Golden Glow?

[Kenneth and Tracie Josephson]

"Fred W. Schneider III" wrote:

> I thought that all the original PCC lights were built by Keystone Electric
> Supply Company.

I have read they were supplied by Keystone. So many people call them "Golden
Glows" or "Golden-Glo", I assumed it was a model name for the lighting unit.

>  They may have been out of business early in the 1950s.  The
> one on Baltimore 7407 is, to the best of my knowledge, a low voltage bulb fed
> through a dropping resistor under the dash (it gets quite warm) off 600 volts.
> I suspect that the replacements might have all been battery powered, 32 volt
> sealed beam bulbs.  Why?  Probably for better lighting.  Probably also because
> some replacement was needed after accidents.  If Keystone was still in
> business, perhaps the sealed beam conversions were cheaper.

As usual, it makes sense. I replaced the original style T-3 headlights in my 1959
automobile with halogen units. A much better bulb to light the way.

>  They certainly
> were not esthetically pleasing, but esthetics don't put dinner on the table.

Now I know why my wife married me! :-)

Seriously, was there any reason why the Railways installed spotlights on their PCC
interurbans? If the initial reason was to provide better lighting than the
Keystone lights on the dash, why did they continue to maintain spotlights after
seal beam dash mounted lights replaced the Keystone units? As we know,
reconditioned cars during the 1970's all  received spotlights as did the 4000s and
the new LRVs.

I wonder how the old interurban motormen could see during the night prior to
spotlight equipped cars? :-)  Did the older intrurbans have the low and high
switch to dim the headlight for street running?  Ken J.