"Richard J." wrote in
:

Yes, I well remember in the 1950s waiting on the Catford down platform
for the 16:12 home from school and watching the porter walking up the
platform lighting each gas lamp. This was at least 25 years after the
line had been electrified, but such mod cons hadn't reached the
stations.

When I moved to Surrey in 1980 some of the trains (4-SUBs?) still had
paraffin tail lights, despite being electric trains running on a line that
had been electrified some 50 years earlier.

I guessed at the time it might have been because they shared track with
diesel (and earlier, steam) trains, and if the power failed the oil lamps
kept burning to warn non-electric trains they were there. Or was there
another reason?

Peter

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|| Peter CS | Epsom | UK ||