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Railroad Blue Flag Protection

Enhance railroad blue flag protection with reliable, low-maintenance lights that are shock-proof, waterproof and built to withstand the harsh demands of the railyard for at least 5 years.

 

Railroad blue lights signal to railroad operators that workers are on, under or between railroad rolling equipment. Blue signal protection means a clearly distinguishable blue flag or blue light by day and a blue light at night. If itā€™s not clearly distinguishable, it doesnā€™t meet requirements. Signals must be placed at each derail, and must be visible to employees seated at the controls of a locomotive. When the signal is displayed, equipment may not be coupled to or moved, rolling equipment may not pass a displayed blue signal and other equipment may not reduce or block the view of a blue signal.

 

According to the U.S. Department of Transportationā€™s ā€œGuidelines for the Specifications of Blue Safety Flags in Railroad Operationsā€ report, a supplier must provide a light that is uniform in appearance and that has a blue appearance that falls within the range of a safety code. Suppliers can use blue LEDs to meet these requirementsā€”the use of a plastic blue filter over a white light is not sufficient.

 

For decades, railroads across the US have used blue flag protection in their yards to alert trains of workers on or near the track. Since 2008, pairing a light with these markers has been the standard. A railyard in Des Moines found that the lights they used to comply with these regulations constantly required bulb and battery replacements. After proving that the maintenance was far too time-consuming, they searched for a more efficient solution, which they found in our OL2A solar safety light.

I've seen and used a lot of blue lights, and Flash Technology's are top of the line. Their lights work flawlessly through heat, rain and freezing cold weather. They also take a beating, being lifted, lowered and sometimes droppedā€”but they never quit working. We use Flash Technology's lights at both ends of our service track to protect our derails, and they have been in service for over 5 years, trouble-free. They are my first choice in blue lights; one less item to worry about.
ā€“ Brian Sinram, Union Pacific

Learn more about the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) and the outlines for blue signal protection through the FRA’s Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (Subpart B), Transport Canada’s Blue Signal Protection (Section 26) or by reaching out to our lighting experts.