(erielack) Relay Offices

[Robert Stafford <erielack1_@_yahoo.com>]

The telegraph system did not work the way the
telephone systems of today work. Telegraph lines ran
from point A to point B. At locations where other
telegraph lines jointed the main telegraph line the
messages where relayed. The operator on a side line
sent a message to the operator at the point where his
line end and their was another line. The operator's at
these locations where two or more telegraph lines came
together where called relay operators. The relay
operators took messages received from one telegraph
line and fowarded it to another station or relay
operator on the other telegraph line. 
The telegraph lines where long gone when I went to
work on the EL. 
In 1978 after gettting ConJobed I went to work on the
Alliance Division of the Burlington Northern. The
telegraph message lines where in use on the division
until the middle of Septbember 1978. Since the
telegraph was being phased out I did not have to learn
how to telegraph when I hired out as an operator. 
The Alliance Divison at that time was like a big
letter Y. The mainline came from Lincolin, NE to
Alliance. There was a relay operator at Lincolin and
Alliance. The two sides of the letter Y where the
north line through Gillette, Wyoming to Billings
Montana and the South Line through Casper, Wyoming to
Lureal, MT. There was a relay operator at Billings and
Casper, Wy. IIRC the north telegraph line split at
Gillette, Wy. Stations from Gillette east sent there
messages to Alliance Relay. Stations north of Gillette
sent their messages to Billings. The relay operators
at Casper handled the messages from the Colorado and
Southern. The C&S telegraph line was carried on the
pole line from Wendover to Billings. Was a long time
ago and sort of foggy now. 
When the telegraph line was taken out and before that
use operators that where not telegraph qualified when
we wanted to send a message used the following
procedure.
We wrote the message on a BN telegraph form. For
example the roadmaster might be requesting a work
train. We would write or type out the message on the
telegraph form. It would be addressed to the Chief
Dispatcher, Crew Office and Trainmaster. We then
called the Alliance relay office, tell them we had a 3
copy message and read them the message. The Alliance
relay operator would give me his intatals once he had
the message complete on a telegraph form. He made an
orginal and three copies on his typewritter. 
There was a messangers job on at Alliance each trick.
The messanger ran the messages and delivered to each
office on a route that took him through out the whole
terminal each hour. If I wanted to send a message to
St Paul I gave that to Alliance Relay and it was
fowarded from relay office to relay office until it
was delivered to the general office building in St
Paul. We also had interconnecting lines with other
carriers. If I wanted to send a wire to the UP agent
at Fort Collins I called Alliance relay, who fowarded
it to Omaha Relay and it went to the UP Omaha relay
who then fowarded it down the line. It might have been
labor intensive, but we could send a message to any
open railroad station in North America.
I know BN is a bit off topic but it is the only hands
on experance I had with how the relay system worked.
Bob Stafford


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