Why the upper headlight on C&NW F units and (some?) E units was either blank or had the locomotive bell mounted on it?
We have no official pronouncement on the headlight question, but some things are certain. All of these locomotives were made with two functioniing headlights, one of which was an oscillating Mars light. The upper one was removed when the C&NW did a complete reversal and decided that Mars lights were costly and ineffective. They were into the “less is better” phase at the time. Perhaps they thought that the bell in the nose was more effective in transmitting sound, though some units never got the bell in the nose. Don’t forget that they also eliminated the number boards on many of the units and just painted the number on. this is also consistant with the “Cheap and Nothing Wasted” theme. Q: I have 3 playing cards from a card deck that show a young blonde woman waving from a dock on a lake to a CNW train. It appears to be from the 1940s. There are pine trees on the shore behind the train, and a canoe is paddling toward the dock with the young woman on it. She is sitting on a white towel
