Is there anywhere on the web where we may see a photo of a K4 with it's headlight in the center of the smokebox door?  I looked through the Keystone Crossings website, and found a K4 photo archive with photos of every K4.  I didnt look at them all, but I did look at all, west of Pennsylvania, and they all  had the headlight mounted either at the top of the smokebox front, or on top of the smokebox.  (Except for streamlined locos).

I havent seen my K4 in almost 20 years but IIRC there is a plastic light guide to the headlight.  You would have to find a way to pipe the light into the new location.

The light source is in the smokebox.  The headlight casting on the smokebox front has a clear plastic light 'pipe' in it, which leads back into the smokebox. 
Some of my locos have bulbs in the headlights, most have MV products lenses and are not lit.   The use of headlights in the daytime became mandatory in the 1950's.  Some large roads began to use daytime lights earlier, with the practice becoming more common in the later years.  As Gene said, most steam locos would not have used their lights in the daytime.

In Fort Myers, FL, the Atlantic Coast Line had a village where their employees could live.  They also provided rooms for away-from-home train crews on their rest period between runs.  Two of these houses are still standing...they are just ordinary 'shotgun' houses.  They were within easy walking distance of the depot, yard and loco shops.  Of course if an employee wanted to live elsewhere that was up to him.  
I dont know if the Seaboard had similar facilities here or not.  
In North Fort Myers there was a lumber company that built a sawmill and company town.  First it was the JW McWilliams Lumber Co, which was purchased by the Dowling & Camp Lumber Co.    They provided housing for 350 workers and their families.  The town had a hotel, boarding houses, dining halls, schools, churches, a post office, commissary store, auto repair garage, and housing.  The buildings had lights, running water, and telephones.  The company operated a logging railroad with 14 locomotives, and hauled logs more than 40 miles to the mill.  There are 2 buildings left that I know of...both were moved in 1944.  There is not a single building left at the original site.

RyPN is up & running.

RyPN will be back on Sunday.  New management; new rules.

Here is the reply:  This was posted on Trainorders this morning.

Date: April 23, 2007 06:19
Re: RYPN board is down this is terrible (
Author: co614
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Suffice it to say that I am very saddened by the decision of Mr. Kading to terminate RyPN as is evidenced by my immediate offer to go away quietly rather than see the site ended.
What you see posted on that link to the NG site is the culmination of what I (and many others) viewed as an increasingly worrisome practice of deletion/locking of postings that were in the view of many (in some cases a clear majority) worthwhile and on subjects that had relevance to the efforts of the railroad preservation industry today.
I posted a comment on a thread that was posted( by others) in celebration of the 32nd. anniversary of the American Freedom Train. Part of my comment dealt with the difficulties I faced in getting corporate sponsorship funding for the AFT project due the the general negativity caused by the Vietnam war and the Watergate scandal. The moderater deleted my posting on the grounds that it was a political statement and thus against the forums guidelines etc. It was literally the straw that broke the camels back. I recieved nearly 50 emails and pm's from users who expressed their unbelief and outrage at this deletion (and subsequent locking of the thread) and some of them at my request wrote also to the RyPN folks to express their concerns.
But as I said above this incident was but one of many of late and many of us regular participants were becoming increasingly concerned that the apparent effort (at least on the part of the recently appointed Webmaster/Moderator) to achieve political correctness in everything was quickly making the forum immpossible to use for anything beyond discussions on topics such as clothing and who was the latest to die.
IMHO one of our most treasured possessions as Americans is our Freedom of Speech. I realize that each forum has its rules and customs and every user agrees to abide by those rules in order to participate and I fully support that. However when peoples expressions and opinions (again this incident was but the latest of many- affecting not just my postings) are being arbitrarily errassed for no good reason then there's something very scary about that.
I too hope that the RyPN forum will reappear soon as it certainly was a valuable tool for the industry. If not, I'm confident that one or more of the other good sites will take up the slack.
To the many who were witnesses to the whole incident and have written to me with support I say thank you. To those who have only witnessed the last inninng I hope this message will help your understanding that there was an important principle involved here. One worth fighting for!!!
Respectfully, Ross Rowland

There is an update, dated yesterday, on the RyPN site.  It offers some slim chance of the forums being brought back.  They are looking for people to handle the job.  There is contact info on the site.

Gene,
I sent you a regular e-mail.

Yup.

A major name in the railroad preservation business posted a message, stating that he was once trying to drum up financial support for a project, but was hindered by the unpopularity of a war and president.

The moderator of the forum told the preservationist to leave the politics out.

The preservationist then posted that he was currently having problems finding funding due to a war and a president.  The moderator deleted the post.

The preservationist appealed to the administrators of the forum for reinstatement, stating that if his post was not replaced, he would report the RyPN to the IRS for non-compliance with their 501c status. (Which the preservationist, himself, does not have).
The administrators agreed with the moderator; they also decided to terminate the preservationist's membership in the forum.  He then notified them of his intention to file a lawsuit against them.  At that point the RyPN decided that what money they had, was better spent on preservation than frivolous lawsuits, and the website was shut down permanently.  The preservationist then contacted the administrator, stating that he would drop the lawsuit if they re-opened the website.  The admin stated that the board of directors of RyPN resigned, the webmaster quit, and he did not have the time to run the website.  The preservationist then stated that he just might have to follow through with the lawsuit;  the admin stated he was filing paperwork to dissolve RyPN.

That's where it stands.

The emails are available at the Lily.

If you search the internet you will find a couple of free programs you can download into your computer, and they will display on your monitor.  They all have variable rates so you can choose the one you like best.  I had on and was using it to set up a timetable for my layout, when I decided I didnt want to play 'beats the clock' on my trainset.  One drawback is your computer has to be near your layout.

A draftsman calls a drawing a 'plate'.
The drawings give the relationship between car length, and width, and truck centers;  all of which govern the amount of overhang on curves.  Railroad employees know which curves have clearance restrictions....which are 'plate B', 'plate C', etc.  They need to know if a car will clear any obstructions on a curve, or if it exceeds the clearances.   This info, pertaining to curve clearances, is contained in employee timetables.
The actual 'Plate' drawings can be found in an 'Official Railway Equipment Register' from your time period.   You might pick up an old copy at a train show, etc.

Lets not confuse headlights with the UFOs buzzing around my head

Virginian,
Did you ever stop and ask yourself, what did the REAL model railroaders do before NorthWest Short Line came along with their quartering jig?

Scale Rails Graphics sells LED kits with the yellow gels. 

I dont think MV Products has a website; at least I've never seen it.  They are listed in the Walthers catalog 

http://www.walthers.com

I've seen steam in daily use on the PRR, LV, CNJ,and RRRR;  I just saw an operating steam loco a couple weeks ago, but none of them had yellow headlights. 
The blueish looking LEDs are the best I guess, if you use a yellow gel between the LED and the lens , the yellow cancels the blue so it looks white.  I've heard that you can color the LED with a yellow highlighting marker to cancel the blue, but I've never tried it.