Steam or early electric revives with HID lights?

[daniel_leavitt2000]

I was reading an article recently about early street lighting. In the beginning around  the 1870's town centers were lit with only a few glowing orbs mounted on oil derrick-like structures. These lights were not lit with incandescent bulbs, but carbon-arc lamps. These produced a very bright, cool light very similar to today's HID and LED lighting.

These had major drawbacks - the carbon electrodes need frequent adjustment to continue operating and the light was far too harsh for interior use. They were last used as lamps for searchlights and film projectors in the 1950's.

But they would obviously have a place in train lighting.

Was this ever tried?

[learmoia]

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,2898009

Short answer yes those or kerosine..

~Ian

[ncbqguy]

Carbon Arc headlights were very common on railroads. 
Electric headlights had to wait for development of bulbs which could withstand the harsh operating environment; especially the vibration.
Charlie Vlk

[nkalanaga]

Another factor was that early incandescent bulbs, even if they were durable enough, weren't as bright as modern ones.  They were fine for lighting your living room, but not so good for a headlight, especially if you wanted to see far enough ahead to do any good.

[railnerd]

San Jose had one:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Jose_electric_light_tower

My friend used it as an inspiration for his first microbrew:

https://untappd.com/b/santa-clara-valley-brewing-electric-tower-ipa/320930

[nkalanaga]

Interesting.  "confused the laying hens"...