Thanks for the pricing info. They sound to be very reasonable, especially compared to most locomotive parts. I'm almost scared to ask what a new full assembly would be.

Back to the SP - There was one of the "temporary" double lights that hung on the front handrail and plugged into the mu in a trash pile in one of the old shop buildings in Carlin years ago. SP was serious about having a working gyralight on the front of road engines - or the crews used a failed gyralight as an excuse to refuse an engine?

The standard white gyralight controller had a three position switch for the motor. Center off, run and "inch" (spring loaded to off). you could actually step the light around to act as a headlight if the standard one failed.

I do like running at night with ditch lights, but can't stand the flashing ones. I do think the oscillating lights were extremely visible day or night.

I can remember spending many nights on Cajon Pass. Gyralights meant SP, solid state beacons were ATSF, rotary beacons (Western Cullen Hayes?) were UP and Amtrak used strobes - and you could tell by the sound if they was a GE in the consist. In the morning, the ground would be littered with clearance cards and train orders. The BN 99 cent strobes were particularly worthless, plus they were wired into the speedometer so they wouldn't trigger under 3 mph when the horn blew.

Was it that long ago already?