward illumination could help a driver make a good decision.

I still think that on a really dark night in the middle of nowhere, it is a huge act of faith to drive a train at speed, even if the difference from daylight or town lit ability to see ahead is only psychological.

 

[reb0118]

Was it the case that headlights were used to identify the class of passing train for the benefit of the signalman?

The following shows some of the codes here:-

Tail Lights & Locomotive Head-Codes

The Liverpool & Manchester railway introduced a rule that every train must have a light on the rear so the lineside staff could see that no wagons had been left behind in the section, and also (hopefully) to avoid rear-end collisions on the line. Originally these lights were red when moving and blue when stationary. The brake vans attached to trains from the 1850's on carried lights mounted both on the rear and also on the sides. Both these lights showed red to the rear and some of the side lights showed white to the front. When the brake vans disappeared in the 1970's and 1980's a single tail lamp was attached to the rear of the last vehicle in the train. These lights were still the standard white oil lamps with a red lens, electric lights, again with a red lens, appeared in the 1970's and a yellow, flashing, electric rear lamp was introduced in the mid 1980's.

Head codes were shown on the front of the locomotive itself. These appeared in about 1850 and originally consisted of a number of white painted oil lamps which were mounted on brackets fitted to the buffer beam and boiler door of the loco. These codes showed the type of train, express or slow, goods or passenger, and were introduced to help the signal man when the line was being operated on the 'interval' system (described below). The lamps were carried on a set of four brackets fitted to the locomotive buffer beam and boiler door. Most codes required only two lamps to be fitted.


Fig ___ Original RCH Code for Locomotive Lamps






The Railway companies had their own variations on this arrangement, Southern Railway and cross-London trains were fitted with two additional positions on either side of the smoke box door on the front of the boiler to give a total of six positions. Other variations were plain white disks used in place of the oil lamps for day-time working (used by the Southern Railway and London & North Eastern Railway) whilst some companies had numbers or different shapes or colours in place of the white disks. At least one company used a set of small 'semaphore' type signals mounted on the front of the boiler.

At about the time of the 1923 grouping, a new code was evolved, again with four brackets as before but which only required a maximum of two oil lamps.



Fig ___ RCH revised lamp codes





The Southern Railway continued to use its own system of five positions and the old Glasgow & South Western and Caledonian lines under LMS ownership did not conform to these national codes for internal working.

Route Indicating Head Codes

The simple indication of train type, although useful for the interval signalling system, was not ideal for traffic reporting purposes. Some lines found it preferable to add an alpha numeric code indicating the service the train was on (i.e. 'this is the 8.15 London to Manchester service'). The Southern Railway and Great Western Railway added their own two character (SR) and three character (GWR) alpha numeric head codes, displayed on metal plates fitted to the front of the locomotive.

British Railways diesel locomotives built before 1961 for the Southern and Western regions of British Railways were often fitted with two and three character headcode boxes to display the special codes used on these lines (inherited from the SR & GWR). The Southern Region Class 33 (as available from Graham Farish) for example displayed the code on a simple roller-blind in the centre cab 'window' and the Western Region 'Warships' (available from Minitrix) originally had a three-character code box built into the nose.

Fig ___ Southern Region and Western Region Codes







British Railways used the RCH standard lamp codes and adopted the disks for all locomotives except Diesel Multiple Unit stock. On diesels the lights were electric and were built-in to the ends of the locomotive body, the discs were permanently fitted but could be folded in half (the inside face was white, the 'rear' face of the fold-down upper half was the same colour as the locomotive). The centre two discs were off-set slightly to the right (that is to your left when looking at the front of the locomotive). The two additional lights on either side of the smoke box door were included and on Southern region diesels the two additional positions were fitted with standard British Railways fold down disks. On the DMU's there were two lights fitted low down to either side of the front of the vehicle (rather like headlights on a road vehicle but not as bright), these replicated the passenger train oil-lamp headcode. On the DMU's the lights showed white to the front and red to the rear.

In 1960 the disk system was officially replaced by four-character head-code boxes which displayed the actual diagrammed reference for a particular service. On steam locomotives these four character head codes were displayed using metal plates painted black with code letters and numbers about nine inches to a foot high in white. Diesel locomotives displayed the code in an illuminated box on the locomotive front. As noted above the code displayed was related to the specific diagram the train was working and was intended to assist signalmen in reporting train movements.

 

[HarleyDavidson]

If you drive at 456 at night you might as well not have any headlights on,the existing ones are so feeble that they don't provide any meaningful illumination at all. Brings back memories of the slammers before they had the single headlight fitted or 3 headlights fitted in the case of CIG 1315!

 

[edwin_m]

The following shows some of the codes here:-

Not sure that's quite right on DMUs. Some early ones had one light above the windows and three more below the windows so I guess could originally have replicated any of the lamp codes. See here: http://www.railcar.co.uk/type/emc/emc.html

Later DMUs had two lights as stated, plus a two-character headcode or even a four-character code in a few cases. However the red bulb wasn't used (I don't know if it was even fitted) until about 1980 - before then DMUs had to carry paraffin tail lamps. By this time the headcodes had been plated over.

 

[swcovas]

I seem to remember that when the Heart of Wales Line received its Light Rail Order in (I think) 1972 one of the requirements was that trains had to carry a "powerful" spotlight. Originally a number of 120s were fitted (these units were later replaced by 101s and then 108s both similarly fitted) and a special portable headlight was used to attach to locos which were occasionally used on freights and specials. Was this perhaps the first time such headlights were used regularly on trains in UK?

 

[Ash Bridge]

Retrofitting may have been in the 80s but they were fitted to new stock built from the early 70s onwards - I think Class 87 were first.

I agree, I have a shot of a brand new 87002 at Manchester Piccadilly awaiting departure for Euston in 1973 fitted with a halogen spotlight, and from the same year a Class47 working the Harwich Boat Train also fitted with the same type of lamp, though that one is obviously retro fitted.

 

[edwin_m]

I seem to remember that when the Heart of Wales Line received its Light Rail Order in (I think) 1972 one of the requirements was that trains had to carry a "powerful" spotlight. Originally a number of 120s were fitted (these units were later replaced by 101s and then 108s both similarly fitted) and a special portable headlight was used to attach to locos which were occasionally used on freights and specials. Was this perhaps the first time such headlights were used regularly on trains in UK?

The 1986 amendment is available on legislation.gov.uk and refers back to a previous order confirming it is 1972. Unfortunately the 1972 one doesn't appear to be online.

 

[talltim]

Thanks for all the replies.
I still think that on a really dark night in the middle of nowhere, it is a huge act of faith to drive a train at speed, even if the difference from daylight or town lit ability to see ahead is only psychological.

To tell the truth, I sometimes feel like that driving a car on a quiet unlit motorway.

 

[broadgage]

Although a train can not normally stop in the distance illuminated by the headlights, except from low speeds, headlights are still of some use in case of an obstruction on the track.

If a tree or other obstruction on the line be lit by headlights the driver would brake hard and despite still striking the obstruction would do so at a lower speed.
Striking a tree at 50MPH is less dangerous than at 100 MPH, seeing the obstruction also may give to driver time to duck or take other action to reduce the risks.

Readers may recall the accident at Lavington in which an HST struck a tree at speed. The driver saw the tree but in the very limited time before impact could not reduce speed much. The driver was saved from serious injury by crouching on the cab floor.
This accident was in daylight, had it occurred at night WITH effective headlights the outcome would probably have been similar. Had it happened at night WITHOUT effective headlights then I fear that the driver would have been killed. The upper part of the cab was very seriously damaged and this could have killed anyone standing or sitting at the controls.

 

[scotraildriver]

Fog is the worst when driving trains. The downside of these bright headlights is that they bounce off fog and snow giving you a splitting headache in no time! Flying along at 100mph and you can see absolutely nothing is quite scary and tests your route knowledge to a maximum. You are literally hunting for tiny trackside features like speed boards or mileposts to know your location and braking points. And no, you don't slow down in fog unless you deem the safety of the train to be at risk.

 

[davetheguard]

Thanks for all the replies.

A couple of thoughts;

The "there's no way to stop" argument may be true at speed - but clearly there will be times when lower speed makes stopping an option. The lamps fitted these days may be more use to tell when a train approaches, but there must have been times when some forward illumination could help a driver make a good decision.

I still think that on a really dark night in the middle of nowhere, it is a huge act of faith to drive a train at speed, even if the difference from daylight or town lit ability to see ahead is only psychological.

That's perhaps the only experience you've every had is using roads; and that's all most people ever get, whether driving, walking, or cycling.

But the railway isn't a road. It's fully fenced, and the only traffic on it is other trains, all of which (obviously) are on rails and fully signalled; so there's no chance of dangerous wrong lane discipline, taking corners on the wrong side of the road, tail-gating etc. and all those other examples of selfish behaviour that make driving much more dangerous than travelling by train.

 

[455driver]

Fog is the worst when driving trains. The downside of these bright headlights is that they bounce off fog and snow giving you a splitting headache in no time! Flying along at 100mph and you can see absolutely nothing is quite scary and tests your route knowledge to a maximum. You are literally hunting for tiny trackside features like speed boards or mileposts to know your location and braking points. And no, you don't slow down in fog unless you deem the safety of the train to be at risk.

I will sometimes wear sunglasses in foggy conditions.

 

[GB]

Although a train can not normally stop in the distance illuminated by the headlights, except from low speeds, headlights are still of some use in case of an obstruction on the track.

If a tree or other obstruction on the line be lit by headlights the driver would brake hard and despite still striking the obstruction would do so at a lower speed.
Striking a tree at 50MPH is less dangerous than at 100 MPH, seeing the obstruction also may give to driver time to duck or take other action to reduce the risks.

Readers may recall the accident at Lavington in which an HST struck a tree at speed. The driver saw the tree but in the very limited time before impact could not reduce speed much. The driver was saved from serious injury by crouching on the cab floor.
This accident was in daylight, had it occurred at night WITH effective headlights the outcome would probably have been similar. Had it happened at night WITHOUT effective headlights then I fear that the driver would have been killed. The upper part of the cab was very seriously damaged and this could have killed anyone standing or sitting at the controls.

I think you may be over estimating just how much even the brightest train headlights illuminate at speed, the time delay between seeing and registering an obstruction and the brakes taking affect.

 

[Taunton]

Simple fact was that headlights until modern LED lights could only illuminate a short distance ahead

Curiously, all the UK independent locomotive manufacturers were long able to provide very powerful headlights on their export units, to places like Africa. It was only the domestic production that lacked these. This goes way back to steam locomotive days. One benefit on unfenced lines in places like Africa at night is that the strong light will drive off large animals like elephants or rhinocerous before the train hits them.

One exception in Britain was the large Lickey Banker steam locomotive, originally the 0-10-0 "Big Bertha", and when scrapped the headlight was transferred to the replacing 9F 2-10-0. This was provided to help crews of these large locomotives judge when buffering up to assist trains in the rear at night. In practice the crews tended not to use it because it was a giveaway to the train engine that they had the 'big banker' instead of the standard 0-6-0T tanks, and they would slack off and leave the work to the crew at the rear end.

In the USA powerful headlights have always been standard, of varying types. Early high-speed diesels had two, one normal one for illuminating the track ahead, with another even more powerful one pointed up at about 70 degrees like an aircraft searchlight and rotating. It gave good notice to those a mile or more away from the train that it was coming round the curve.

 

[315804]

Thanks for shedding light on this subject (gets coat) :roll:

I used to travel on the old slam-door trains from Waterloo to Farncombe as a kid and remember when they first started to put the single headlight on the front, I didn't think the numbers (82, IIRC) at the front provided much help :roll:

 

[Welly]

One exception in Britain was the large Lickey Banker steam locomotive, originally the 0-10-0 "Big Bertha", and when scrapped the headlight was transferred to the replacing 9F 2-10-0.

I once read that the banking crews sometimes illuminated young lovers dating in the fields!

 

[starrymarkb]

When did the high level cyclops light become standard and what was the reasoning?

(Also interesting that Germany is now specifying a high level light instead of the previous under the windscreen mid level light)

 

[Tio Terry]

In my early days I can remember the D67XX and D2XX loco's used on the GE between Norwich and Liverpool St first having Yellow panels painted on their noses then having what were car spotlights fitted just above the buffer beam. These flashed alternately when first installed but, apparently, the strobe effect at night affected the drivers concentration so they were converted to be permanently on.

The whole principle was to improve safety for lineside workers, it had nothing to do with improved visibility for drivers. We were asked for our views on the effectiveness, and I have to say that the improved long distance visability of the lights did help site trains at a greater distance. Following those trials a single headlamp was fitted to all trains progressively.

 

[DownSouth]

When did the high level cyclops light become standard and what was the reasoning?

(Also interesting that Germany is now specifying a high level light instead of the previous under the windscreen mid level light)

Catching up with what the rest of the world is doing, the headlights (for the driver) are better positioned above the cab to point down towards the track with a steeper angle to better illuminate objects at ground level.

The global standard these days is to also have ditch lights down the bottom which are aimed directly ahead (not down at the ground) to allow the train to be seen a long way off. During daylight and twilight hours these are set to an alternating flashing pattern (either all the time, or only when approaching stations and crossings) to do a better job of what is done in Britain by the lesser 'solution' of painting the front end yellow.