Telegraph lines

[Murphy Siding]

    I read something that said coast to coast telegraph lines were in place by 1861.  The 1st western transcontinental line wasn't finished until 1869.  Would those telegraph lines to the west coast follow the same route(s) as the later railroad(s) did?

     By that time, 1861, was telegraph use widespread in the railroad industry?

[Railway Man]

 The first transcontinental telegraph line closely followed the Pony Express Route.  Here's a map.

http://www.telegraph-history.org/transcontinental-telegraph/trscon1.htm

RWM

[Victrola1]

 What was the relationship between the railroads and Western Union before the rise of Bell?

Old photos show Western Union agent signs at rural depots. I have read stories of crowds gathering at their small town depot for news of scheduled events like prize fights. Blow by blow reports would be translated from dots and dashes. 

Did Western Union own major trunk lines of wire? If so, did they follow railroad right of ways in the East and Midwest where rural roads existed? What about the far West, where there was no farm to market road network? 

[mudchicken]

In most cases (far from all), they were tennants on the railroad's pole line and under contract had the railroad delivering messages at rural locations. In major areas, the relays went directly to WU.

Bell/telco often leased spac on railroad pole lines as well and later went underground as the pole lines went away starting in the 1980's.

[wjstix]

Generally the public would only use the local depot to send and receive telegrams in towns that were too small to have a separate telegraph company office. For example, in the 1930's my dad was a telegrapher for Postal Telegraph (a private company) in Galesburg IL. They had their own office, and he recalled getting a rush telegram for Phil Harris and Alice Faye (radio stars of the day), asking the company to run the telegraph over to the ATSF depot because they were scheduled to arrive in a few minutes on the Super Chief. They couldn't send a private telegram directly to the depot.

[Deggesty]

wjstix

Generally the public would only use the local depot to send and receive telegrams in towns that were too small to have a separate telegraph company office.

True, in my hometown (population about 600), the Southern agent also handled Western Union work. One day, as I was going about my newspaper route, the agent asked me to take a collect telegram to a certain person and bring the money to the agent; the recipient refused to accept the telegram, saying that he knew what it was about.

According to one item, "The First Train Dispatching by Telegraph," in A Treasury of Railroad Folklore, Charles Minot, a superintendent on the Erie, was on a train in the fall of 1851, and his train was delayed at Turner's [now Harriman] (47 miles from New York)  by an opposing train that was running late. After learning that the opposing train had not yet reached the next station he sent a telegram to the agent at the next station, ordering that the opposing train be held until his train arrived, and wrote an order to his engineer and conductor, telling them to run to the next station, regardless of opposing trains. The engineer refused, Mr. Minot said he would run the engine, and the engineer went to the back seat of the rear car. At the next station, Mr. Minot learned that the opposing train had not reached the next station on, and he sent another telegram that gave his train the right of way. He conitnued this process until his train and the other train entered Port Jervis (87 miles from New York) at the same time. From then on, dispatching by telegraph became the practice.

Johnny

[ValleyX]

Really, this isn't the topic but when the telegraph/signal/phone lines started disappearing from the American right-of-ways, they looked so bare. 

[AgentKid]

mudchicken

they were tennants on the railroad's pole line and under contract had the railroad delivering messages at rural locations. In major areas, the relays went directly to WU.

 

Thank you very much. I've always wondered what the relationship was between WU and the RR's in the US.

I can remember my Dad copying and delivering telegrams before I knew what they were. In Canada the railways had their own telegraph services that used the same line as the dispatcher would if the phone went out. Only in the largest locations would there be a separate "commercial telegraph office". In the case of Calgary, the commercial telegraph office call-sign was "CY" and the dispatchers office was "CG"

The first job my Dad had on the CPR was in the Calgary commercial telegraph office from Oct. 1947 to May 1948, when he became an Operator. My Dad talked about the two offices and used the call-signs for the rest of his life. He was always very proud of his ability to be a commercial operator.

Bruce