Hey,I am surprised that on British steam locos I never see lamps.Were they only added for night trip?I remember that even Thomas tank engine has only one such lamp.Continental steam locos have at least two lamps,partly(after WW II)three.Do you have any special rules concernig lamps on steam locos?
regards,
Roman
Probably because a lot of modellers won't know what the correct ones to use are !
Quote from: Roman Kochnowski on March 10, 2013, 07:18:25 PMHey,I am surprised that on British steam locos I never see lamps.Were they only added for night trip?I remember that even Thomas tank engine has only one such lamp.Continental steam locos have at least two lamps,partly(after WW II)three.Do you have any special rules concernig lamps on steam locos?
regards,
Roman
Steam Locos
should carry lamps at all times, but it is another of those 'blind spots' among many modellers...
For most railway companies the position of the lamps (1 or 2 lamps in any of 4 positions) indicated the type of train for the befefit of Signalmen and other line-side staff - that being their main purpose rather than illumiating the way ahead for the driver! The exception was the Southern who instead used a system of up to 9 positions to show the route of the train instead of the type and also used white painted discs instead of lamps in daylight hours...
The link below gives the LMS/LNER/BR codes. There were a couple of minor differences in the freight codes on the GWR.
http://www.elginmodelrailwayclub.co.uk/2010/advice/headlamp-codes/british-railways-headlamp-codes.html (http://www.elginmodelrailwayclub.co.uk/2010/advice/headlamp-codes/british-railways-headlamp-codes.html)
The lamps were very dim and not much use for seeing the track ahead. They were intended so that other people could see the that the train was there and (as pointed out) what type of train it was.