US plant switcher remote control lights

F

felix_g

New member
Having seen light clusters using three, four or even five different colors, it looks like every operator has its own rules on that. However I guess that - similar to trackside signaling - most of the colors would have the same meaning nationwide?

s-2_002.jpg


Taking this four cluster arrangement used by Birmingham Southern http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3029519 I would assume that the colors mean the following:
- green: throttle
- red: brakes
- orange and white: forward/reverse - which is which?

Any affirmation/correction/additional information on that would be appreciated very much. Thanks!
(Please no help needed on how to get that working in Trainz... I just have to add some lines of code to the script I already have... :))

Felix
 
Hmmm, I will have to dig deep in the memory banks.... I took car of the radios and some other equipment on Timken Steels and Republic Steels engines in North Canton, Ohio...

EDIT:

The best info I can find is this:

Red - Unit is in Emergency braking.

Green - Reverser is set to forward.

Orange - Reverser is set to Reverse.

White - Remote Control is active.



Additional:

AREMA paper on RCL:

http://www.arema.org/files/library/2001_Conference_Proceedings/00015.pdf

Interesting documentation from the FRA... nice pics of the Remote control pack....

http://www.fra.dot.gov/downloads/research/ord0608.pdf

From the Brotherhood of Locomitve Engineers:

http://www.ble-t.org/pr/pdf/BLETRCOHazardSurvey.pdf







 
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Hi Felix,

Here is an Alco s1 from the PCHB that is set up for remote control. Most units equiped with remote controls look similiar to this set up. I take it you are talking about the light rack on top of the cab? If so, I think n8phu has it pretty well correct as far these ones look
308.jpg
 
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Thanks everyone so far!

@slabay: Yes, I think this would be fun... the crew in the cab will show up only when remote control is not active. How to put the crew on the ground or on another car (that would be easier than the former) when RC is active would be another thing to think about...

@Chris: Thanks, that seems to make sense. (And that would mean that I just had done an emergency stop when coupling to that gondola and the "RC active" light doesn't work for some reason... :hehe:)
The Timken units I've seen pictures so far use the same color arrangement as the Birmingham Southern ones by the way.
Wow, that's a lot of very interesting reading... will take me several months to get through... :confused: Thanks!

@octls: Yes, I mean the light rack on top of the cab (in your example). Interesting, your setup looks like red/white/orange/white... although it's sometimes hard to recognize when the lights are not lit, I didn't stumble across that one before.
 
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