Leo and list
I presume your request to "tell us what it is and how it works" refers to my
post re the JUMBO BOOK.
I was hoping someone else with better pre computer yard office experience
would come on and do this as the task of explaining may be greater than the
task of getting the book posted...I'll try to explain the purpose and what I
can remember of how it worked...John Mitchell and any other old yard clerk
types...I'm looking for help and any corrections will be accepted without
malice.
The JB was just that..a large book...probably 18 x 24 or so....It's purpose
was to provide an "in and out" record for all cars going through a particular
yard.
This is where I may fall down in the description, as I've been thinking about
it for the past couple of days and trying to get it straight in my
mind...Here's how I remember it.
Down the right hand side was a series of number tabs sequenced 0-9....Within
each digit tab were another series of tabs numbered 0-9 and within this
additional series was another series numbered 0-9...I think that there were
three which would provide access to the last three digits of the car number.
The source of information for entering cars into the JB was inbound and
outbound train lists. On each page was a series of horizontal lines with
horizontal headings across the top of the page...On the left side would be
INITIAL...then FIRST THREE DIGITS (or more if necessary) then IN
(Train Number and date) then OUT (train number and date).
Here's how it would work....Let's enter a fictional car PRR 289756. The
clerk would open the main series tab to 6,...then within that series he would
open to 5, and within that series he would open to 7. On the left side
according to the headings as shown he would enter PRR 289.... Thus we have
PRR 289756. Under IN he would enter (79 12/5)....under out enter (82 12/7)
Translation In on Train 79 Dec 5...out on Train 82 December 7)
You can see what an incredibly boring and tedious job it would be to work on
this book....If a car was entered incorrectly it would be nigh onto
impossible to run it down...About the only way this could be done was to take
the inbound and outbound train lists and go down them one by one seeking out
the car you wanted. Also if the book wasn't kept up to date it was almost
useless.
When the Supt of Transportation would request a "passing record" whoever was
working the desk that handled those kind of requests would have to get the JB
and search out the particular car in question.
You can see why it took an inordinate number of clerks and paper to keep
railroad records.
In the General Superintendent of Transportation's office on the RI when I s
tarted there in 1959, the system car records were kept in a like complex,
labor intensive manner.
In said office was what was know as "THE WHEEL"...This resembled a greatly
enlarged version of the revolving display racks you see in stores where items
are hung close together and the whole rack can be rotated around its axis so
that each item can be viewed separately.
A copy of all conductor's "Wheel Reports" was sent to the ST office..These,
you old trainmen will remember, were manifold copies with a line for each car
and were maintained by the conductor in a hard folder with collapsible
interior folders...There was a line for each car handled by each train, and a
place for the Station (Number) where the car was picked up and the Station
(Number) where it was left.
In the ST's office the wheel reports were torn into strips by each car
line...These strips were hung on "rims" which comprised the outer surface of
the wheel, by some car number arrangement similar to the jumbo book...There
were clerks there whose job it was...all day long...to stand there by that
wheel and tear these strips and hang them on hooks on the rims of the
wheel....After some period of time you had to go through and remove the
strips....
As a Trainee I spent a week or so in the ST office...At the conclusion we
were "invited" to go in to the ST (hisself) office for a final session...At
the time I was there Mr. E.E. Foulks was RI ST. Mr. F had been a high
ranking officer in one of the Railway Operating Battalions in WW II...I
recently saw his photograph in an old Railroad Magazine I was perusing...
The time (December 1959) I was there was when the computer was just beginning
to make a few inroads...At that time it was called "Machine Accounting"...I
asked Mr. F. if he didn't think that the car record system could be improved
by using the computer...he said something to the effect that "we had a pretty
good system with what we had"....Mr. Foulks was then probably in his mid 60's
(younger than I am now)...woe woe woe....and wasn't going to do anything to
rock the boat.
Well I'm ready for criticism and/or correction re my memories of the Jumbo
Book and related activities.
Pete
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