Forty-five years ago our Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight ambulances had two Mars lights each embedded in the fiberglass roof. When you turned them on you could hear their motors above your head.

The local transportation museum has a couple emd f locomotives that still use Mars lights. Ditch lights are OK, but I can see those Mars lights 5 miles down track and they get my attention way better. A lot of times when I pull up to a crossing without gates, lights, or bells, I can see the reflection of the Mars lights bouncing around on the trees long before the train is near the crossing. Chalk Mars lights up to a cool piece of history that I wish was still around.

Mars lights had a major problem. They were mechanically operated that made it a headache when they broke or needed new bulbs. Lots of railroads got rid of them to save money shop time.

When I was younger, I always sat at train crossings in the back of my parent's car and wondered why the light on the train seemed to brighten and dim. This video just explained it. I always assumed it was a heat effect on the railroad or that it was something like a rheostat, which I would have just called a dimmer switch back when I was a kid. I had no idea that the actual light was moving.

I remember seeing these on trains as a kid in the 70's! They were very distinctive on a dark night out in the country. You could tell a train was coming for at least a mile away!

mars lights sure as hell get my attention faster than ditch lights

The death of the oscillating signal lights used on American railroads is slightly more complex than the introduction of ditch lights in the 1990s. Oscillating lights of any form, including Mars Signal Lights, Gyralites that Pyle National and later Translite manufactured, and other devices that replaced oscillating lights, such as Santa Fe's version of a rotating light that fit in the upper nose housing on PAs and Fs were all doomed because of the cost to maintain them and mechanical failures. The most common mechanical failures were tied to the mechanism and belt drives that would and could seize if not adequately maintained. There were also complexities related to state laws that kept railroads adding and removing lights depending on the locomotive's service, ranging from intrastate road service to local power in confined areas. The Southern Pacific (Espee) was the largest user of oscillating signal lights on locomotives. Well-placed research into Espee's use of signal lights will show quite a variety of lights on diesels and several instances where lights were removed before the failed SPSF merger and long before the formal introduction of ditch lights as a regulatory requirement. As early as the 1960s, Espee started to remove signal lights from locomotives equipped with full light packages on long hoods to have a ready source of salvage parts or to replace failed lights on the front of locomotives. When the Espee-Santa Fe merger collapsed, Espee adopted Santa Fe's practice of using cab-mounted amber/yellow beacons that did not have moving parts. Some Espee locomotives retained the single red Gyralite or the old Mars light in a few rare instances. Many retired Espee engineers cursed the road when the amber beacons were placed on the cabs. And if they were lucky in the era to catch a motor with a red light still in place, they would unscrew the cover and turn on the light if it was still connected. In the late 1960s, several western states required railroads to place additional warning beacons. Washington State, Oregon, and California all had such regulations. Union Pacific instituted the rotary beacon, while Espee retained oscillating headlights (with a few exceptions, such as locomotives assigned to the Eugene Hump), Burlington Northern went to the same beacon Santa Fe was using, and Amtrak started to use the dual clear strobes on their newly arriving F40PHs. Some smaller roads, most notably the City of Prineville Railway, retained their Gyralites. (How I miss the old ALCos. The front had a white and yellow Gyralite that the hogger could choose yellow, white, or both, and the cab had two single amber Gyralites mounted above the cab. Wow, those were powerful at night watching them switch in Prineville.). In California, CalTrain, operated by Espee then, did precisely what Espee did and retained older power with oscillating lights. Upon the delivery of their F40s, all came delivered with the full package of Espee-style Gyralites. Other roads, such as the Central California Traction and the Western Pacific, retained Gyralites in most cases (not all). Even subsidiaries of WP, like the Tidewater Southern, had cab-mounted Gyralites, similar in concept to the Canadian Pacific's Gyralites mounted mid-ship on a few of their passenger Fs. During this era, from the 1970s through the mid-1980s, Espee had several lawsuits related to grade crossing collisions where motorists couldn't see the locomotive at the cross at grade. Anyone around at this time knew Espee's power looked dingy black, and it would be unclear if a motorist would see a locomotive with any oscillating lights. However, Espee management opted to have MU-powered Gyralites hung over the handrails at the walkways on locomotives without signal lights on one end or even on foreign power. There were some images in a well-paced search from the 1970s when Espee tested Canadian National cowl cabs over Cajon with an MU-powered Gyralite in use. There is also an image or two in Ed Austin and Tom Dill's Southern Pacific in Oregon book of an SD9E with such a light. When I worked at Willamette & Pacific in the 1990s, I gained a healthy respect for the Gyralites on 1801, 1852, and 1853. But I also hated the Gyralites on branch line power at night. The oscillating lights were great at grade crossings, but as a young conductor, it was twice as challenging to stay awake, bounding down the tracks at 5 miles per hour from Whiteson to Willamina in the fog. The oscillations in such a condition contributed to one of my hoggers falling asleep. He had other factors causing his drowsiness, but he was mad at me when I dynamited the train and didn't bail the air. Incidentally, some roads light the Rio Grande had both Mars and Gyralites, but crews could turn the oscillating mechanism off, so the oscillating light became a spotlight. Oregon's laws on locomotive warning lights were relatively stringent. In the early years of the law, Southern Pacific added bubblegum lights (rotary beacons) to a few locomotives that came into Oregon. This practice soon ended by 1980. To comply with the ban of their SDP40s on the BN, Amtrak had their former Southern E units mounted with amber beacons during this era. With the application of ditch lights on Morrison-Knudsen (Emkay) rebuilds, Espee wasn't fully sure they could get rid of the gumball lights. (It’s a long post and doesn’t do so well on an iPhone). Well into the UP merger, post-1996, it was still possible to find grimy Espee motors with bubblegum lights and, in more rare circumstances, locomotives with full light packages. Ditch lights started technically appearing in the 1970s and 1980s with pool Canadian power. Treaty grain trains that had UP power had to comply with the Canadian ditch light rule. Some SD40-2s in this service received ditch lights during the time. This was also about the time UP switched from the mechanical rotary beacons to the amber xenon strobes.

Just thought I'd add, another reason Metra is still using them is they run silent on the racetrack - so added safety when the horns aren't being blown at every crossing. Nice video, - Charlie

The original reason that a light such as the Mars Light was needed was the introduction of diesel locomotives on passenger trains in the mid 1930s. Motorists approaching unsignaled grade crossings were used to watching for the moving column of smoke from steam locomotives, and were pulling out in front of the new diesels at a insanely high rate simply because the drivers saw no smoke, and assumed there was no train.

As a retired Locomotive Engineer that worked on three different class one railroads through mergers, I prefer the Mars, Oscillating, Wig Wag headlights much more than the flashing ditch lights. The main difference is that the Mars lights move across the ground in their oscillating pattern well ahead of the locomotive. In my opinion that movement across the ground makes them more likely to be seen by drivers of vehicles and pedestrians. Therefore making them safer. Preventing one major accident can save the RRs millions in claims. That would pay for a huge amount of maintenance for the Mars lights.

The Mars Lights sounds like an episode of Fascinating Horror. "Driving home from a late shift near Mars, Texas..."

There is a pair of C&O tracks behind the house where I grew up. The service road along the tracks were a handy shortcut to my friends and school. Occasionally at night while walking along a train would come along with a Mars light. It was especially eerie when it was the only light, like a cyclops beam rotating around as if it was looking for something.

MARS 888 Light. Fire department favorite. My fire station has them on the front and rear of several of our trucks.

Always liked these. They freaked us out at night when we played on the tracks as kids

Reason they got rid of them, was due to the hypnotic effect on engine crews. They’d practically put you in a hypnotic state or put you to sleep. Ran a few of them and they were hell on an overnight run. Crews hated them

It's so cool that you included my hometown in 6:28. And we need to have Mars/Gyralights mandatory for certain weather conditions; rain and fog specifically.

To add another oddity, a number of Irish railway (CIE) locomotives had "Helicopter lights", one of the GM headlights mounted on a fitting 90° vertical, which provided a beam of light into the sky, enabling the train's progress to be monitored by the security forces on the Border.

Mars lights have the full body taste you like, but with only half the calories...

I remember that CGW F units had two lights. One went up and down and the other went side to side. At night they looked like a side to side figure eight. This would have been about 1965 and i was a kid at the time. I also remember they shown a very long distance at night.

Again, you have educated me. Thank you, Darkness, I had never heard of Mars lights, but now I also know why US locomotives and trains use so many lights on the front. Cheers dude, from Richard in Worthing, UK.

I was an engineer for years on the SP.. i loved the Mars lights. Because you could stop them if necessary for additional headlight lamination. My favorites were the figure eight ones. If working at night and if you were tired they were very hypnotic! I remember the first engine equipped with ditchlights that I observed on a UP engine around 1986. One additional item when the Mars lights were on you couldnt tell if the approaching train was doing 10 mph or a 100 mph.

Man it would've been cool if those old diesel body designs stuck around.

In 1930s powerful incadescent bulbs behave very bad and die fast if they used in flashing mode, its the reason why they made MARS where the bulb is constantly on, only direction changes constantly. It requires mechanical drive, lot of space, special maintanance of moving parts... modern LED lights do not require anything, work almost forewer and much cheaper than mechanical wobbling drive. Its even possible to make moving beam on fixed LEDS, just install additional LEDs aimed to required direction. Railroads do not use them, but many cars utilise such "directional headlight".

The Southern Pacific settled on a standard of twin sealed beam headlights, a red Mars light (that came on automatically if the locomotive went into emergency), and a Pyle gyralite between the number boards that did a figure 8 pattern. Going by the El Paso locomotive maintenance facility at night in the 1980's as a kid was a treat, as you got to see them testing them out!

Southern Pacific sure loved to load up on options for their locomotives. Especially when it came to lighting.

Growing up in the 50's & 60's I was always near railroad tracks as I loved trains ! I always remember the mars lights and it brings back many great memories of those days and watching for hours for trains. I never really gave the lights much thought, but your video really explained them very well. Thanks again

A rather interesting foray into US rail safety. Especially for someone from the other side of The Pond. Thanks for the enlightenment Lord Darkness. It's appreciated. 😊❤😊

Mars Lights & Gyralights are still legal to use in place of ditch lights. We have one locomotive in our collection at the Tennessee Valley Railroad that has gyralights on it instead of ditch lights, and it is permitted to exceed 20 mph through crossings where speed limits do allow. In the General Code of Operating Rules, it just says an auxiliary light has to be present on equipment built 1950 or later.

The tourist line on which I volunteered had a Mars light on a GP-7 and Pyle lights on F-7's. The Mars light had a figure-8 pattern, while the Pyle lights had a circular pattern. If an engine were originally equipped with a Mars or a Pyle light, it could continue to operate with them instead of ditch lights. Oscillating lights, in my experience, provide much better warning than ditch lights, since their patterns fall outside of straight down the track.

As someone who’s favorite railroad is Southern Pacific, this footage is AWESOME! I mean the whole video is good but I’m getting lost in the footage lol

Ditch lights create context. A triangle that gets bigger as it approaches, allowing drivers to better judge the speed at which the train is approaching. That is the reason for ditch lights

I wish Mars/Gyra lights were federally mandated over ditch lights. The latter aren't as aesthetically pleasing.

I found mars lights really interesting and It looks safer than ditch lights, these things could have been so bright so when people in public notice a train approaching the crossing they the light means "It time to get the Hell out of the way" but now I think Metra still using mars lights, and some other vintages locomotives with mars are in operation preservation.

Mars lights aren’t outlawed by the ditch lights legislation, nor are ditch lights actually required. What is required is “auxiliary warning light(s)” which mars lights DO satisfy the requirement. The biggest reason for ditch lights over mars lights is the fact that ditch lights are just a light, with no moving parts to maintain.

Its funny to see that all over the world the lights historicly used on a train have a meaning. Their could be an interesting follow up on train lights and their meaning all over the world. The UK had headcodes in daytime signs and at night lamps on front of the locomotives, so everybody who worked for the railroads could see what type of train it was. (local, express, military, passenger, freight, mixed, royal etc.etc.). In continental Europe 1 sign/lamp on front ment single loco or shunter. left and right signs/lamps a train. The A signal, L and later the reverserd L signal (better railwaysign reading for engineers) came just after WWII. The US marslight was only used for a short while f.e. on the first DMU's in the 1930's After WWII, F7's were build with a cab on both ends by Nohab under license , some of those also had marslights other high beams

I find Mars lights used on diesel locomotives very interesting, the idea on using it them on the locomotives for passenger and commuter trains did help prevent a few accidents and save many people's lives, for them being used on steam locomotives like the 844 are fine, but i still prefer the ones on diesel locomotives in my opinion. it was a interesting detail and story about the mars lights for the US rail safety back then. by the way nice job on the video. 🙂👍

I’m obsessed with these kinds of lights and I’m glad metra still has most of them around. However their newer locomotives use a LED light with a fade on and off to at least mimic one and I think a few F40s have had theirs taken out and plated over

You answered a question that I"ve thought about for years.When I was a kid they were common on locomotives and they made sense.Well,guess we can"t have that!

Excellent video, very informative, Thank you.

I added two of them to our new fire truck. They catch the side view and rear view mirror. Very effective.

I think Metra may still use these ups of lights because the engineer sits in the rear passenger train when going into Chicago and then switches to the engine during outboard services. When the train is moving to Chicago the ditch lights help, but during daylight savings time gets dark. Most passengers travel between the hours of 5:30-7:00ish in the morning and fr 5:00-6:30ish in the evening. Platforms can get quite buy, thus the Mars lights may help those who can’t see the ditch lights.

In 1992 the Metro Dade Police had Streethawk light bars with an oscillating white halogen light in the middle between the red and blue

Enjoyed the video! It is my understanding that such lights (Mars or Gyra) were, at one time, required in Arizona. From personal recollections, I remember them on MKT and MP passenger units as well as on most all Southern Pacific and Santa Fe units, freight and passenger. In later years, I recall SP removing them and bolting a piece of sheet steel over the cavity once occupied by the Mars light (probably after locomotives were retrofitted with the Canadian, uh, I mean "ditch lights").

There were two companies….Mars and Pyle. The Pyle Gyralight did a circular sweep, where Mars had the Figure 8 or bouncing sweep.

Still have memories as a kid watching the KCS trains passing and their Mars light making their weird oscillations. It was both fascinating and a little creepy.

There's some fantastic footage there.

Mars 888 lights are still in production. Brand new fire trucks can have them.

Excellent video with well researched information and good narration. May I suggest using a mic/mix that includes more low end in your voice? Here you sound like 1940s radio commercial. Just a suggestion. Keep up the good work!

Have always loved Mars Lights. Have no idea where I learned what they were called, but assumed without actually knowing that was a result of their oscillation and brightness, that they could be seen from the planet Mars. Was not until a little over 20 years ago that I learned the truth. From age 1-10 lived within 100 yards of a C&NW track and us neighborhood kids would always run to the tracks any time we heard an approaching train. Once got to see one at night- Super cool!

*Many fire engines and other medical rescue vehicles employed lights such as the Mars light.*

"The light from Mars". Great lights back in the day. A lot of fire trucks dis have them, including my personally owned 76 pumper. Mars 888. I dont know much about the locomotive side, but the 888 flash pattern makes an "M". Federal Signal and Code 3 came out with their variants, "Meteor" and "Ocilazer" respectively.

I absolutely love your videos, Dark, especially this one. Keep up the splendid work! *Now when the heckity heck will you do a video about 734, 4501, and 1218?*

As an unruly teen rail fan in the early 1980s, I would take friends out after dark onto a towering former L&N trestle (with a walkway). There were curves on both ends, so sight distance was short. I reassured them we could see the Mars light for a mile or so as it swept the countryside, so there was plenty of time to get off the bridge. Little did I know CSX was discontinuing Mars lights. We ran like crazy when one of my friends looked up and yelled.

For locomotives originally equipped with mars/gyralights as long as the lights were operational it satisfied the FRA’s ditchlight requirement.

Very informative video. Thanks for posting.

Thanks for the informative video! I have just a few thoughts to share: I always thought that you could tell a Mars light from a Gyralite by the flashes when observing from trackside. Gyralites had a pattern of single flashes, whereas a Mars light would have a double flash in the same pattern. This would be because the Gyralite just rolled around in a circle pattern and the Mars light was a sideways figure-8 pattern. Seeing either light at night in the fog is a really mesmerizing experience! The railroads DID definitely remove working Mars lights in the 1970s and more so in the 1980s. Examples of this are the Southern Pacific, which removed all the rotating warning lights in favor of rooftop beacons, or the Illinois Central Gulf and Seaboard System who removed the lights and just covered the hole with a blank plate. I don't know if this was the result of a government regulation change, or if the railroads just found that the increase in safety did not justify the expense of maintenance at a time when so many railroads were on the verge of bankruptcy. A non-mechanical replacement option was called the Ocitrol warning light. The two white lights would flash alternatively while pointed at different angles, giving the impression of the Mars light without having to maintain the motor and linkage. The ICG was a big user of the Ocitrol, though I have seen them applied to Amtrak E-units on the nose door, and Rock Island E-units actually had them retrofitted into the upper light housing.

The things you forget about as you age, good old mars lights. Those were cool old videos too. I'd give up all modern conveniences to go back. pay phones and paper bags, Lol.......

Thank you for the information on the Mars Light. When I was fire chief of our local department we had the white ones. A fire chief after me liked them so much that on the new pumper he had 1 white, 1 blue & 1 red.

The main reason Mars and Pyle Gyralites disappeared were the idiotic union labor rules. Mars and Gyralites rarely failed, but when they did, it took at least two shop crafts to remover, fix and reinstall them. Another factor was that many shop people tried to work on them inside their cramped housings. Both Mars and Pyle were designed with quick disconnect cables which allowed a bad assembly to be easily removed and a new one installed. The defective assembly would then be taken to a workbench where it was easily repaired and then placed in a stock of refurbished assemblies. Rio Grande and Southern Pacific had this process down, but it still took at least two shop crafts to remove and install the replacement. The time it took for the union labor do accomplish these easy tasks would often tie up a locomotive for a day or two for a simple repair job. Finally, the railroads said, "screw it" and decided it was more efficient to remove the best safety devices ever installed on locomotives. And so, as is often the case, safety is compromised by inefficient work rules. The narrator mentioned that Mars lights were only used on locomotives and firetrucks, but early jet airliners like the DC8 and the 707 used Mars lights in the tail of the aircraft facing to the rear. These lights provided excellent visibility for following aircraft in crowded airspace to have a reference to the distance of a preceding aircraft.

I remember those! There was a train track that was just a spur to a grain elevator. The train would sometimes sit idling at the edge of town until the elevator was ready for it, sometimes for hours. And at night you could see that light for miles. I hadn't thought of that for years.

the Amount of Southern Pacific equipment in this video made it an instant favorite.

During the summer in the late 80s we would often ride bikes alongside the tracks on the SP Fresno sub because they cut through the city and sidewalks were narrow to non-existent. You could see the Geeps from miles away because of those Mars lights.

If it was a unique light appliance, you bet it could be found on a Southern Pacific locomotive somewhere.

Federal Signal makes an LED “traffic clearing light” that has no moving parts and could easily be used on locomotives.

Put mars lights in the ditch area

I was working on a red Mars light on the end Parlor Car. It's actually comprised of two rings. One ring is for up and down and the other ring is for back and forth. Almost took the tip of my finger off once, but I still liked them.

The fact that many model railroad decoders will let you program the flashing patterns of Mars lights on F series locomotives speaks to their importance in history...

This taught me quite a lot. Thank you very much.

I remember these lights from my childhood in Baltimore ,when late night switching operations where held on city streets.

As a kid who grew up on the SP in Stockton CA, I saw a lot of these😊, and still do. At least one CTT locomotive has an operating Mars light and ditch lights. It seems to me that some SP Mars lights worked in a figure-eight motion.

I watched this a couple of times just for the railfan footage. WOW!

Very interesting video. Thank you for your research

As a Chicagoan who regularly rides Metra I didn't know that these were being phased out.

I am loving all the Southern Pacific footage!

The Mars lights were very cool and really caught your attention. I always got a kick out of the SP, they never saw a light the didn't like. I also remember the bird chaser lights we had on switch engines back in the 70's and on the UP the remotes had yellow strobe lights. More Hi VIS makes for more safety I always thought.

Great topic! Mars lights were also used on some roller coaster trains. In 1998 I rode the Thunderbolt at Kennywood and they had the Mars light going on the lead car of each train. They only did it for special occasions since they were battery powered and didn't last long before the battery drained. The coaster trains were made by NAD (National Amusement Devices).

I enjoyed this video thouroughly! I love trains, and my dad does ever moreso. Thanks for posting! :D

I, too, had never heard of mars lights. Where i live, Paraparaumu (New Zealand) ditch lights are common, and have been retrofitted on the vintage and heritage locos and other rolling stock I've seen.

Mars lights typically bounced back and forth in a figure 8 type pattern. The sweeping light that went around and around was a Gyralight

I remember driving down the road at night near tehachapie as a train came up behind us. It's mars light shining on the sides of the hills around us.

Great Job. 👏🏼

Incandescent lights burn out real fast if you turn them on and off repeatedly (Heat stress on the filament) So lights that strobed by swinging around would take longer to burn out. What killed the Mars light was solid state driven halogen lights that could handle flashing without burning out quickly.

Love the old SP footage

I find the rotating ones very hypnotic.

The commuter railroad by me has Mars lights on their locomotives.

The SCL U-18B had a mars light on both ends.The shop's made metal boxes to cover the rear light cause they were too costly to maintain.

Wow. Ain't that something? I never knew. Thanks for the insight

Mars lights, the ones that went in a circle, scared the hell out of me

Interesting! It’s been almost 10 years now since I’ve been back, but could’ve sworn I saw a Metra (Chicago) train with something like it. Always wondered what it was and why it seemed to swivel. Thanks!

I've generally liked how that top light added to the nose look of the EMD F-series locomotives. Even if the cabs of later diesels are likely easier to maintenance and do allow for front ladders. However, I didn't know those lights were that special.

I see that the CP 2816, which is currently on tour, had its ditch lights installed and on when it was in Canada. Now that it is in the States they have been completely removed.

Southern Pacific -- there's a name I haven't seen in a long time. I grew up in Southern California, and SoPac was very common in my "growing up" days. We had a family beach home on the oceanfront beach colony north of Ventura, CA. Back then, the street in back of the cabins was old US 101. The Southern Pacific Railroad line parallelled the highway. We saw and heard many trains going both north and south during the day -- mostly freights, but the SoPac (before AmTrak) passenger trains went both ways as well. Our little cabin was built in the 1920s. It was on concrete piers, and the construction was simple -- 1X6 tongue and groove siding over simple 2 X 4 framing (back when 2 X 4s were actually 2 X 4!). As such, when those trains went by, the whole house at least vibrated, if not slightly moved as the big freight trains went past about 60 feet from the back door. Long story short, I saw a lot of those Mars lights on the front of both the freight and passenger locomotives. They were especially visible at night.

Every time I've caught the GO train here in Toronto, I always wondered what those two extra lights that would flash as the gong sounded as the train pulled into the station. Now I know, Ditch Lights.

Whatever happened to locomotive helper units? Big trains ALWAYS have multiple units so why don't they have units that are simply unmanned power units. In most trains they don't NEED the crew cab on the helper units.

This also applies to the gyra light

My local transit agency (Sound Transit) has these same lights on both their locomotives and cab cars running on the Sounder Commuter Rail.

i cant believeeeee you didnt put one of the most famous mars lights still around in the video... UP #844 still has one i believe.....

i believe the top light in that particular engine in thumbnail is the mars light not the bottom one

Interesting- thanks for sharing

We’re still on some of the fire trucks that I worked on for Omaha Fire Department at the City of Omaha, Nebraska retired at the end of 1999.