Trackside Phones

[beefmalone]

You guys shouldn't go on about this pic without scanning and posting it.

[SFbrkmn]

Reffering to H.Craig as "Minor' was a typo error on my part and correct name is 'Miner' for those who may be doing a search.

[al-in-chgo]

I have the Mopac book by Craig Minor. To me that photo of Jenks talking on the portable phone wearing his high water boots has to be one of the most powerfull rr pics of all times--just looking at it explains all. Minor is a retired history professor @ Wichita State Univ. He has written several books on rr history. He was my history professor @ WSU way back in the day. Man that guy was tough but I learned much from him and it worth the time & cost.

Your post is intriguing.  Here is what I found on alibris.com, which has ithe book both new and used.  Author is listed there as "H. Craig Miner" with an "e."   

                                                         ---

Cover may not depict edition offered for sale

available COPIES    The Rebirth of the Missouri Pacific, 1956-1983 by H Craig Miner Synopsis not available.

• Available copies
• Customer reviews

Your search:  Books » Author: Miner, H Craig » Title: The Rebirth of the Missouri Pacific, 1956-1983 » The Rebirth of the Missouri Pacific, 1956-1983 (16 available copies)

Narrow your results by:  Hardcover | Softcover | First edition | Dust jacket | New books (from $21.98) | Eligible for FREE shipping

Top of Form

Narrow results by publisher

Bottom of Form

Sometimes it pays off to expand your search to view all available copies of items matching your search terms.

Page 1 of 1	Top of Form		sort by Seller RatingPrice: Low to HighPrice: High to LowConditionTitleAuthorPub Date Bottom of Form
1		The Rebirth of the Missouri Pacific, 1956-1983 by H. Craig Miner Top of Form     Bottom of Form price: $20.99 Ships from IL, USA add to wishlist Binding: Hardcover Publisher: Texas a & M Univ Pr Date Published: 1984-01 ISBN-13: 9780890961599 ISBN: 089096159X Description: Good. Dustjacket has edge bumping and shelfwear with a few edge chips. Pre-owners addr. lbl. on ffep. Text unmarked, pages clean and bright. Good solid binding. read more condition: Book:   seller information: Name: KeepsBooks, IL, USA Reliability:

 

(Etc. etc., almost a whole page of listings from various suppliers.)  If alibris dot com has it, a good chance at least some of the other big online services do too.  --  sounds like a great book!  - a.s.

 

 

[SFbrkmn]

I have the Mopac book by Craig Minor. To me that photo of Jenks talking on the portable phone wearing his high water boots has to be one of the most powerfull rr pics of all times--just looking at it explains all. Minor is a retired history professor @ Wichita State Univ. He has written several books on rr history. He was my history professor @ WSU way back in the day. Man that guy was tough but I learned much from him and it worth the time & cost.

[csxengineer98]

I collect telephones, and so thought I throw in a little bit of information about the Automatic Electric Company.

Basically, Automatic Electric started out in Chicago in the late 1800s(around 1890, I think) as the Strowger Automatic Telephone exchange company. Almon Strowger was an undertaker who found that many calls for his business were being directed to a competitor, whose wife worked as an operator. 

Strowger developed the first practical switching system, based on pulses of electricity from a dial. The system was sucessful enough that it continued to be used in smaller cities all the way up through the 1960s, and even in third world countries up through the 1990s. 

The Bell System, of course, only ever used Western Electric telephones. Smaller local and/or private phone companies, however, including the railroad phone system, couldn't purchase Western Electric phones. Thus, Automatic Electric was one of the most popular suppliers of telephone equipment to such groups.

The Automatic Electric company was the first to develop a telephone which contained the network, ringer, dial, hookswitch, and transmitter/receiver in one unit. Previous telephones would have a "deskset" that contained the hookswitch, dial, and transmitter/receiver, with a separate "subset" which contained the network and ringer. This was a big enough deal that Automatic Electric called their telephones so equipped "Monophones."

well if you collect them..what do i have and what do you think the value of it is...

csx engineer 

[ben10ben]

I collect telephones, and so thought I throw in a little bit of information about the Automatic Electric Company.

Basically, Automatic Electric started out in Chicago in the late 1800s(around 1890, I think) as the Strowger Automatic Telephone exchange company. Almon Strowger was an undertaker who found that many calls for his business were being directed to a competitor, whose wife worked as an operator. 

Strowger developed the first practical switching system, based on pulses of electricity from a dial. The system was sucessful enough that it continued to be used in smaller cities all the way up through the 1960s, and even in third world countries up through the 1990s. 

The Bell System, of course, only ever used Western Electric telephones. Smaller local and/or private phone companies, however, including the railroad phone system, couldn't purchase Western Electric phones. Thus, Automatic Electric was one of the most popular suppliers of telephone equipment to such groups.

The Automatic Electric company was the first to develop a telephone which contained the network, ringer, dial, hookswitch, and transmitter/receiver in one unit. Previous telephones would have a "deskset" that contained the hookswitch, dial, and transmitter/receiver, with a separate "subset" which contained the network and ringer. This was a big enough deal that Automatic Electric called their telephones so equipped "Monophones."

[DSO17]

     Many B&O track gangs had portable phones. Along with the phone would be several wooden pole sections which could be fitted together to reach up into the "telegraph wires". The top section had a hook attached to the pole and another hook on a flexible arm that extended a foot or so from the pole. Each hook had a wire coming down from it. The Employee Timetable had listings of which two lineside wires were the phone for each section of the railroad (they were always next to each other). You would stick the pole up into the wires and grab one wire with the flexible hook and then grab the other wire with the hook on the pole. Attach the wires coming down from the hooks to the terminals on the phone and be ready to go. Like Army field phones I don't think it mattered which wire went to which terminal.

[csxengineer98]

i have been thinking about selling it..but would like to know at least its age and a good ballpark value...

csx engineer 

[Modelcar]

....Looks a bit similar to an Army field telephone that connected to wires wherever they were available.  {Korean War era}.

[tree68]

ok..see if this works..i uploaded some photos to flickr of the phone that i have..maybe some of you can shed some light on it... hope this link works...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28176561@N08/

csx engineer 

Activated that link for you.

Interesting device - can't say that I've ever seen one like it.

[csxengineer98]

ok..see if this works..i uploaded some photos to flickr of the phone that i have..maybe some of you can shed some light on it... hope this link works...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28176561@N08/

csx engineer 

[SFbrkmn]

My plans are not to put a phone in it, just display the box on a post. It'll set next to the SF derail sign. Not to change the topic but the size of portable/pakset radios has certainly changed over the yrs. In 1984 the Mopac McPherson local began using radios. These were shoulder starp military style that was big, bulky & certainly had a be a pain to carry around. By no means were these hand held sets.

[tree68]

that one is close to what i have but not 100%... i dont have any website to post pics i ook last night of it.. or i would post them up...

csx engineer 

Email them to me and I'll host them for you...

[csmith9474]

 

Thanks for the info.  Sidetrack Tommy woke up from his beauty sleep and we talked about it a few minutes ago.  He has permission to get it, but UP wants to know when we do it.  He says they probably want someone there when we get it.  We've got trailers a lot longer than 10', so I guess I can rule out any problem we'd have with weight. 

 

mike 

Hey Mike, check your PM.

[miketx]

....Over in my home area in Pennsylvania on the S&C of ex B&O, one could see those concrete phone {shelters, booths}, along that railroad.....I know of one person that has one on his home property....They were similar to octagon shaped and perhaps 6 or 7' in height.  Don't know how anyone would have moved them off RR ROW to get them home....Surely, they had pretty good weight.

Right across our property line on the sunset line, there is a similar booth to what you're describing, except that it's round, witha pointed roof.  It would remind  you of a rocket.  There is also one just like it at the railroad museum in New Braunfels, TX.  I think we could have it for the railpark in Flatonia if we asked, but like you said, they must be awful heavy.  My stepsons have a tractor, but where it sits it would be hard to get to.  I've never actually gone up and looked at it closely, believe it or not, but that part of our property has a large copperhead population, and I can't stand sneaky snakes!

 

m

While I was a volunteer at the Texas Transportation Museum, we got the booth that was in Mcqueeney at the switch that leads to SMI and Standard Gypsum (or whatever it is called now). There is some really interesting graffiti on the iside of the thing (from railroad employees). They are a lot lighter than what I would have thought.

 

Thanks Smitty, it's good to know they are probably lighter than they look.  I think I'll run back down there when it cools off and see what the inside looks like.  Maybe this won't be the chore I thought it would be.

 

mike

They were able to load it on to a lighter tandem axle trailer and it hauled with no problems (if I remember right, it was a 10' trailer). There are some different numbers written down for reference on the inside of the booth, but the wooden door was gone, I guess from rot. Good luck with your "venture"!! I will call down there tonight and see what all was involved with moving it. I wasn't personally involved with the move.

Thanks for the info.  Sidetrack Tommy woke up from his beauty sleep and we talked about it a few minutes ago.  He has permission to get it, but UP wants to know when we do it.  He says they probably want someone there when we get it.  We've got trailers a lot longer than 10', so I guess I can rule out any problem we'd have with weight. 

 

mike 

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

   

that one is close to what i have but not 100%... i dont have any website to post pics i ook last night of it.. or i would post them up...

csx engineer 

CSX  -

I had that problem, too, until last week when I created an account (free) with Google's "Picasa" host service.  It looks like it will work OK as long as you either have a reasonably fast upload connection, will not be posting many photos, or can wait while they transmit . . . For more information on it, go to:

http://picasa.google.com/

It wasn't too difficult, and if I have troubles, there's always someone around work who knows enough more and is glad to help out - probably true at your shop, too.

Good luck, if you try it (or any other).

- Paul North.

[csmith9474]

....Over in my home area in Pennsylvania on the S&C of ex B&O, one could see those concrete phone {shelters, booths}, along that railroad.....I know of one person that has one on his home property....They were similar to octagon shaped and perhaps 6 or 7' in height.  Don't know how anyone would have moved them off RR ROW to get them home....Surely, they had pretty good weight.

Right across our property line on the sunset line, there is a similar booth to what you're describing, except that it's round, witha pointed roof.  It would remind  you of a rocket.  There is also one just like it at the railroad museum in New Braunfels, TX.  I think we could have it for the railpark in Flatonia if we asked, but like you said, they must be awful heavy.  My stepsons have a tractor, but where it sits it would be hard to get to.  I've never actually gone up and looked at it closely, believe it or not, but that part of our property has a large copperhead population, and I can't stand sneaky snakes!

 

m

While I was a volunteer at the Texas Transportation Museum, we got the booth that was in Mcqueeney at the switch that leads to SMI and Standard Gypsum (or whatever it is called now). There is some really interesting graffiti on the iside of the thing (from railroad employees). They are a lot lighter than what I would have thought.

 

Thanks Smitty, it's good to know they are probably lighter than they look.  I think I'll run back down there when it cools off and see what the inside looks like.  Maybe this won't be the chore I thought it would be.

 

mike

They were able to load it on to a lighter tandem axle trailer and it hauled with no problems (if I remember right, it was a 10' trailer). There are some different numbers written down for reference on the inside of the booth, but the wooden door was gone, I guess from rot. Good luck with your "venture"!! I will call down there tonight and see what all was involved with moving it. I wasn't personally involved with the move.

[miketx]

....Over in my home area in Pennsylvania on the S&C of ex B&O, one could see those concrete phone {shelters, booths}, along that railroad.....I know of one person that has one on his home property....They were similar to octagon shaped and perhaps 6 or 7' in height.  Don't know how anyone would have moved them off RR ROW to get them home....Surely, they had pretty good weight.

Right across our property line on the sunset line, there is a similar booth to what you're describing, except that it's round, witha pointed roof.  It would remind  you of a rocket.  There is also one just like it at the railroad museum in New Braunfels, TX.  I think we could have it for the railpark in Flatonia if we asked, but like you said, they must be awful heavy.  My stepsons have a tractor, but where it sits it would be hard to get to.  I've never actually gone up and looked at it closely, believe it or not, but that part of our property has a large copperhead population, and I can't stand sneaky snakes!

 

m

While I was a volunteer at the Texas Transportation Museum, we got the booth that was in Mcqueeney at the switch that leads to SMI and Standard Gypsum (or whatever it is called now). There is some really interesting graffiti on the iside of the thing (from railroad employees). They are a lot lighter than what I would have thought.

 

Thanks Smitty, it's good to know they are probably lighter than they look.  I think I'll run back down there when it cools off and see what the inside looks like.  Maybe this won't be the chore I thought it would be.

 

mike

[MP173]

No railroad phones in my collection, but I do have a Morse code key.

Also, one of the best railroad photos I have seen was in the book "The Rebirth of the Missour Pacific" by H. Craig Minor.  A photo depicts the CEO (Dowling Jenks?) at a washout site in Texas.  He is on a trackside phone with someone.  It is obvious from the picture that he was all business...a major dude, if you will.

ed

[Nagrom1]

.....Mike:

The Copperhead population would certainly keep me at a distance....Have no use for them....at all....!!!

Well, Quentin, I was out and about a couple of hours ago, so I ran down there.  I got out and was going to climb up the grade to get a better look, but quit, as it's quite steep there, and I didn't want to fall on one of our brown scaled friends.  But, I bet the thing weighs a TON!  It's about 7 ft. tall, about 3 ft. across, solid concrete, I'm guessing three inches thick, including the roof, and you can tell they poured it into a footing in the ground, no telling how deep.  the bottom was about eye level from the right of way road.  I told my wife about it, and she said it would be worth a try with the tractor, but then what?  We have plenty of trailers on the place, to carry it, but I got to wondering how we'd deal with it once we got it to Flatonia. I was gonna talk to Sidetrack Tommy about it, but he was taking his beauty sleep and I told his wife not to bother him, it wasn't that important.   But this thread has gotten me interested in doing something with it, as it isn't something you see all the time, and having one that close to our house and the possibility of putting it in the railpark is a cool idea. 

 

Off the subject:  Why do you call yourself Model Car?  Do you still do them?  If you do, do you have any pictures?  If I had a dollar back for every one I've built in my life, I'd be a rich man, but I'm down to four of my favorites.

 

mike

 

I imgaine your probably spent more than a dollar on each one. Imagine how rich you'd be if you didn't do them at all, lol. Then again, same could be said for me about other stuff.

[csmith9474]

....Over in my home area in Pennsylvania on the S&C of ex B&O, one could see those concrete phone {shelters, booths}, along that railroad.....I know of one person that has one on his home property....They were similar to octagon shaped and perhaps 6 or 7' in height.  Don't know how anyone would have moved them off RR ROW to get them home....Surely, they had pretty good weight.

Right across our property line on the sunset line, there is a similar booth to what you're describing, except that it's round, witha pointed roof.  It would remind  you of a rocket.  There is also one just like it at the railroad museum in New Braunfels, TX.  I think we could have it for the railpark in Flatonia if we asked, but like you said, they must be awful heavy.  My stepsons have a tractor, but where it sits it would be hard to get to.  I've never actually gone up and looked at it closely, believe it or not, but that part of our property has a large copperhead population, and I can't stand sneaky snakes!

 

m

While I was a volunteer at the Texas Transportation Museum, we got the booth that was in Mcqueeney at the switch that leads to SMI and Standard Gypsum (or whatever it is called now). There is some really interesting graffiti on the iside of the thing (from railroad employees). They are a lot lighter than what I would have thought.

[Modelcar]

.....Mike:

I've been automotive oriented all my life even from a small child...{a long time ago}....and then my working life was with a major Corp. here in Muncie and Pennsylvania and Az. {testing}.  Automotive power train products.

I suppose I'm or have been a "car guy" for a long time and to get a little closer to the subject I've collected quite a few {die-cast} models.

I'm not set up to put photos on here but could send a pic or two to your email if you care to provide it {in a PM note}.

Item.....Back to the Copperheads.  50 plus years ago back in Bedford, Co., Pennsylvania, on a sunday fishing outing I was climbing up a road embankment, almost on my hands and knees as it was steep and bingo.....ran right up to a coiled C H and it jumped but not as fast as I did....I haven't fished since.

[miketx]

.....Mike:

The Copperhead population would certainly keep me at a distance....Have no use for them....at all....!!!

Well, Quentin, I was out and about a couple of hours ago, so I ran down there.  I got out and was going to climb up the grade to get a better look, but quit, as it's quite steep there, and I didn't want to fall on one of our brown scaled friends.  But, I bet the thing weighs a TON!  It's about 7 ft. tall, about 3 ft. across, solid concrete, I'm guessing three inches thick, including the roof, and you can tell they poured it into a footing in the ground, no telling how deep.  the bottom was about eye level from the right of way road.  I told my wife about it, and she said it would be worth a try with the tractor, but then what?  We have plenty of trailers on the place, to carry it, but I got to wondering how we'd deal with it once we got it to Flatonia. I was gonna talk to Sidetrack Tommy about it, but he was taking his beauty sleep and I told his wife not to bother him, it wasn't that important.   But this thread has gotten me interested in doing something with it, as it isn't something you see all the time, and having one that close to our house and the possibility of putting it in the railpark is a cool idea. 

 

Off the subject:  Why do you call yourself Model Car?  Do you still do them?  If you do, do you have any pictures?  If I had a dollar back for every one I've built in my life, I'd be a rich man, but I'm down to four of my favorites.

 

mike

[csxengineer98]

Searching for "railway phone" I found this photo of a portable unit labeled as a "Railway Phone", which is on the "Virtual Museum Canada" website, apparently from the Museum of Telecommunications at LaSalle, Quebec:

http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/pm_v2.php?id=search_record_detail&fl=0&lg=English&ex=00000267&hs=0&sy=itm&st=&ci=99&rd=74621

Clicking on the photo should result in an enlarged image, and clicking on the "TEXT ATTACHMENT" should result in a brief explanation in a pop-up window, which is consistent with the previous posts.

- Paul North.

that one is close to what i have but not 100%... i dont have any website to post pics i ook last night of it.. or i would post them up...

csx engineer 

[Paul_D_North_Jr]

Searching for "railway phone" I found this photo of a portable unit labeled as a "Railway Phone", which is on the "Virtual Museum Canada" website, apparently from the Museum of Telecommunications at LaSalle, Quebec:

http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/pm_v2.php?id=search_record_detail&fl=0&lg=English&ex=00000267&hs=0&sy=itm&st=&ci=99&rd=74621

Clicking on the photo should result in an enlarged image, and clicking on the "TEXT ATTACHMENT" should result in a brief explanation in a pop-up window, which is consistent with the previous posts.

- Paul North.

[Modelcar]

.....Mike:

The Copperhead population would certainly keep me at a distance....Have no use for them....at all....!!!

[Expresslane]

 I have been looking for a new place to live and one place the man had a phone box on an old pole with a cross arm. No phone in the box. I remember some phones on the CNW had a crank ringer. You had to crank so many long and so many short rings to get the tower you needed to talk to. The dispatcher phones were just an open line. You picked up the phone and listened to hear any talking and if no one was one the line you said hello dispatcher. Most anyone on that line at a tower or station with that line on a speaker could hear what you said. In the phone box there was notes with the code for each tower on that line. I would guess this is all gone now.

[miketx]

....Over in my home area in Pennsylvania on the S&C of ex B&O, one could see those concrete phone {shelters, booths}, along that railroad.....I know of one person that has one on his home property....They were similar to octagon shaped and perhaps 6 or 7' in height.  Don't know how anyone would have moved them off RR ROW to get them home....Surely, they had pretty good weight.

Right across our property line on the sunset line, there is a similar booth to what you're describing, except that it's round, witha pointed roof.  It would remind  you of a rocket.  There is also one just like it at the railroad museum in New Braunfels, TX.  I think we could have it for the railpark in Flatonia if we asked, but like you said, they must be awfully heavy.  My stepsons have a tractor, but where the booth sits it would be hard to get to.  I've never actually gone up and looked at it closely, believe it or not, but that part of our property has a large copperhead population, and I can't stand sneaky snakes!

m

[miketx]

....Over in my home area in Pennsylvania on the S&C of ex B&O, one could see those concrete phone {shelters, booths}, along that railroad.....I know of one person that has one on his home property....They were similar to octagon shaped and perhaps 6 or 7' in height.  Don't know how anyone would have moved them off RR ROW to get them home....Surely, they had pretty good weight.

Right across our property line on the sunset line, there is a similar booth to what you're describing, except that it's round, witha pointed roof.  It would remind  you of a rocket.  There is also one just like it at the railroad museum in New Braunfels, TX.  I think we could have it for the railpark in Flatonia if we asked, but like you said, they must be awful heavy.  My stepsons have a tractor, but where it sits it would be hard to get to.  I've never actually gone up and looked at it closely, believe it or not, but that part of our property has a large copperhead population, and I can't stand sneaky snakes!

 

m