Bob
You remember it right. It took a lot of guts to stand
there with an M-4 pounding down on you. Remember how
bad it was at Woodlawn, where you had to stand between
the tracks, for the southbounds? The M-4's were
running on the "turns", after dark, and is waycar ever
going to get here? BTW, the 31's were yellow.
John
--- Bob Weber <eng95@comcast.net> wrote:
> As a relief agent/operator in the 1950's, I worked
> almost every CB&Q office on the Beardstown division.
> The standard typewriter was an ancient all caps
> Underwood machine used for waybills, freight bills,
> railway express bills and Western Union telegrams.
> Interchange reports and bookkeeping forms were
> handwritten using pencils and regular one-sided
> carbon paper. Train orders were always hand written
> on green (form 19) or yellow (form 31?) onion skin.
> Five copies with double-sided carbon paper between
> each sheet of onion skin and a tin plate under the
> fifth sheet. Writing was done using a metal stylus.
> Two copies with clearance for the front end
> (Engineer and Brakeman) and two copies with
> clearance for the waycar (Conductor and Brakeman)
> and 1 for the file. Orders were handed up by hand
> using a open ended Y shaped rack strung with a
> sheepshank knotted string. Real fun standing a
> couple of feet from the track to hand up orders to
> an M4 or F7 doing 50-60 MPH then wait in the blowing
> dust and cinders to hand up to the waycar,
> especially at night. At least that's the way I
> remember it.
>
> Bob
> Seniority 3/2/51
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: PSHedgpeth@aol.com
> To: BRHSlist@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2003 1:52 PM
> Subject: Re: [BRHSlist] Fw: [n_scale] Dispatcher
> Phone recordings
>
>
> John
>
> As one old guy to another....I remember the old all
> cap typewriters...I think
> that I or my dad actually had one...don't have it
> any more...Seems they were
> called "billers"...all the items the agent typed in
> on a freight bill or
> waybill were always in caps.
>
> You probably remember that there was a time when the
> typewriter came into
> more widespread use that it was against the rules to
> use the typewriter for train
> orders....
>
> Also during my younger..much younger days when I was
> watching the OPs copy
> train orders I was fascinated by why the carbon
> paper was put in upside down and
> how that "stone thing" (stylus) could write...when
> it didn't have any ink in
> it.
>
> The OPS at Langdon always used a fairly heavy metal
> backing to put under the
> last copy to provide a firm base..That's probably
> the way it was done
> everyplace, but it's just another old memory..very
> definite.
>
> Pete
>
>
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>
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