Looks like the big light on top of the nose of the new MTH SD 9 is a white bulb. The real SD 9, in SP commuter service, had that light as a big red warning light. It was not a headlight. 
So is it white and wrong or red and right?
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You might try contacting/asking the Southern Pacific Historical & Technical Society.
Not mistaken only the SD7s came with those.
Well, for starters, the image posted above is of an SD9, so stating that only SD7s had them would be incorrect. In fact the first order of 32 SD9s were delivered with the large Mars light. Later orders had the smaller Pyle National light. As can be seen below, it appears they should be white, not red.
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Kerrigan posted:Looks like the big light on top of the nose of the new MTH SD 9 is a white bulb. The real SD 9, in SP commuter service, had that light as a big red warning light.
Don't think so. Pretty sure the commute service did indeed have the "white", large Mars Signal Light .
It was not a headlight.
Well, not technically a "headlight", but an oscillating"white" Mars "headlight".
So is it white and wrong or red and right?
See above comments.
Stand corrected. Must have been some other SP diesel which had a red light, like the one at Portola? Isn't it a red mars-type light?
The unit in Portolla has an entirely different warning light, which is indeed red:
I'm not up on my SP SD's, but my guess would be the barrel light on passenger SD's (notice the 3800 does have a steam generator) and the smaller red warning light on freight SD's.
Rusty
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Kerrigan posted:Stand corrected. Must have been some other SP diesel which had a red light, like the one at Portola? Isn't it a red mars-type light?
No, that is NOT a "mars-type light", but a Pyle-National Gyralight, which was/is a trademarked name used by Pyle-National. Just as "Mars Light" was a trademarked name of the Mars Signal Light Company. For what it's worth, those great big "ash can" lights used on the SP were a Mars Signal Light Company product, since the large mechanism of the oscillating "Mars Light" would not fit inside the noses of the SD7/SD9.
MTH is doing a roadname specific SD9? Where's this information coming from?
I just checked MTH Facebook and found nothing there. MTH Search function is down at their webpage.
Usually MTH does a one-size-fits all engine.
Hot Water posted:Kerrigan posted:Stand corrected. Must have been some other SP diesel which had a red light, like the one at Portola? Isn't it a red mars-type light?
No, that is NOT a "mars-type light", but a Pyle-National Gyralight, which was/is a trademarked name used by Pyle-National. Just as "Mars Light" was a trademarked name of the Mars Signal Light Company. For what it's worth, those great big "ash can" lights used on the SP were a Mars Signal Light Company product, since the large mechanism of the oscillating "Mars Light" would not fit inside the noses of the SD7/SD9.
Was that big barrel light an oscillating white light or a non-moving fixed light? Functioned as a warning light? Interesting.
I grew up with SP running near my house in the early 1960's (old PE Torrance Sub) and I remember them having an oscillating pair of lights installed on just about all of the diesels that serviced that line (SW's, GP9's). The photo of 5472 looks like one where an oscillating light pair (upper pair) was added and the original headlights relocated below. I don't know if they were Mars or Pyle. Some of the SW1500's had a fixed pair on one side with the oscillating pair on the other with an oscillating red warning light in the middle. I believe the fixed pair was on the engineer side. Later, they removed the oscillating lights. I always thought they were pretty cool.
By the way, anyone have the part number/catalog info on that MTH SD9?
