Why are trains yellow at front and back?

[whole diary]

[chrisr_75]

I have been told the reason the driver has swap the bighter light to the other side at night (can't remember which is which) is so they don't dazzle track workers. When I used to commute at around 07:30 in the morning depending on season and sunrise one train would have left bright the next right bright.

I thought it was just about redundancy - they must display one bright light at all times, so having 2 allows one to fail but for the train to remain in service? No bright headlight = train out of service as I recall.

One only has to look down a straight section of line to see that the current specification of headlight is so very much more visible than the yellow end so I can understand why a change has been mooted - I don't recall ever seeing any other train/locomotive in Europe painted with such a warning colour.

In terms of visibility for trackside workers, I think a system with greater interaction with the signalling system would be a much better way of warning of approaching trains than any visual detection - my experience of (agency) lookouts in the past has been rather varied, which is a bit alarming when you rely on these people for your safety!

[Worcester_Passenger]

RE^▸ (Religious Education) tail lamps:
Barnsley has or had a tail light camara from the Wakefield direction which is AB.
Worksop has or had 2 at junctions with AB areas where this point is several miles from the box and it is quite possible for the train not to pass Worksop Box. One is Woodend Jn (Sheffield and Worksop) on the Robinhood line and the other Dinnington Jn on that joint line (most constituent companies?) from Doncaster to the GC^» (Great Central Railway - link to heritage line) at Brancliffe Jn, from which a train can go either to Worksop or Mansfield.

In this part of the world, Droitwich also has cameras. Everything passes the box, but there's one on the southbound goods loop north of the box so that the signaller can see that they've received a whole train from the Kidderminster direction. And there's one just before the northbound platform, so that they can see the same from the Worcester direction - that way they can accept another train quickly.

[Tim]

It seem to me 3 white lights in triangle coming towards you at 125mph is not going to be mistaken for a car!

If I was working on track and saw lights coming towards me I'd get out of the way regardless of weather I thought it was a train or a car.  In fact a car on the track would alarm me more.   

[tomL]

I thought it was just about redundancy - they must display one bright light at all times, so having 2 allows one to fail but for the train to remain in service? No bright headlight = train out of service as I recall.

Yeah. I once flagged this up to a TM^‡(resolve) (thinking one of the lights was out/dimmer) he said its all for redundancy.

[Electric train]

I assume that the yellow fronts are the reasons that the trackside workers wear hivis orange as opposed to hivis yellow which is a more common hivis colour away from the railway.

The choice of orange for railway hivi's is quit simple, orange cannot be confused for a yellow signal aspect.  Also in the early days when the choice was orange or a greenie-yellow the greenie-yellow can merge into the background vegetation colour (not so much a problem today as the colours are a lot more vivid).

Orange does standout more.  One quark was in the 1990's when the use of netlon fencing stated to be used the only colour available was orange there were concerns raise by drivers the sometimes thought the orange netlon were track workers so the decision was taken to use blue.  If you look along the track now where there are fenced worksite close to the running lines the fencing is blue.

Big yellow ends are not really required today because the train headlights are that much brighter and you see the light well before the body of the train even in bright sunlight.

[coachflyer]

The night headlight is actually angled towards the cess so that it reflects any speed signs located therein, the day headlight is supposed to be angled forward so that trackside lookouts can see them as you approach

[Fourbee]

I've seen class 450s at Farnham CSD^▸ (Carriage Servicing Depot) stabled with marker and tail lights on at the same time. I wonder if that is some sort of indication to say this unit has been checked/cleaned etc?

[chrisr_75]

I thought it was just about redundancy - they must display one bright light at all times, so having 2 allows one to fail but for the train to remain in service? No bright headlight = train out of service as I recall.

Yeah. I once flagged this up to a TM^‡(resolve) (thinking one of the lights was out/dimmer) he said its all for redundancy.

And of course it is very much more symmetrically pleasing! 

[Network SouthEast]

I've seen class 450s at Farnham CSD^▸ (Carriage Servicing Depot) stabled with marker and tail lights on at the same time. I wonder if that is some sort of indication to say this unit has been checked/cleaned etc?

It's the Clapham depot way of saying the train has been prepped.