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(erielack) Train Orders - Upper Case
- Subject: (erielack) Train Orders - Upper Case
- From: TrainGG1_@_aol.com
- Date: Tue, 16 Aug 2005 16:43:58 EDT
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
The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List
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