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George,
In the era you are modeling, the vast majority (95% or better) of MP freight trains ran as extras. So, working white class lights would be a neat and authentic addition. They would be illuminated on the lead locomotive of a train that was authorized to run extra. There would be no need to turn the class lights off during any part of the tour of duty for that particular train.
From a modeling perspective, there would not be a big need for the red or green aspects on class lights. These two colors were not used that much in your era. Having working class lights on the rear of the locomotive would not be very necessary, either. Running long hood forward was not done all that often. If you have a local or TSE that runs with only one unit, you might consider adding working class lights to the rear of the units that might be assigned to that job. I agree, working class lights and ground lights would be cool on a model.
The merger did not have any major affect on MP operating practice until GCOR came along. From an operating rules and employee timetable perspective, the UP really didn’t bother with the MP until 1986.
