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(erielack) Train Orders - Upper Case



Regarding Train orders, Bill Sheppard sent this Email on August 16th on the  
subject of using all CAPS in the typing of orders:

One reason that train  orders were typed in upper case letters is because the 
more concentrated force  of smaller, lower case characters could tear into 
the flimsy paper used for  train orders, especially when manifold copies were 
made with carbon paper. When  making many copies at once, the typewriter 
functioned more like a pile driver, I  recall.
 
Having started out my illustrious railroad career on the C&NW, I  remember 
typing train orders and using an ancient Underwood typewriter for  that purpose 
(which was also used for billing). Yes, train orders were always  done in CAPS 
and often five or six copies at a time (which meant you had to  beat the darn 
keys into the keybed to ensure that the sixth copy was legible).  When you 
read the orders back to the Dispatcher you had to read EVERYTHING --  and when 
reading numbers you would read something as followings: ...from  Milepost 8.5 
[then say] "eight dot five" from 2:01 PM [then  say] "two zero one P. M."... 
and it had to be exact or you had to  retype the whole darn thing (after having 
the Dispatcher ream you a new  one).
 
With photocopy machines life got much easier. The operator could  type the 
train order once on prescribed form and after reading the  orders back you could 
copy as many copies as needed. In today's world,  orders (read "track 
warrants") are often faxed to yard offices/stations for  distribution to crews. 
However, as there are virtually no order offices  along the line anymore, if the 
Dispatcher has a temporary slow order or grade  crossing malfunction to send to 
the train he/she will call the train on the  radio and have the crew "write 
paper" (a "track permit"). This often  requires the train to stop and the crew 
writes the track permit -- reading  it back to the Dispatcher in the same way 
the operators did with train orders.  The use of ALL CAPS has fallen into 
disuse, except at the beginning of a  sentence or in the proper name of a person, 
place or location (for example,  milepost is still abbreviated (in CAPS) as 
"M.P."
 
As an aside, in the Chicago area we still have one tower (Rondout on the CP  
(ex-CMStP&P) which "hoops" orders to frt crews on a regular basis. Some  of 
the crews, unaccustomed to this procedure, occasionally miss catching  the 
orders and have to stop their train and walk back to retrieve them. Are  there any 
places out east still doing this?
 
Bill Shapotkin



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