For a rail preservation audio project, I need a little guidance on the general ambiance, sounds, and the workings of the interlocking tower circa 1945.

My very limited understanding is that when a train entered an interlocking block, a bell would ring in the tower to indicate its presence and a related light on the interlocking board would illuminate. What would else happened in a tower? Would the operator ever communicate by phone or other methods with stations, train crews, etc...? What would be the nature of conversations?

Thanks in advance.

Here is a video clip--happens to be British--showing a mechanical interlocker in action, with communications to other towers by bell signals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEQKy_QAXNI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdKWVrBTZR0

Your basic comments about American practice are correct; trains would announce their approach with a bell. The bells would be located in the tower to reflect direction of approach, and in the case of lines with multiple tracks, would have bells of different pitches to indicate the track.

Communication in the classic era would be by telephone or by telegraph to other towers or to train order offices, and to the dispatcher. Particularly in the telegraph era, the line was all "open," in effect a party line, and everybody could listen in to everybody else. This gave operators the chance to keep up on things happening elsewhere and in some cases to plan for movements.

Operators and dispatchers would contact the individuals they wanted with a bell code in the telephone system. This was similar to the bell codes used with magneto (crank) telephone systems in home use. One tower might have two short rings as its call sign, another might have a short, a long, and a short. It might seem there would be a limited number of calls available, but keep in mind, in the period we're speaking of, you are only dealing with one division, and it wouldn't have that many towers and stations, at least not when compared to the system as a whole.

My experience in listening in at towers (when you could still do that!) was that the conversations by telephone were rather laconic and laid back. This included the transmission of train orders, at least partially because it was so routine. At the same time, though, I don't recall anyone looking bored or sleepy when a train order was coming through.

An important thing to remember--the people writing train orders spell out everything. An order might read, and be spoken, something like "Train No. 6, S-i-x, Engine 202, t-w-o-z-e-r-o-t-w-o, to meet Train No. 3, t-h-r-e-e, Engine 148, O-n-e-f-o-u-r-e-i-g-h-t, at Shenandoah, S-h-e-n-a-n-d-o-a-h." The dispatcher would transmit this order, reading it and spelling it like that, and then the operator would read it back, complete with all the spelling. This was a check on making sure the order was transmitted with no errors, and was a practice that dated back to telegraph days. Only after the order was copied by the operator and read back, with spelling, to the dispatcher, with the dispatcher acknowledging the report was read back, would the order be considered completed.

With the spelling, the reading back, the extra steps you might need to take to make sure a track is clear and will remain clear for a movement that might be against traffic, and other things, it's easy to see how CTC and automatic block signals really sped things up when they were introduced.

Ah, a place I've been--Miller Tower, call letter "R," at Cherry Run, W.Va., on CSX, formerly the B&O:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8PEdmSGuJ0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx8N-Z-StJ4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1e-Qvbckcc

Patterson Creek, call letters "FN:"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwP_ZhuNcpw

West Cumbo, W.Va., call letter "W:"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR_1H3IN4m4

Hard to believe things have changed so much--just check out the consist of Amtrak's Capitol Limited:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iSnt9kPnlM

Interesting question. Back in the era you refer to the tower operator was the link between the dispatcher and what was happening out "on the high iron".

Depending on the RR of course, but before widespread CTC the tower operators where the "feedback loop" that kept the dispatchers informed about what was happening out on the line.

I believe that the tower operators reported regularly to the dispatches (via RR owned phone lines in that era) about train status;

"Train 20 by tower D at 10:02", or;

"Train 402 late, not at this tower yet".

And the dispatcher issued information out to the tower operator;

"Train NYT-2 is heavy tonight, try not to stop him", or;

"Train BD-3 is going to wait for cars at yard Y anyway so you can hold him for an hour or so".

And the tower operators gave the dispatchers immediate feedback when things went to heck;

"Train VF had a hot-box at MP 743 and he's cooling off now, we need to route train # 89 around him at crossover 34".

Back then (depending on the RR) the main way to communicate between train crews and Tower Operator/Dispatcher was; line side phones (every mile or so) and hooping up orders (paper instructions). So the tower operator may receive a phone call from the dispatcher something like;

"Put up some orders for train 99 to stop at siding THW and pickup cars #98654 & #14592". or;

"Train 47 to stop at Tower 83 until Train RHY passes".

It was a detailed process with formal paper orders (Form 19 or Form D) used to communicate precise instructions from the dispatcher to the train crew with the tower operator in the loop.

Of course as RR's added radios the need for paper orders went down, but the crews were still required to "read back" a radioed order from the tower or dispatcher to make sure it was received correctly.

At busy locations the tower actually had a "director" and several "levermen" to route the trains into/out of the station. At the passenger station in Buffalo NY there where motorized chairs to move the "levermen" back and forth along all the levers (towers #47 & #48 near BCT).

At these larger towers the instructions might be something like;

"Train 48 arriving on main #2, route to platform #7",

or;

"Train 26 ready to depart platform #3, highball him over to Main #1"


Cheers, Kevin.

audio record for CB&Q 5632 has a recording done in the Mendota IL. tower with the operator speaking, buzzers going off, levers getting pulled, and 5632 approaching running past and leaving.

One of the museums in Indiana preserved a tower and its levers, you may want to check with them and get live recordings of lever pulling. I recall visiting a tower as a kid in West Lafayette full of levers.

I remember visiting towers back in the 1960s and 70s, hearing the "ka chunk!" of the pistol-grip controls and even seeing the "armstrong" levers at State Line Tower near Hammond, Ind. One of the phones at Slauson Tower, where the Pacific Electric Long Beach Line crossed the Santa Fe Harbor Subdivision, had small, square sounders like miniature cowbells.

I forget which one this is, but I have that album... I recall it being a topic of conversation between my uncle Dick and myself back when I was in Galesburg in regards to the local dialect.

As I remember it, where the tower operator says (what to everyone else is) the word, "Okay". What he actually says, in classic midwesterner fashion, is "Yo Gay".

Related (sort of) when an order was made complete, it's my understanding that it was "OK'ed" by dispatch... by the transmission of the letter "R" by telegraph key... dit-dah-dit.

Rod Whitehead

Have you contacted anyone at the Harrisburg Chapter NRHS? -- they've done some pretty neat stuff with the tower they've preserved.

Bob H

Look up "A Great Railroad at Work" on YouTube. It's a 1942-era pic about the New Haven and has a couple of tower sequences with audio-- Groton and GCT.

The CB&Q 5632 Mendota tower cut is on "Sunday Only", it's on CD.

Another one is the old Allan Botto recording of RDG's Iron Horse Rambles, with a tower sequence at Perkiomen Jct (I think).

You might want to communicate with the South Norwalk (CT) Signal Tower Museum/Western Conn NRHS Chapter; they have an Armstrong machine in place inside their preserved NYNH&H tower and may have some recordings of it.

Howard P.

One "feature" of towers that might be of interest - they had rather poor acoustics for audio - perhaps due to the combination of high ceilings and solid walls. Radio transmissions tended to have a slight (but very distinctive) echo. I don't know whether this also applied to 1945 era telephone equipment.

Also, the bell to announce the arrival of a train, had at least two types of ring. At an Erie tower where I grew up, it was a single loud "ding". However, New York Central towers (so I've read), had a continuous ringing bell that had to be acknowledged by the operator to shut it off.

Armstrong interlockers made a fairly loud "snap" when the levers latched. On a summer day, that sound carried quite a distance - maybe 100 yards or more. Also, the rods themselves made a noise, but were fairly muted, especially if they were well lubricated.

JR

John -

The previous signal "guru" at HVRM got a railroad bell from somewhere and installed it in our depot building. It is very distinct with one very loud "clang" and is maybe even ex-Erie since he was a particular fan of that railroad. I am not sure if such bells were installed in the operators bay in depots or not, but when he installed the bell, we had not moved Grasselli Tower to the museum, nor was its eventual donation even yet on the horizon. Perhaps someday, we might move the bell to the tower if that is a more appropriate location. I believe I have heard the spoken word "he's on the bell!" used to signify a train arriving at a tower, or perhaps a depot.

Les Beckman (Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum/North Judson, Indiana)

I was a block operator on the PRSL in the early 1970's and the equipment except for the two way radio was pretty much 1930s box stock. The block line and dispatcher's line were on the desk with an old style switchboard that was Bakelite with toggle switches and lamps all activated by a foot switch that went click-bang every time you talked. The dispatcher lines stayed open all the time so you heard all the activity plus train crews signing up with the dispatcher. Block lines to the next interlocking station were 'private' or just between you and the other operator. You would ring them with the toggle on the switchboard which would buzz on the other end and activate a lamp so you knew where it came from. We also had Bell lines for some applications such as calling or receiving calls from yardmaster at some towers or if you had to call police or fire for some reason.

Chatter was kept to a minimum for obvious reasons on the dispatch line with the dispatcher being the Big Kahuna as far as our job was concerned. Blocklines could be listened to by the dispatcher if he wanted to do so and as well anyone on that section who picked up a block phone. Train orders were relayed by dispatchers on their line to the operators and by operators to train crews by blockline, Bell line and radio with the spelling thingy being done always.

Interlocking machines not only had their own sounds even being built by the same maker but their own smells from oil used for the sliding parts plus contact cleaners We had two Armstrong machines, one at Wildwood Jct. and one at Tuckahoe which by the way is still with us. The whole wood tower would shake when you pulled switches but the locks and signals were actually electric after having been converted from semaphores. Pull the lock, snap bang, pull your switch lever...snap-bang, restore the lock..more snap-bang, unlock the signal(s), pull the signal(s), restore signal lock was the procedure. Wildwood Jct. was ground level in an end section of the station but was still rod activated semaphores.
Pneumatic machines were less dramatic but still had a sound especially if you were setting up the railroad with alternate running tracks pulling off multiple switches and signals. Still had the locks to run through and don't mess up as then you had to go through the process of winding and waiting for the rundown clock to rest the machine.

Never ever never ever screw up when setting up for a passenger train (we called them lines for some reason). You din't want to get hauled up on the carpet for hanging a line whatever you did. To this day I still run everyday personal operations as by timetable authority and I am never late...must maintain the schedule real or imagined.

Typical talk included receiving train orders of course, then reporting passage, leaving and arrival of trains to the dispatcher and the next tower. Every effort was made to keep communication short and to the point while providing pertinent information to keep trains moving smoothly. Notifying the dispatcher of special moves and perhaps having the ask permissions as laid out in the Book of Rules happened on occasion too. Application or removal of blocking devices on the machine were noted to the dispatcher as they occurred. Everything except what you ate for lunch was documented on the train sheet both on your's and the train disrupter's. Book of Rules exam cards, your Book of Rules, Timetables and special rules book had to be in possession at all times on duty. There would be a posting board somewhere in the tower with General Orders and Notices which you had to read and if applicable add pasted pages in your timetables.

Train orders after written if to be hung on to a train crew would have to be rolled up with a Clearance Card, tied with a double loop knot then place into the bamboo hoop, then you'd walk outside to a suitable place along the railroad so you could hang them on but not get hit. It was a learned judgement and sometimes wasn't easy. RDCs were the toughest as they had no nose to judge by. The Engineman would let you know by waving you back if you were too close. Two hoops for most trains would be the norm with one for the headend and one for the cabin car with one hoop for RDCs both sets for Conductor and Engineman being tied up in one roll. We didn't have train order racks, all being hung on by hand after lighting the train order signal and putting out the train order flag in the tower window. This all while the other stuff of moving trains was going on making it for a busy time depending on what trick you were working.

Towers were not clean places with years of grime, cigar and cigarette smoke,spilled coffees and the ever present slight urine smell. Add the smell of wood tower structures, creosote baking in the summer sun just outside, various oils used throughout the interlocking plant and in many cases on the Seashore Lines the smell of the Jersey Pines wafting through the open windows.

Thanks, Jeff. I agree! Thanks, all. Lots of good stuff to study up on.

KL

I (NYCRRson) wrote;

"Of course as RR's added radios the need for paper orders went down, but the crews were still required to "read back" a radioed order from the tower or dispatcher to make sure it was received correctly."

Then I remembered a wreck just a few miles from my boyhood home. This was on the "Niagara Branch" (Buffalo to Niagara Falls, NY). This was shortly after radios where "added" to RR operations.

The story (as related by my father) was that the dispatcher told the crew of a "local" (via radio) to "stay in the clear"; what the crew heard was "get in the clear". The crew of the local proceeded to go back to the yard (about three miles away). The dispatcher wanted them to stay in the siding they where switching so a way freight could pass them.

Unfortunately the crew "getting in the clear" was on the main and got hit by the way freight (tragically at one of only a few bridges on the line). Cost a few lives.

After that wreck the RR decided that dispatcher instructions via radio must be "read back verbatim" to avoid these sorts of confusion. Before that radio instructions where not treated as a formal paper form "D" or form "19" was.

Adding Radios made things quite a bit safer, but there where a few "wrinkles" to work out along the way.

Cheers, Kevin.

I've never heard that, but it sounds neat. Supposedly those Q steamers put on a show in the day.



This one I did hear years ago, and Kelly, being the movie man he is, would appreciate the little story that's in that recording. As I recall, it goes something like this, complete with a duet with a Reading T-1 (2124?) and the operator at Park Junction, which is in the Philadelphia area.

(Bell ringing)

"Grgleltrwrorgle." (unintelligible radio transmission)

2124 (faintly, in distance) "Waah! Waah!"

(Levers snap and click as the towerman goes to work lining up a route; he must be throwing at least a dozen levers, or at least making a dozen lever moves. While he is doing this we still hear noises on the radio, which also has a hum in it--something else to be included in the sounds we want to recreate. At the end of this lever throwing, we hear his footsteps going from one end of the tower to the other, where he sits down to ring the dispatcher.)

(Two short rings accompanied by a small whirring sound--he's cranking the magneto telephone.)

Towerman and 2124: "Hello, this is WAAAH!!PKWAAAH!!PK!!WAAAH!! WAAAAH!! I'm having some trouble with the switches account of the hot weather. . .yeah. . .ok. . .ok."

2124: "WAH! WAH!"

While on the subject of the Reading: An element in some of the stories I was told about that road was that some of the Pennsylvania Dutchmen the road had for dispatchers and operators would report movements and even give orders in German. This may have been easier than speaking in English; supposedly some of those fellows had accents so thick you could barely understand them, and of course there was that often reversed (to us) German grammar, too. These fellows preferred telegraph for just that reason--no accents or alternate grammar to confuse and confound the Englishers in Morse code.