Passenger Car Door Indicator Lights

i had a question about the lights on the outside of passenger equipment.

On the body of passenger equipment next to each set of doors there is a small strip of lights usually 2/3/4 lamps with either a red, orange or green position at eye level towards the top corner of the doors or ends of the coach

What is the purpose of those lights?

Moderator's Note: Title edited for clarity.

General Discussion: Locomotives, Rolling Stock, and Equipment:

I've seen these lights most often on Amtrak equipment. So, off to Amtrak this question goes!

John_Perkowski wrote:General Discussion: Locomotives, Rolling Stock, and Equipment:

I've seen these lights most often on Amtrak equipment. So, off to Amtrak this question goes!

i've seen this on SEPTA too

Door open, brakes applied, brakes released is the case with some systems.

In some cases I've heard of the red bulb being only illuminated during emergency braking but that might not apply here.

Davis

Ken W2KB wrote:Door open, brakes applied, brakes released is the case with some systems.

correct for Amfleet cars.

Ken is correct. They are brake indicator lights. An amber light allows the crew to determine that the air brakes have been applied and a green light means the air brakes have been released. However, this is not always the case, due to the age of the eqpt. and the level of maintenance received (not a safety issue at all). I've seen cars (Amtrak Superliner) where I have a 20 pound set and the green light is still illuminated while the other cars in the consists are displaying an amber light.

Don't forget no matter what brakepipe is , Amfleets and Bombardiers are different breed.
Brake cylinder pressure is dependent on air suspention pressure, a empty car gets light braking a heavy car gets heavy breaking.
a screwed up car will give any kind of indication.

is there any "standard" indicator position or color code for each "status", or is it a particular arrangement per railroad?
like iv seen on NJT when a train was standing hard there is a solid red indicator, however when moving the lamps are green (same for amtrak)

but on the LIRR and MN iv seen the M7s have flashing orange lamps when laying over in a yard

The flashing orange indicator is parking brake indicator.
the Amber/green is pretty much standard for applied /release even on MNCR MU cars.

Solid yellow when brakes released may also mean a handbrake applied.

I believe the new NJT multilevels have one set of lights for the brakes and another set for the door status.

Which is the way that the amfleets are set up - red over the door for the doors, amber/green elsewhere for the brakes.

MARC has red/blue lights on the side. Red is for the doors and I've only seen the blue a handful of times, usually when a car is set by itself, so I would assume that it indicates the handbrake.

Red has nothing to do with brakes on NJT -- they are door open indicators.

slchub wrote:Ken is correct. They are brake indicator lights. An amber light allows the crew to determine that the air brakes have been applied and a green light means the air brakes have been released. However, this is not always the case, due to the age of the eqpt. and the level of maintenance received (not a safety issue at all). I've seen cars (Amtrak Superliner) where I have a 20 pound set and the green light is still illuminated while the other cars in the consists are displaying an amber light.

Tell me about it. I've ran Autotrain several times with brake applications and I saw a 50/50 mix of green/yellow. As long as the train slowed down, that's all I care about!