train telephone wires

[rrboomer]

Believe me, in most places in Canada and in the Dakotas and Yupper Michigan there are not call boxes every couple of miles.  The dispatcher's phone boxes were pretty much limited to stations, junctions, and section houses.

[rrnut282]

So that in case of derailment that brings the lineside poles down, the crew doesn't touch the wires with the colored insulators.

Ever seen that spot down on the NS between Clymers and Delphi where the large array of lineside pole wires are all bundled up into a harness, and feed into that transmitter room beside that large arial?  Pretty neat looking , seeing the ancient tech spliced into the new

I've been past there once or twice, pacing trains along IN25.

[cnwfan51]

    the way I ubnderstand it from talking to really old heads was that every cou[le of miles there was a call box located on a pole and the crew would stop at or send the brakeman to find it and talk to the dispatcher explaining the problem or situation    I have seen these boxes along the the right of way espacially along the U.P mainline in West Omaha hope this helps   Merry Christmas   Larry

[rrnut282]

They went cheap and plowed in the fibre optic line instead of putting in a solid casing pipe that would double or triple the cost.

[morseman]

 The pole phone mentioned is something I thought of that would have been used.      Don't know how many RR's used such a pole.      In my timetables it doesn't show which pair of wires would have a lower frequency band for the dispatchers phone, but there must have been a separate listing in the individual RR timetable --- otherwise conductors would be connecting into any pair that woud be carrying telephone lines, radio broadcasts or private wire services,  unless also the open wires only carried railroad traffic.

 When fibre optics were installed along the CP right of way, they were only a short distance from the outside rail and only placed a few feet or so underground.      After a few accidents, they had to be placed quite a distance away and quite deep as the lines would be cut during such an incident.

[Convicted One]

So that in case of derailment that brings the lineside poles down, the crew doesn't touch the wires with the colored insulators.

 

Ever seen that spot down  on the NS between Clymers and Delphi where the large array of lineside pole wires are all bundled up into a harness, and feed into that transmitter room beside that large arial?  Pretty neat looking , seeing the ancient tech spliced into the new

[rrboomer]

Crews did not climb up the pole to use the phone, they used a pole phone.

The caboose was typically equipped with a pole that had the phone on one end and two contact points that sat on top of the telephone wires.  Each circuit (dispatcher, message, block) had a pair of wires.

I would imagine that the passenger trains were also equipped, but don't recall ever hearing the old timers talk of where it was kept. The baggage car is my best guess. Further I would think that the section men, signal maintainers, etc would have had a pole phone.

Soo Line also used to show the location of dispatcher wires up until the late '70's in their timetables.

[morseman]

thanks rrnut.    That's the last thing I would have thought of.         I should have know that though as I was with CP Rail, Teleommn's dept, starting out as a morse opr.      But I was in the commercial side of the business and about 90 percent of my work with with the telephone companies and CBC radio  who handled traffic over our open wires. the other 10 percent or so was railway related.    After morse ended I was a technician and one of my responsibilities was regulating CBC levels and rerouting telephone & radio traffic when lines went down.

 

Thanks again.

[rrnut282]

So that in case of derailment that brings the lineside poles down, the crew doesn't touch the wires with the colored insulators.

[morseman]

looking through old (1984) CN & CP timetables, the last pages show the telephone lines between subdivisions.     The two wires on the crossarms at the far left are usually used for 110 volts or higher and identified by colored insulators  & timetables indicate that care be used to connect a telephone to the other wires.

My question is would train crews use these the wires to hook up a phone in case of accident or derailment, If so how would they climb up to the wires,   OR would this info only be of use by linement working on the wires?

Reason for asking, Why is this info listed in the timetables?