Lighting fixtures, both for railroad yards and platforms for passenger traffic, are installed on overhead line poles and bridges.

The lighting fixture depicted above has a 200-watt light bulb and was intended for railroad yards. For platform lighting, the fixture was equipped with an opalescent glass around a 300-watt light bulb.

Light bulbs required frequent replacements and provided little light in proportion to the electricity consumed. Mercury and sodium lamps offer both better light output and longer burning times. They began to be introduced by SJ in the 1950s.

As the switching work has been centralized to a smaller number of marshalling yards, the need for yard lighting has decreased.