I wonder if someone could shed some light, pardon the pun, on the actual headlight arrangement on the E8As? Do I understand correctly that the lower nose door light was strictly a headlight and that the upper was a double light arrangement with an oscillating Gyralite or Mars light?
Keith,- Yes, that is what I remember on the Racehorse E8As. The lower light fitting in the nose door was a headlight, I remember it as a dual sealed beam light. The upper light fitting in the nose was an oscillating Mars light, also a dual sealed beam, with a clear light over a red light. My experience watching No. 9, The Meteor, come in to Rolla and leave for Newburg was that they ran with the clear oscillating light on and the lower headlight on. During the station stop, both were turned off. At startup, the lower headlight was turned on, then the upper clear oscillating light was turned on. Totally cool as you could hear the oscillating motor running. In the event of an emergency brake application, the red oscillating light would come on instead of the clear oscillating light. Ken
From Oklahoma City to Jones, Oklahoma, there were many unprotected road crossings, and a car-train accident was almost a weekly occurrence. One engineer on the Meteor would turn on the red oscillating light, along with the regular headlight, and blow the 2-longs, a short and a long with the country horn and keep the city horn blowing constantly from the whistle sign until the crossing is occupied.
Uncle Pete, Please explain the city horn/country horn difference. Did the city horn use the trumpets in the five-trumpet Leslie and the country horn use the single trumpet horn, or what? Ken