vlbg wrote:
>
> The Cameron Family wrote:
> >
> > This is the kind of detail that's especially helpful for us modellers
> > who have no personal experience of train operations. Can anyone comment
> > on the kind of signalling and train control in use on the K-line between
> > Burlington and St. Louis at different times? According to my 1963
> > timetable there were parts of that stretch under Centralized Traffic
> > Control. Other parts (including Keokuk, which I'm most interested in)
> > were Manual Block System. Can anyone tell us a bit about what those
> > terms mean and how they were applied operationally? A note in the
> > timetable also says "No train order signal at Keokuk" -- can anyone tell
> > me what that would mean as well? Thanks.
> > Duncan Cameron
> >
> Duncan:
>
> I do not know much about the K-Line but your last question is easy.
>
> CB&Q Rule 221 states:
>
> "A fixed signal must be used at each train order office except
> as otherwise indicated by timetable."
>
> That is the first sentence in a rather long rule that covers what
> requirements govern the Operator and Train Crews with regard to
> train order signals. Does it also say that "All trains must receive
> Clearance Form A"? If it does, then by simple logic there is no
> reason to have a train order signal.
>
Duncan -
To elaborate: A "train order signal", by definition, is a signaling
device affixed to, or associated with, a station issuing train orders.
In the old days, it was often a two-sided semaphore (usually the
opposite of the block signals on the main line - i.e. lower quadrant
versus upper quadrant) or somthing like a switchstand (usually used on
the Q), which indicated that the oncoming train must stop and receive a
dispatcher order (I forget whether it was the 19 or the 31 order which
had to be signed for - the other could be taken "on the fly".)
In later years, it could have been a pair of non-block searchlight
signals, which was the case at the train-order station in Mt. Pleasant,
IA when I lived there in the 50's.
If you have Corbin's "Across Iowa on the K&W and H&S", you will note
that the photograph of Keokuk "Union Station" has no such signal.
I'm not sure about Keokuk, but I was told that Shopton (Ft. Madison) on
the AT&SF was a non-train-order-signal station, because all trains,
freight or passenger, had a mandatory stop to check for orders. It may
have been the same for Keokuk on the Q.
Marshall
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