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From: Mark Schmitt erie3319 AT gmail DOT com
Date: Fri, 18 Sep 2020 15:52:59 -0400
Subject: Re: [REPOST] Re: (erielack) RE: EL Mail List Digest V3 #7148
"Telegraph_abbreviations.jpg" - image/jpeg, 2532x1998 (24bit)

I think the only way we're ever going to find out the true derivation of
the term "OS" is to find an account written by someone who was involved in
the design or very early use of the term. If this can be found anywhere,
it will probably be in some telegrapher's trade publication from a period
when some old timer was reminiscing about the good old days. I don't think
the attached will conclude the discussion one way or the other, but they
are at least some points of reference as to the use of the term.

These are pages from "THE TELEGRAPH INSTRUCTOR", a textbook written by G. M
Dodge, the Fourth Edition 1908. Dodge ran an "Institute of Telegraphy" at
Valparaiso, Indiana, where you could attend a six month course complete
with room and board for $98. As an abbreviation, the textbook considers
"OS" to mean "all offices take notice". Not a bad notion as all operators
up and down the line would probably want a mental picture of which train
was where at any given time, especially the dispatcher. When it comes to
signals and abbreviations, we see "OS" described as the signal for a train
report--this much we already know. In the discussion about train reporting
on the top of page 66, we find the institute instructing that first class
trains should be immediately reported to the dispatcher as they pass the
train order signal, while lesser trains should not be reported until they
are past the office by 100 yards or more. If at all possible, the first
class trains should be reported using the term "now" (NW) and all others
using "OS". If the first class train was not reported "now", it was to be
reported "OS", which lends some credence to the "Out of Sight" school of
thought. Once a train was past the train order signal, there was no
reliable way to give it new orders or instructions, anyway, it would be
very poor practice to drop the signal in the face of an approaching train.

I think I have been able to trace the origins of Form 31 and Form "A", to
the code instituted by Daniel Craig McCallum on the New York & Erie in the
mid-1850's. The origins of "OS" remains a mystery. By 1908, the term was
apparently in such widespread use that no one thought about it further.
The Erie adopted PRR signal rules in 1888, perhaps the term is from the
Pennsy.

Mark Schmitt

On Tue, Sep 15, 2020 at 10:09 AM Paul Tupaczewski
wrote:

>
> From: Jerry Dziedzic
> Date: Mon, Sep 14, 2020 at 7:46 AM
> Subject: (erielack) RE: EL Mail List Digest V3 #7148
> To:
>
>
> I'm another who hasn't swallowed the conventional thinking about OS.
> There's an account by a SP telegrapher -- I think the title is "Railroad
> Telegrapher" -- which states its origin as Open Station. On Sheet is also
> open to interpretation: whose sheet? The telegrapher recording the
> movement before he repeats it to the dispatcher? Out of Sight is new to me
> and it would be very interesting to find the term in the definitions in the
> 1852 rule book.
>
>
> Jerry Dziedzic
>
> From Archives@Railfan.net
> Message-ID: <440972455.1877049.1600046619182@mail.yahoo.com>
> References: <2127723186.78893.1600026721712@connect.xfinity.com>
> In-Reply-To: <2127723186.78893.1600026721712@connect.xfinity.com>
> Date: Mon, 14 Sep 2020 01:23:39 +0000 (UTC)
> From: Mike Del Vecchio
> Subject: Re: (erielack) "Lackawanna & Western Railroad" 1852 Rule Book
>
> Very interesting, Abram, will look for it as well.
> The merger of the Delaware & Cobbs Gap and the Lackawanna & Western
> Railroad was in 1853. You've found a document that predates the merger that
> created the DL&W.
> I would very much like to read this 1852 rulebook as well. There are
> written accounts of Morris & Essex operations in the 1830s and '40s with
> numerous mentions to operators in pre-telegraph days referring to passing
> trains as "Out of Sight" at a certain time. That makes me think that term
> OS that dispatchers used originated with Out of Sight. Later generations
> took it to mean "On Sheet," referring to an entry on the train register of
> passing trains.
> Yes, would very much like to read that.
> Up at Steamtown is the official coorespondence dating to the 1851 forming
> of the railraods there, the Delaware & Cobbs Gap and Liggetts Gap. Very
> interesting reading, though little of it is legible.
> Thanks, ....Mike Del Vecchio
>
>
> - -----Original Message-----
> From: Abram Burnett (КÑ�Ð
> To: erielack@lists.railfan.net
> Sent: Sun, Sep 13, 2020 3:52 pm
> Subject: (erielack) "Lackawanna & Western Railroad" 1852 Rule Book
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> "The Railroad Trainman," vol. 44, 1927, page 350 but exact date of issue
> unavailable, has an article titled the "Lackawanna & Western Railroad
> Instructions for The Running Of Trains, Etc, To Go Into Effect On Tuesday,
> June 1, 1852." (Note that the proper name of the railroad at that time was
> "Lackawanna & Western.")
>
>
>
>
>
>
> This rule book was issued at a very important time on the Lackawanna, as
> the moving of trains by Telegraphic Train Order was just beginning. The
> Erie, of course, was the first to get movement by Train orders, but the
> written account of one man involved says that the second portion of
> railroad to implement that method of operation was the Lackawanna east of
> Scranton.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Google Books has the particular issue of "Railroad Trainman" in
> question, but does not allow downloading or even reading. Archive does not
> list that issue in its holdings. The World [Library] Catalog does not snow
> any institutional libraries as holding a copy.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Does anyone have that particular Lackawanna 1852 rule book, or know
> where it is available?
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -- Abram Burnett
>
>
> "SW" Telegraph Office
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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> ------------------------------
>
> End of EL Mail List Digest V3 #7148
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