Why learn the old system?

• February 1977, about 14hr on a weekday
• Schreiber station, southeast corner: the ground level boardroom
• Six teenagers, and a conductor who is taking time off the road to teach new trainmen
• Minus 15 degrees and sunny outside, too warm and sunny inside

• No snow up to your knees
• No bitter wind coming right off Lake Superior to freeze your face
• No hiking back 50 telegraph poles at night in a northern Ontario blizzard 
• Before 1950, no hoping they'd see the cowering-in-the-extreme-cold  flame of your red kerosene lantern if a train came rushing up on you before you'd walked back an "appropriate" distance and placed your torpedoes to explode under the approaching train's wheels
• Of course summer was easier - but the filmstrip showed no twin-engined blackflies running unlicensed blood donor clinics. Rolly would often comment that "the flies are quite tame"

• When they were mixed yellow and green the engineer began slowing down.
• The next signal would be yellow and red and we continued to slow down and went through a switch.
• Then we would reach the all-red dwarf signal which stopped the train - in which the student headend trainman was a guest. 
• "Clear ... Approach medium ... Medium approach ... Stop." - in the language of the working trainman and engineer.
• A train would roll by, the dwarf would clear, and we'd be on our way again. No sweat.

• Power can fail.
• Signals can topple over.
• Instrument cases can be flooded.
• Code lines can be severed. 
• Traffic control offices can burn down.

• Sulphuric acid
• Paper
• Extruded copper
  
• Lead
• Kerosene
  

CPR locomotive 548 is sitting on a turntable just outside a small roundhouse. Let's pretend it is at White River or Schreiber (because I don't know where my little snapshot was actually taken) and that similar locomotives will be pulling our trains in 1900. The large headlight burns kerosene or perhaps acetylene gas. There is no steam-powered turbogenerator to make electricity on this locomotive. The white bars at the front and rear of the turntable "bridge" are pushed by labourers to turn the locomotive to the appropriate track for servicing in the roundhouse or to the ready track to await duty. So there is no electricity even for a turntable motor.

Here's the type of country we'll be running through. This is Jackfish curve as it was being transformed from a wood trestle
into a rock and earth fill. It will be decades before all the points along the track have power lines. It can be very dark here during the long winter nights.

So we are starting with a railway line from White River to Schreiber. To make efficient use of 118 miles of track, we must find places where a train meeting another train can get around it by using a passing track or "siding". The sidings will also allow fast important trains to overtake less important slow and heavy trains. By 1886, the CPR had the most appropriate modern practices and technologies in place.

However, let's explore the issues as they presented themselves to railways during the previous 40 years.

We are looking for safety and reliability.


THE PLAN

• We will build sidings between White River and Schreiber so we can run trains in both directions at once on this part of the line.
• In fact, we will build many sidings including one at mile 74 and name it Coldwell.
• We will publish a timetable at the head office in Montreal which gives each daily train a number and a schedule. 
• The timetable will be "THE LAW" that all trains must follow.
• Give timetables to all the operating offices on the line, and to all employees (who must carry them while on duty).
• Trains going east are even numbered and will stay on the main track to meet other trains.
• Trains going west are odd numbered and will go into the siding to wait for the "superior" eastbound trains.
• So, all eastbound trains (e.g. heavy grain trains) are superior to westbound trains (e.g. trains of empty grain cars).
• (Note: the number on Locomotive 548 is only an equipment number - not a "train number".)
• Our timetable will tell all trains where, when, and how they are to deal with the other trains they will come across as they travel over the 118 mile subdivision. 

THE PROBLEM

• Let's say there is a bad snowstorm east of Sudbury.
• Let's say eastbound train 102 is a heavy (for the time) train of 30 boxcars of Manitoba wheat.  
• "THE LAW" of the timetable says it must meet westbound 101 from Montreal every day at Coldwell at 09hr ...
• But 101 is 11 hours late because of the storm!
• The crew of 102 play cards while they wait on the main track for 11 hours - because 101 is late and they must meet it every day at Coldwell because that's what the timetable says.
• 102's locomotive runs out of fuel and water by the time 101 finally shows up.

How can we change the timetable when bad things happen to good trains?

• Um, we could add "dispatcher" offices at 500 mile intervals.
• These "rail traffic controllers" could use decades old, and now reliable, telegraph technology to send special instructions to trains when there are problems. We'll need people who know Morse code.
• We will assign one dispatcher just to keep things running smoothly between White River and Schreiber.
• We could write rules and put them in a rulebook, prescribing the precise and economical English phrases to be used by the dispatcher so the instructions will be clear and so they won't waste telegraph time (i.e. bandwidth).
• We will need to put telegraph "operators" along the line at places like Coldwell, at larger towns, and important operating locations (e.g. big hills, junctions with other railways) to deliver these written "train orders".
• As the trains go by, the operators can also signal the dispatcher (they can "OS" him) to say that a specific train just passed by.
• With the "real-time" OS information for each train as it passes each operator's station, the dispatcher can make the traffic flow even more efficiently - just like radar and radios for air traffic controllers! ... uh, when they eventually invent all that stuff.
  

Hold it! There's no electricity for telegraphs, except in big cities like Fort William!

• At this point, lets stop our spirited little 1900-era debate about telegraphs.
• How could we explain the telegraph to thoroughly computerized kids one hundred years later?

• A button is pressed by the person at the steering wheel and electrical current flows.
• Wires take the current to an electromagnet at another location (e.g. the back, right-side door).
• There, an energized electromagnet attracts a piece of steel to make a "thunk" sound and lock the door.

A telegraph key in action. It is connected by wires to a battery and to a ...

• "The time is 0800hr ... NOW!" ... (Set your standard wind-up clocks so everyone on the railway has the correct time.)
• "Currently these trains are running on our own subdivision. And this is the train forecast for later today..."
• (There were all kinds of special abbreviations to save "key strokes".)
  

Summary - "Thank goodness!"

• Before 1900, railway operating managers and their lawyers came up with a system to run the railway efficiently and with the greatest safety possible: the timetable, the rulebook and train orders . 
• Reasonable members of the general public or the government would accept this system as being logical and safe.
• Trains meet or overtake other trains at sidings - very short sections of "double track" which are just long enough to hold a train. For efficiency, most sidings have switches on both ends so trains can quickly run in and later run out the other end without having to reverse direction.
• Scheduled trains meet or overtake other scheduled trains as prescribed by the timetable. Eastbound trains are "superior" so westbounds go into the siding and eastbounds stay on the main track.
• When a scheduled train is late, a dispatcher can change the location where two trains meet by sending a telegraph message - to two appropriate "train order offices" where there are telegraph operators on duty. Each train will need a copy of the new meeting location as soon as possible for an extra margin of safety.
• Electricity in remote areas is provided by batteries.
• In keeping with their conservative and dependable nature, railways favour simple, robust and proven technology. When employees are all trained and hardware is still reliable with reasonable maintenance costs, technologies such as steam locomotives and telegraphs persist until they can be replaced by some other proven technology which can offer some undeniable economic advantage to the railway. 
• So we've superficially covered copper wire, lead, sulphuric acid and paper. Kerosene (later known as jet fuel) is left.
  

First, a story about my wife:

Kerosene!

• Green light was displayed along the main track in both directions when the switch was lined for the main track.
• Red light was displayed along the main track in both directions when the switch was lined for the siding.

Special lenses (similar to the design used in lighthouses) were used to concentrate the dim kerosene flame to shine as a strong beam which was visible straight down the track for a long distance.

Rulebook definition of "train":

"An engine or more than one engine coupled, with or without cars, displaying markers."

• Markers were almost always kerosene lamps which looked just like switch lamps, but they were hung on the back of the last "piece" of the train - acting like tail lights on an automobile at night. The marker lamps had three green lenses and one red lens.
• By day they just hung there. By night, they were lit.
  
• You could have an engine and 100 cars - but unless it had markers it was not considered a "train" by the rules.
• An engine alone which displayed markers was considered to be a "train" by the rules.
• When one train passed another, or passed a train order office with an operator eagerly waiting to OS the train to the dispatcher, it had officially passed only when the markers were observed .
  
• Until VIA disposed of most of its older equipment, kerosene markers were still used on many of their trains in eastern Canada into the 1980s.

From a book from 1900:

The rules specified that trains were to be clear of other trains which would overtake them by a specific safety margin. So an overtaking train could race up behind this train and its engineer could be confident of safety if:

• Both main track switches displayed green, not red, lights.
• The markers (on the last car) had been changed to display green.

Four little lensed kerosene flames displayed "safety" for the best part of a century.

One more use for kerosene

Train crews can see and signal each other at night because they have kerosene lanterns.
Switches and train tailends are shown to be safe by kerosene lanterns.

Just how are those poor telegraph operators supposed to flag down a fast train in the middle of the night?

Around 1900, open train order offices had their own special signal:

• By day, a red board was turned (like a switch target) to display red. This was a signal to stop or to stop for train orders.
• By night, a red kerosene light (seen above the target) would be lit and turned to display red down the track.

Here's the fun part:
If the engineer and fireman agreed that no red signal was displayed as their train approached an open train order office, they got to say this before the engineer pulled the throttle back and the train blasted by:

Engineer: "Clear board!"
Fireman: "Clear board!"

The Rights of Trains ... "No! ... not THAT!!"

I think I've got a way to illustrate how, in 1900, in addition to using telegraphs and paper (don't forget kerosene lights at night) the railway had a system which provided safety and reliability AND complete flexibility to deal with any situation.

When railways became very busy, the actions to be taken were clear if you understood the superiority of trains as it was defined in the rulebook. Some trains are just "better" than others and it always followed the same pattern.

I will also try to illustrate with modern automobiles and the common "rules of the road" we know as well.

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The  LOWEST level of Superiority: Direction (stated on the cover of the timetable)

• The timetable states that eastbound trains are superior to westbound trains.
• Our trains from  the example above - Train 101 (westbound, empty grain cars), Train 102 (eastbound, underpowered grain train) - are now to meet every day at Coldwell  at 09hr.
• Following the rules and the timetable, the headend trainman lines the inferior train 101 into the siding so it will be clear at least 5 minutes before the official meeting time. Before 0855hr, 101 stops clear in the siding, and the tailend trainman lines the switch behind it so the switch displays green for 102 . At night, the locomotive would also extinguish its headlight to signal to 102 that the train was safely in the clear. (Consider that the trains are meeting head to head in this example, not overtaking. Approaching a lit headlight would be an appropriate time to worry a little.)
• Right on schedule, train 102 goes sailing by the siding at 09hr without even having to slow down.
• 101's headend trainman lines the switch in front of 101 for the main track. Train 101 pulls through that switch out onto the main track and stops. Then the tailend trainman lines that switch for the main track (showing green) and 101 gets out of town.
  

Modern example: You are driving on a country road and reach a one lane bridge. There is a yield sign on your end of the bridge and you stop. A car coming toward you over the bridge is "superior" to you and drives over without slowing down.

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A HIGHER level of Superiority: Class (written in the timetable for each scheduled train)

• Although it is an eastbound train, train 102 is a freight train and we decide that freight trains are second class trains and passenger trains are first class trains.
• Every day, train 102 is to meet (passenger) train 1 at Pringle at 1020hr.
• This time, it is 102 that goes into the siding because a first class (passenger) train is superior to a second class (freight) . Class trumps direction for superiority.
• Train 1 sails by 102 which is already in the clear in "the hole" at 1020hr.

Modern example: You are driving down the road. An ambulance with lights flashing is approaching. This makes you a "second class vehicle" and you pull off and let the "first class vehicle" have all of the road, regardless of its direction.

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The  HIGHEST  Level of Superiority:  Right
(This comes from train orders - which the dispatcher sends to operators by telegraph. The operators write or type these out for delivery to the trains which they affect.)

• A train of raw silk is travelling from Japan through Vancouver to mills in New York City via Schreiber. (It happened!) Raw silk deteriorates quickly and is insured by the HOUR.
• The dispatcher is told to give the train top priority by his bosses. Every affected train in his territory gets a copy of the silk train's order. The silk train's train order says: 

Eng 548 run extra
leaving Schreiber on [today's date]
as follows with right over all trains
Leave Schreiber 0700hr
Coldwell 0910hr
Pringle 1000hr
Arrive White River 1100hr

• WITH RIGHT OVER ALL TRAINS is the magic phrase. 
• Our little engine 548, pictured above, has achieved greatness leading the silk train named "Extra 548 East "
  
• The conductors and enginemen of trains 101, 102 and even high class passenger train 1 have to figure out where they can get out of the way by following the rules; and the timetable 's list of sidings and other trains' locations. It could get quite complicated but they must follow all the rules as they get out of the way.
• If he felt like it, the dispatcher could also tell these three trains where to clear within the order above.

Modern example:

• A police officer has the authority to direct road traffic any way he/she deems reasonable in the interest of public safety.

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Superiority summary:

Direction: At Schreiber an eastbound is superior - if trains are both of the same class.
Class: Higher class trains are superior to trains of a lower class - regardless of direction.
Right: The train dispatcher can do almost anything with a train order, trumping both class and direction.

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Railways had ALL the contingencies covered and tremendous flexibility with their "low-tech" system back in 1900.

Sometimes being ordered into a siding for a while was (and still is) a mysterious experience for a train crew: What is that dispatcher thinking?

However, a dispatcher in 1900 was looking at what was going on with all the other trains on his territory and thinking of the trains which would soon enter his territory. The dispatcher had an evolving mental model of how his "chess game" would be playing out during the next couple of hours or so.

Facts such as this would be considered in his decisions:

• weather affecting visibility and causing trains to slow down for safety
• switches clogged with snow, which trainmen would have to clean out before lining
• determining which siding an over-length slow train could be ordered into
  
• wet, or snow or frost covered rail interfering with wheel/rail adhesion (traction)
• special trains like the Silk Train
• switching activities which would occupy the main track (picking up and setting off cars)
• which train order offices were open to deliver orders
• long stopping times at passenger stations because of holiday travel demands
• locomotives failing or trains breaking apart
• trains stalling on hills and having to "double the hill"
• fires
• Lake Superior waves flooding or weakening roadbed
• rock slides or ice falls reported by track walkers in tunnels and rock cuts
  
• slow sections of track
• sections being repaired where trains must stop at a red flag - for instructions from the foreman
• any train with a fireman nicknamed "Coldwater"

There were no computers then, remember, this was all in his HEAD..

In addition, back in 1900, the dispatcher not only had the Chief Dispatcher watching over him, the Division Superintendent would ALSO be in the same building to provide help and guidance - even if it differed from the dispatcher's carefully thought-out plan.

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I wish I had a 1900-era timetable to show you, but at least I can finish up with one from 1943 (coming below):

Just over 30 years before our class of teenage trainmen got together for training in 1977, they were still running the Heron Bay Subdivision much the same way as we talked about above ... During World War II, there were no failsafe traffic lights (block signals and centralized traffic control) to keep trains apart and the dispatcher always acted through operators and written train orders.

I have included 6 first class passenger trains, and 1 second class stock (cattle) train at the extreme right side.

• Only if you are not too confused by all this stuff: Beyond what I am including ... on this timetable 2 additional (second class) westbound and 5 additional (fourth class) eastbound freights are SCHEDULED every day. This total of 14 daily trains does not include any extra sections of scheduled trains, or extra trains they might have handled during the war. Two of those fourth class eastbounds are each scheduled to get into sidings to meet four trains between Schreiber and White River - lots of switch turning practice for the trainmen!

The westbounds are at the left (read down the column of times). The eastbounds are at the right (read up).

Working left to right from the schedule of Train 3, you have:

• the subdivision mileage from White River
• D (day) N (night) operators on duty
• station names, distances between stations, and local features such as water (W) and yard limits (Z)
• the one or two letter telegraph station abbreviations which the dispatcher would send to get the operator's attention
• (e.g. WR for White River, OA for Coldwell, SC for Schreiber)
• how long each siding was in car lengths. The longest was Mobert at 78 cars. My guess would be that the longest trains might be a little longer than 1/2 mile. 

Where a scheduled time appears in boldface type, there are always two because that is when two trains are scheduled to encounter each other (meet or overtake). Looking at Train 1 and Train 2, you can see they are scheduled to meet at Bluejay at 0340hr each day. The other boldface meets are scheduled with the freight trains which I did not include.

Who gets a straight shot and doesn't have to worry about meeting anyone? ... 954 - the cattle from western Canada!

The Herefords get to travel from Schreiber to White River in 4 hours and 10 minutes. After detraining for feeding and exercising at White River they will be off again to the cities of eastern Canada for fattening or slaughter to help satisfy the wartime demand for beef.

There is quite a lot of additional history within this timetable for another time.

It would have been quite something to see the CPR in Schreiber back then.

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For decade after decade
the CPR operated through the harsh environment north of Lake Superior 
using a flexible and reliable system.

The system demanded constant attention to detail and a very thorough knowledge of
the rulebook, the operating timetable, and the railway line itself
if things were to run efficiently and safely.

Dispatchers, telegraph operators, engineers, firemen, conductors, trainmen ...

There were hundreds of operating employees living in Schreiber
whose personal duties were dictated,
and then knit together with the duties of fellow employees
by a little red book.

They raced their trains
against
the hands sweeping across the faces of their pocket watches
while remembering that

"Safety is of the first importance in the discharge of duty."

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