Western Railroad Discussion > Does anyone remember when...

strobes were replaced by ditchlights? particularly on BN's 2700 series GP39Es. I found some photos from the early 1990s showing strobes on both ends of the majority of the units but when photos of them in BNSF patch, they have ditchlights on both ends. Not all have lights on both ends but the majority seem to.
Thanks, I am trying to finish a project for the Bellingham RPM meet.
See you there,
Paul

pmack Wrote:
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> strobes were replaced by ditchlights?

It didn't happen a moment too soon!

MTMEngineer Wrote:
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>
> It didn't happen a moment too soon!


Was that moment pre or post merger?

pmack Wrote:

> strobes were replaced by ditchlights?
> particularly on BN's 2700 series GP39Es. I found
> some photos from the early 1990s showing strobes
> on both ends of the majority of the units but when
> photos of them in BNSF patch, they have
> ditchlights on both ends. Not all have lights on
> both ends but the majority seem to.

Can't answer your question specifically, but ditchlights became mandatory for locomotives operating over public crossings at greater than 20mph after December 31, 1997. (Actually, a locomotive equipped with strobes didn't have to have ditchlights until December 31, 2001, and if it operated over crossings at no more than 40 mph, strobes would have been sufficient indefinitely. However, I'm fairly confident that BNSF worked to have ditchlights on everything by early 1998 at the latest.)