Nostalgia & History > Why it is called an extra "board"

Wonder where the "board" in all this comes in? The call board? The Extra Board? "First Out on the board?" Here's where: this is how railroads used to keep track of crews before computerized crew management made life wonderful for railroaders. Everybody "marked up" (i.e., their name is marked up on the board) is written down on this humungeous blackboard at the roundhouse in Pasco, Washington. This is in 1978, and the old steam-era traditions are still in place.

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Down the river 100 miles, the SP&S did it this way at Wishram: each crew member's name is on a chit, which is hung from a peg in the depot. As a crew is called, everyone's name moves "up in the board" one spot. Since Wishram's an away-from-home terminal for all but Oregon trunk crews and switch and local crews working from there in 1978, rested crews headed to the lunchroom can stop by next door in the depot to see how they stand on the board. Again, today, all computerized with an overworked crew caller assisting the process from a single location in BNSF world crew 'spatching headquarters in Topeka, KS.

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I recognize some SP&S names on the NP Pasco Roundhouse board. It looks like conductor "Alphabet" checking his standing on the Wishram board. Somehow I always seemed to be "first out" on the Wishram hoghead's board for the Thursday midnight switch engine, the only shift of the week that wasn't covered by a regular assignment. Of course nobody would ever think of "sharpshooting" the board!

What about the slotted boards with blocks, moving one up at a time, callers keeping track with that and paper. "Sharpshooting the board?" Just think what some of the master sharpshooters of the past could have done in the world of today with computer access!

If that's a large sheet of polycarbonate plastic then it can't really be too ancient a board although of course the operation wouldn't necessarily have been any different when it was an opaque board or on a wall.

The Maine Central had the slotted type with different colors to denote qualifications; green was head brakeman only, hence a "green card", I think yellow was trainman qualified, and blue for conductors. In Bangor, the tower operator (me!) handled the road board. One evening, I disagreed with the Yardmaster about who to call. He was right and I found that out when the Supt's secretary informed me the next morning that I had to "see" the Supt before work the next day...

Great views. Sure beats electronic railroading in todays "Crap Era" world. Thanks...

In 69, the Mother Board in the City was glass about 3 feet high and about 12 feet long & used wood blocks. The blocks were about 3 inches wide, about a 1/2 inch thick and 2 1/2 inches deep and they had your name painted on each edge. They slide into slots that were canted about 30 degrees down. When a person was called, they would pull the block out and cock it to show the person was off the board. They would then move the block to the the job you were working. This was done for all the jobs in SF proper and was on the left hand side of the glass wall. If a job was open, there was a "Vacant" block where the regular engineer or firemans name would be. On the left hand side of the board were the boards in San Jose, Watsonville Jct & SLO. They were never up to date because the City was just the Mother Board and didn't have anything to do with calling those crews, it just showed where people were working out of on the seniorty list. There were two crew dispatchers on duty at all times and a Chief Crew Dispatcher Mon thru Fri. They sat at a desk and had the federal sheets in front of them.

In SLO, the enginemans board was on the South Wall of the change room, down by the roundhouse. It showed the East End Pool to Santa Barb and the West End to Wat. Jct. All the passenger jobs to Santa Barb, the locals, yard jobs, the helpers and the extra lists. They also showed who was in town from the City on 98&99. They would use chalk that sat in water, like old coffee cups. They would start at the top and line thru a called man. When he came back in he would go to the bottom of the list and they would erase his name from the top. This would go on until they were at the bottom of the board. Then they would start back at the top. It was interesting still seeing 75&76, 90&91 and other long gone passenger & yard jobs and still painted on the board. When they would write down someones name, you couldn't see it until it dried and then it was a bright white. They had 2 crew dispatchers, Chief Crew Dispatcher and one call boy. The trainman had the same thing but were located up in the old depot.

When we moved to the "New" depot and they tore down the RH & old depot, your name was typed on two little cards and put into a plastic sleeve. The little tabs would sit in a metal groove behind a peice of glass. It would have your name and 4 didgit employee number. I think it was a yellow tab for assignments and blue for working. There was a red dot on the tag if you were qualified passenger. The federal sheet sat below the board but the crew dispatcher had to stand up to call crews and enter information on the sheet. Then we only had one crew dispatcher per shift and a Chief Crew Dispatcher Mon-Fri. The trouble was the one crew dispatcher had to call all the engineers, fireman, conductors and brakeman and had to be the call boy if you lived in the calling limits and didn't have a phone.

Al Stone, who was an engineer in SLO was out of service because of a supposed heart problem. While he was off, waiting for the hospital department to mark him up, he dismantled the old engineers change room and hauled to over the hill to his ranch. He had the old black board in in his barn for an inside wall but I never knew what happened to it. After the RFE saw this (heart problem indeed) they OKed Al to mark back up. He worked another 8 years before he retired.

I still have my wood block from the city board and the plastic one from the SLO board.



Nudge

Excellent images...anymore to share??

Mike

I doubt very much it is poly carbonate it is almost certainly Plexiglas also known as Perspex, or poly methyl methacralate which dates to before the second word war.

ST2-K

In the mid 50's as a young lad I walked into the train station office to find a crew caller. He was an elder man in his mid 60's named MacGregor, of course called Mac for short. The crew board was a wooden slotted one as described above. Mac allowed me inside [this was the first of many visits onto railroad properties]and explained his craft. On this board the wooden blocks were red w/white letters for engineers, white w/red letters for fireman, blue with white letters for conductors and white with blue letters for brakemen/flagmen.
Mac pulled out all 5 blocks on a regular job, leaving them 1/2 out, until he called them on the phone. Once notified he pushed the block in, and repeated this for every call.
Extra crews were stacked in order of call turn, and their blocks were placed under their job category.
When an extra job was needed he pulled out the top wooden block, and called the man.If he took the call and the job Mac took the block and placed it in the appropriate slot for the job. If he refused or there was no answer that block was moved to the bottom of the category slot.
Mac told me he got started when he was a young man, before phones. His job was to go the house and knock on the door of the called employee, to tell him of the job.

Like a slipboard (or slugboard) once used in Typographical Union print shops.

When I was working for Amtrak, Oakland On Board Service crews also had an extra board that looked very much like the one in photo 2.

Here's one that was in the Wabash RR Roundhouse in Montpelier, Ohio. Engineer Harold Reed is at left and Crew Caller Nick Elliot is at right. Alan Benjamin Collection Photo. This was in my Railroading on the Wabash Fourth District book, along with photos of the yard offices. Montpelier was the Montpelier Division Headquarters. The 1st District ran from Toledo, Ohio to Peru, Indiana via Montpelier. The 3rd District ran from Montpelier to Detroit, Michigan. The 4th District ran from Montpellier to Toleston, Indiana, on the way to Chicago. The 5th District btw Fort Wayne, Indiana and Toledo did not run through Montpelier, but it was part of the Montpelier Division. IIRC, the 2nd District ran btw Peru, Indiana and Tilton, Illinois but was not in the Montpelier Divsion.

Victor Baird



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/20/24 18:02 by wabash2800.

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