What year did ditch lights become mandatory, In the U.S. ?

Question

What year did ditch lights become mandatory, In the U.S. ?

Answer 1

Ha ha, those guys are smart, all I was gonna say was seemed like about 10 years ago.

Answer 2

It was 1997 when all engines operating over 20 mph over a public road crossing had to have ditch lights.We started getting them on engines in the mid 90's though

Answer 3

Mandatory, I don't know.  I was running SP engines well into the 90s with the oscillating light.  Hated to see them go, because they were quite useful, beyond the safety aspect.

The control switch for the oscillating light had "on" and "off", "full" and "dim" positions, but the motor that moved the light had three positions controlled by a toggle switch ; "off", "run" and "inch."

In the "inch" position, you could "freeze" the headlight hard left or hard right (or anywhere else in 360 degrees of rotation).  Very useful when creeping around a corner looking for some sort of obstruction, or looking for broken timbers hanging down in a snow shed or a tunnel..

Other engines had ditch lights that "pulse" when the whistle was sounded, automatically.  These first showed up on the SP with the first deliveries of the GP-60s.  They among the first that sported the late "Speed Lettering" livery as well.

At the same time, strobe lights atop the engines were also en vogue.  They were a dismal failure.

So, the answer to your question for "mandatory" ditch lights is probably around '93 or so.  But, that's an educated guess.

I'm not real sure, because I'm old and feeble now.  A mixed blessing.  I can pinch girls on the f***y and get away with it, but them "Depends" ain't all they're cracked up to be......

Answer 4

Technically, they are called Auxiliary lights, of which ditch lights are a subset.  There were also versions that were called crossing lights.

On December 31, 1997, the Locomotive Visibility; Minimum Standards for Auxiliary Lights, Final Rule, 49 CFR 229.125 became effective.

The idea was so that locomotives (or the head of a train) would present a distinct triangular light pattern, so that it would be easy to identify as a train, rather than some other unknown light source.

Auxiliary lights are to be on full-time whenever a train is underway above 20 mph and there are road crossings on the route.

The lights are allowed to flash (crossing lights) for crossing warnings, per individual railroad rules.