I thought I would share these. If anyone can tell me anything about these lights, it would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
Jack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=femzhASnhvo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPOqaaiw5xs

They look like pretty standard Pyle-National classification lamps to me. Carried on the front of the locomotive, white indicated an extra train, while green indicated the train was carrying signals for a following section. On a regularly scheduled train they'd be dark. The little bulls eye lens on the back allowed the engine crew to confirm that they were on, and the bulb hadn't burned out.

Thanks for the help!

Sorry for the basic questions, but does "an extra train" mean more than one locomotive used on the same train?

Also, what does "carrying signals for an extra section" mean?

Also, did these lights come off of steam engines or diesel engines?

Thanks again!!!!!
Jack

To answer your questions about the terminology:

At one time all regular scheduled passenger trains and often freight trains operated by timetable authority over the railroad. This might be modified by telegraph train orders which might give extra instructions.

An "extra train" is one not listed in the timetable. These were inferior trains to all others unless special instruction were given. They would have to be in the siding tracks in advance of all expected train movements and could not advance unless the crew felt that they could make the next one (or one after that) by the time of the next regular schedule train. The use of white lights at night or white flags by day would let other trains know that this was an extra train not to be found on the schedule.

If a passenger train (or other train) had more cars than could be handled in one train a "second section" or third or fourth or how ever many was necessary was operated. To indicate that a regular train had a second section following green flags or lights would be displayed. Often train orders were issued and copied to other trains to give an order for "Second No 123, Locomotive 987 operate 45 minutes late" or something similar.

I believe that the lights in the video were used on both steam locomotives and early diesel road-switcher locomotives.

Timetable and train order operation is very different from today's railroading with radios, etc. A good book about this kind of operation is Rights of Trains by Peter Josserand who was once chief dispatcher for the Western Pacific. The book is currently in print as a heritage book from Simmons-Boardman Publishing Co.

Further discussion. As Brian said, back when trains operated under what was called Time Table and Train Order authority (very rare, almost obsolete today) REGULAR trains derived their authority to occupy the MAIN TRACK from the timetable. A first class train running in the direction the TT made superior "owned" the main track from the time he was scheduled to be there until he had either passed, or twelve hours had elapsed, at which time his schedule would expire. Inferior trains (2nd class, 3 rd class, extra trains) had to be in the clear in advance of a superior train by the amount of time specified by rules (either five or ten minutes, depending on the rulebook). These trains would then have to stay in the clear (in a siding) until the train they were waiting for passed. The system was devised back in the days when communications were very fragile, and was designed to allow the important trains to keep advancing even if there was a communication failure.

Since it was important for an inferior train to identify every train it met or that passed, throwing an EXTRA train (authorized only by train order, not in the time table) into the mix could cause confusion... so extra trains were marked by special signals (white flags on the loco by day, white lamps at night) so no one could mistake them for a superior regular train.

Green signals displayed the same way had a different meaning... that there was a following section. The dispatcher would create the section by train order:

ORDER NO 1

C&E ENG 123 AT ANNA
C&E ENG 456 AT ANNA

ENG 123 DISPLAY SIGNALS AND RUN AS FIRST 21 ANNA TO CLOY
ENG 456 RUN AS SECOND 21 ANNA TO CLOY

DES

A section was different than an extra, a section had the SAME schedule rights as the original train. So, if an extra (or any other inferior train) was waiting in a siding to meet No. 21 and when it appeared it was carrying green signals, they knew they couldn't leave... only part of No.21 had passed and there was more to come. They would have to stay in the siding until a train passed that was NOT carrying signals, that was the last section of No.21. Three, four, and even more sections were possible, and not uncommon. Since this could get rather spread out, it was possible for train orders to address each section specifically, allowing an opposing train to fight its way upstream, so to speak, but that is beyond the scope of what we can cover here.

This sort of railroading is almost totally obsolete, and is fast fading from memory, the same as using Morse code to transmit orders, but unlike telegraphy, the model railroad fraternity is doing a pretty good job of preserving TT&TO operation, now done on model railroad layouts.

One other comment about the lamps, properly called CLASSIFICATION LAMPS, these date back to the introduction of electric lights on steam locomotives, and similar oil lamps were used before that. The electric version was common on first generation diesels, but later diesels tended to have the lights built into the hood.

The only thing rarer than these are the oneS with two shutters, so a red lense could also be dropped in place. These could show white for an extra, green for a following section, or red for use as MARKERS (tail lights) on an engine used as a pusher or that had to back down the main track.