Loco Headlamp Code

The generally accepted code fo a 'Light Engine' is one lamp in the middle of the buffer beam position.

My question is - What should one do if there is no lamp iron in that position to fit the lamp on?

Only received blank looks on asking this so far. Anyone know?

 

Although that was the correct position, it was common practice, as with the tail lamp, to place it on one or other of the outside lamp irons for short movements, say from the mpd to a station or vice-versa. If the train to be worked were an express passenger, all that was then needed on arrival was to fit the lamp to other side iron.

Even in the seventies, we were a lot more relaxed about things than we are now. After working an unfitted train from Alec Dock, Liverpool to Edge Hill, we had to run around at Olive Mount to draw it back into the sidings (we'd been stopped from propelling after a shunter had been run over). Technically, we should have moved the brake to the other end also, but didn't; instead, a piece of newspaper was forced over the lamp iron on what was now the rear wagon as a marker for the short journey to the yard.

 

In all truth, as the head codes were designated by the main line railway companies the only locos likeley to not have a lamp iron in the required postion would be a loco built for a private system. Locos like the Severn Valley's Lady Arghmadale don't have that centre lamp iron, so the lamp does indeed get carried in an "incorrect" position