I've seen places along the railroad tracks where there is a sign with a place name. Sometimes there is a siding, but most of the time there is nothing there at all except an old call box. What are these places called? What were the call boxes used for?
Hi, Ray
In the simplest terms the place names are stations. Further they might be identified as block stations, spurs or junctions but they are important to operators and train crews so they can understand exactly where a train should meet, or stop or drop off and pick up cars or in the case of division points, where to change crews. In otherwords, everybody has to be on the same page, or station.
Some towers only had a two-letter designation which was easy to send in Morse-code. Sometimes it was related to a nearby town or landmark, say BE tower here in Ohio was in a town called Berea.
It was also important for the operators to report that a train had passed a specified location. He would "OS" the train, meaning write that the marker lamps of that particular train HAD passed his station. OS was on sheet, meaning the train was then logged into the daily report of train movements, or "train sheet" maintained at each open tower. Once the train had passed the operator would report via telegraph, telephone or radio so that the dispatcher and everyone else involved knew exactly where that train was.
An employees timetable will list all the stations and which ones have telephones. Any trouble encountered on the road or sometimes a written train order may have instructions to "call operator at arrival at Smithville" to recieve additional instructions, or sometimes, an additional train order can be dictated over the telephone.
The train order has to have clear instructions and exact place names for meets to take place, thus the sign may be posted, but not always in later years anyway. Sometimes the mile post is used as a reference, especially for slow orders.
The PRR had a book called the C.T. 1000 that listed all sidings, stations and junctions. It was about as thick as a decent-sized city telephone directory:
Stations_0001 by Edmund, on Flickr
There were references in the tables to show which stations had telephones, etc.
Stations_0002 by Edmund, on Flickr
Here's the first page of the B&O list of stations:
Stations by Edmund, on Flickr
and an example page:
Stations_0003 by Edmund, on Flickr
The conductor would also have to use these station and siding names and numbers to be included in his reporting of cars on the waybills so the accounting department would know what charges to apply to the movement of the cars and lading.
BN_Orleans_jct by Edmund, on Flickr
Sometimes when you see nothing but a sign it may signify that there was something here at one time, a tower, crossing, station building or even just a water stop. Often, the tower was torn down and the call letters have now been stenciled on a signal relay box or a free-standing sign. Penn Central would sometimes signify these as "CP Pitt" or something similar, CP being Control Point.
I'm sure I haven't covered everything and others can fill in the blanks.
Hope that helps, Ed
Anyplace on a railroad that is named is a "station" (caveat: in CTC control points typically are also named as described above).
On a railroad the station isn't a building, its a place. Most stations will be listed in the timetable.
When authority is given to a station, and there is no siding at that station, the authority applies to the station sign.
Fun fact, there are no "towns" on a railroad, towns are on a highway map, stations are on a railroad.
The call boxes are used by the train crews to contact the dispatcher or other railroad office, using a company telephone system. Back in the day before radios on trains, that was the only way a crew could communicate with the dispatcher directly. If you look in an old timetable, there will be a list of where the call boxes were and to whom they connected (dispatcher, yarmaster, control operator, etc).
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
dehusmanOn a railroad the station isn't a building, its a place. Most stations will be listed in the timetable. When authority is given to a station, and there is no siding at that station, the authority applies to the station sign.
All good points.
May I add another interesting case. I recall when my uncle, working as a tower operator on the Boston & Albany, was assigned to a "temporary block station" namely, his car. Operators would have to drive to the location and stay until relieved.
Occasionally a derailment, M-of-W work (shoo-fly) or a detour of some kind may require train orders to be issued at a location remote from the usual control points. A temporary station may be set up if it is deemed necessary to keep the traffic moving. If it is a big track realignment or bridge project it may be used for months before normal traffic routes are reestablished.
That would make for some good operating conditions on a model RR.
Regards, Ed
Thank You.
More on call boxes just for general information or perhaps for fun. These phones was usually in a wooden box with a door located on a line side pole. I believe at one time PRR painted theirs gray but,the ones I seen was faded wood.
You could get permission from the block operator to enter his block from a industrial lead or you could get orders on a Form 19.
On the PRR the call box was locked with your standard switch lock so any switch key would work. Each tower had their own ring and as a example:
4 rings High St,tower ,5 rings Mounds tower,6 rings Scioto Tower.
If you wanted to speak to Mounds you turn the phone crank 5 times and waited 10 seconds and repeated the rings. This would let the operators know you are calling Mounds.
A lot of old head conductors continue using the call phone even though they had a radio.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
The rulebooks when I hired out had this entry in the definitions & terms section:
Station: A place designated in the timetable by name.
That was it. It could be a busy spot, or next-to-nothing going on. Maybe just the sign and a telephone. Or maybe not even a telephone any longer...
Very interesting topic. Thanks Brakie on how calling the towers worked.
And now a little poetry relating to call/phone boxes.
"Conductor, conductor, captain of the train.
Head's in a phone box, butt's out in the rain."
Jeff