A section of the AC&Y railroad went by across the street of my grandparents house on Frank Blvd in Akron. In that section, the tracks were straight for a couple miles in both directions, so if a train was approaching from really far away, all you could see was a huge ball of bright light & rays from the locomotives head lights until it got within a mile closer to my location. One thing that seemed weird to me, is that the rear facing locomotives would always have their headlight on, but not as bright.