Santa Fe 2350 Beacon

Well it appears to be a 4 bulb unit made by Prime Manufacturing Corp.  It has an amber colored acrylic dome. The 4 lights were wired in series so if one burned out then the unit would not function until it was repaired.  The lights would flash, all controlled by solid state electronics...so no moving parts.  The Santa Fe put a cap on them of some sort which gives the dome a rounded appearance.  Take a look in this better color pic....

 

 

The switchers used rotating beacons. The road units had sequential beacons. They were applied to the switchers several years before the road units. I don't remember any Alco-GE or EMD switchers with sequential beacons, but one could have been applied as a replacement. On the switchers, the beacon was independently controlled by a switch on the control stand. On the Coast Lines, we used only the beacon at night in the yard, turning on the headlight only when necessary for vision or when outside the yard. The Eastern Lines may have been stricter on enforcing the headlight rule. Some road units had separate circuit breakers for the beacon, and others used either the Generator Field switch or the Control circuit breaker. This led to some trailing road units displaying the beacon when sitting in the roundhouse or when used as a trailing unit. New units started arriving with beacons about 1967. GP 20, -30 and -35 units had beacons retrofitted at their home shop, which accounts for the inconsistency in the details of application. (I personally thought they were useless, but always displayed the beacon in case I should be involved in a crossing collision.) When Santa Fe removed the road unit beacons they were gone within 6 weeks - the fastest I ever saw a mechanical department project completed.

Thank You both so much for the information!

 

Ray