marshall wrote:
>
> 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
>
Marshall:
"Old days"? Got to pick on us old men. When the Agency at Cochrane WI
was closed in June of 1983, (I was last Agent-Operator), the maintainer
switched off the power to the light in the semaphore and to make sure
took out the bulb and lenses. The next day the Signal Gang came and
pulled down the mast and removed the levers from the building.
I think the one at the Pepin WI Depot Museum is the one from Cochrane.
I know the Mail Crane at Pepin came from Cochrane.
Russ
|