Dear List --
I posted this question on the DSP&P list a couple weeks ago, but so far no
one there has been able to unravel the Mystery of the Timetable Symbols.
These symbols I'm trying to decipher must be pretty common among American
railroads (and of course the C&S was a Burlington subsidiary), so I'm
hopeful someone on our list can clue me in:
On my reproduction of a 1922 Colorado & Southern Employees' Timetable (for
the narrow gauge subdivisions), all the tables have one column for Letter
symbols indicating facilities at each station (some stations have no
symbols in this column, others have as many as 10 symbols). There is no key
anywhere on the timetable explaining what these letter symbols mean, and
there is no further explanation. I also have a reproduction of the C&S's
1902 timetable, which elaborates slightly, explaining only that this column
indicates the "...location of Scales, Water, Fuel, Turning Stations, and
Wyes."
It seems pretty clear what some of the Letter symbols must mean. And I can
check some of my hunches against information from other sources about where
the railroad in fact had most of those facilities. On that basis, I feel
quite sure, for instance, that:
C = coal
W = water
T = turntable
Y = wye
Yd = yard
However, there are a half dozen other symbols that appear at various places
in this same column which are not at all obvious to me, and where my
knowledge of the railroad hasn't helped me guess. Does anyone know what any
of the following symbols mean?
B
D (*)
F (+)
K
O (**)
R
* (I notice the symbol "D" only occurs after "Y," so maybe it is not a
separate symbol at all; maybe YD = Yd).
+ ("F" is not "flagstop." The lower-case symbols "f" for flagstop and "s"
for a regular scheduled station stop appear in a separate column).
** ("O" can't be "oil" -- at least not locomotive fuel oil -- as there were
no C&S narrow gauge oil-burners before 1930).
One respondent suggested that "D" might be an ash pit (D for Dump?), and
"B" might be a scale (B for Balance?), and that some of the others might
refer to section houses, agents, or similar facilities/personnel -- but
those were all just guesses.
Thanks for any and all help.
Jonathan Harris
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