Toward the end of the steam era in China, a number of Americans traveled there and photographed railway operations. I notice that many of the modern Chinese steam locomotives had two headlights, but they typically do not use them during daylight, as North American railroads do.
Did one of the headlights oscillate, or were they regular headlights with the second one being for extra brightness?
Replies sorted oldest to newest
We were in Beijing in 2013 visiting our son. We went to the China Rail museum on the outskirts of the city. A beautiful collection of engines and all very clean. I found 3 pictures that relate to two headlight steam engines. The first is Mikado that has one head light over the other. Neither looks to be a Mars light.
Here a couple of pictures of another Mikado that looks like it is related to Chairman Mao. Some of the placards were in English, some in Chinese. There wasn't anything I could read associated with this engine.
I think the head on picture shows pretty well that both the lights are the same and neither looks like a Mars light. These were the only two steam engines with dual light out of the dozens of steam engines in the museum. I would highly recommend a stop at this museum if you get a chance to visit Beijing.
Looks like they just wanted bright light. Thanks.
Access to this requires an OGR Forum Supporting Membership
