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A long time ago all trains had three tail lamps, or to be precise a tail lamp and two side lights. This was changed sometime around the First World War (I think after) to continuously braked trains having one tail lamp only, while unfitted trains remained as before. This saved on lamp oil, but made the rear of trains a bit more difficult to spot.
With the introduction of continuously braked petrol tankers an oil tail lamp could not be placed on such a wagon. It was a fire risk if the contents spilled. For a while BR operated oil trains with an MGR wagon at the rear, simply so this wagon could carry the tail lamp. This was silly, so an electric tail lamp was developed which had two lenses. It gave a steady light and I think that if one lamp failed the other one was brought into action behind the other lens. These "Bardic" lights were heavy on batteries, so they never replaced the oil lamp fully. Note that these lights were made of white plastic and not the BR "Bardic" hand light than can show four colours.
Some thought was given to the lights at the rear of a train in the 1970s. HSTs had two red lights at the rear and these were certainly more attention getting than the one red light at the rear of the earlier EMUs. It would be impractical to attach two tail lamps to the rear of locomotive hauled trains. As well as the extra handling and lamps there is only one lamp bracket on most rolling stock. However, a flashing tail lamp is about as effective as two steady lamps. It also has a better battery life than a steady light. The flashing tail lamp was born.
Editor's note:
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