email 1.
Good, short lesson in pre-radio train operations from Abe Burnett, former Conrail Harrisburg Division Rules Examiner, who started his RR career in train service on the N&W in Virginia in the Sixties.
email 2, from Abe Burnett.
A young fellow just asked me the function of a Train Register and a Clearance Card. Since this is now all pretty much 50 years in the past, I thought the younger generation might like to read the explanations. Of course, there all are kinds of permutations I did not go into...
email 3, from a young fellow.
Never having worked directly in operations, and having much less exposure to timetable and train order operations (I'm much more familiar with CTC and TCS), there are many elements about which I lack an understanding. One of these is the purpose of a "train register". I'm attaching the page with the special instructions for the LV's Pottsville Branch's Employee Timetable issued 11/26/1916. Trains registers are noted for a number of stations, but they are located in the "phone booth" at Lizard Creek Jct., Spring Garden Jct., and Blackwood Jct. When the line opened, these were all manned junctions that had telegraph. My assumption is, and this is where I look to you for guidance, that the purpose of the register was to act as a kind of control point, but one at which an operator was no longer located. As a train arrived at the junction, a crew could determine whether or not a scheduled train had arrived from the connecting line by the presence of an entry or lack thereof in the register. Did I guess right? Who and when do you think someone went around to collect all these registers and place new ones?
Second item: What exactly is the function of a clearance card?
I will never completely fathom an era when so many people were involved, all of whom had to have their wits about them. I seriously doubt it could be done the same way today. I increasingly doubt the work of Charles Darwin...
email 4, from Abe Burnett.
Train Register - a "logbook" located at designated places (such as ends of double track or important junctions) where conductors "register" their trains. Opposing trains check the register to see if superior trains have arrived.
Perfect example - the tremendous head on collision of Jan 30,1918 on the N&W at Melborn. Va. No, 26, the eastbound Memphis Special hauled by double-headed Mountains, was running 5 hours and 20 mins late. Ex 1461 West, headed by a big 2-6-6-2 class Z, left the end of double track at Radford, in the face of No. 26. The telegraph operator had failed to deliver a Train Order to the Extra west stating that No. 26 was running late, and the conductor of the Extra west did not check the Train Register to see if all opposing superior trains had arrived. If either of these things had been done, the two trains would not have met head-on the the darkness about 5 miles west of Radford.
I worked with men who had been at that wreck. Trailing are photos of the tombstone of Engineer Charles A. Jacobson, who was running Ex 1461 West that night.
Your second question: What is the function of a Clearance Card. Exact details depend on the time period you want to know about. In the Old days, there were 4 clearance cards, A, B, C and D, and each had a different color and a different purpose.
But let's just discuss the Clearance Form A, which is the only one that survived up until the end... although I could write you volumes on this topic.
A clearance card's function is (1) to make sure that no train gets away without the train dispatcher making sure it has the proper train orders, and has them all, and (2) to make sure the telegraph operator delivers the proper orders to each train.
If a telegraph operator has train orders for delivery, he puts his train order signal to stop. When the train is getting close, he asks the DS (train dispatcher), "Clear Train No..., with train orders numbers 17, 23 and 26?" And if those are the proper train orders to be delivered, the DS responds, "Yes, clear Train No... with orders numbners 17, 23 and 26, at 11:16am, JFF" (where JBB would be his own initials.) The DS then makes a note of the clearance card inn his train order book. The operator writes out the clearance card stating, "To C&E No.. at ... I have train orders no's 17, 23 and 26 for your train. There are no further orders for your train," and signs his last name on the clearance card, and the date and time.
When the crew rolls by and picks up their orders, they compare the clearance card with the numbers of the train orders they have been delivered to see if they have the proper orders, and all the orders they should have. (I have caught orders and found that what I received did not correspond with the clearance card...)
In Time Table/Train order territory, each train must receive a clearance card at its initial station... That is the train dispatcher's "release" for the train, either stating "No orders for your train" or listing the orders for delivery. This requirement is a "hold" on trains, to keep them from getting away without the proper orders.(attached) is a pretty important stuff, when you consider that all the meets on opposing trains were handled by train orders, and radios had not yet come around.
That's the basics. I could write a lengthy essay on this matter, and probably should some day.
Tombstone of engineer Charles A. Jacobson
