Nostalgia & History > Need Help IDing RR -Audio Reports

I recently purchased a Voicewriter Flexi-Record of Railroad time reports. The Voicewriter was a dictating machine sold by the Thomas A Edison Company starting in 1945 and used into the 1960s'.
The record runs at 16 rpms so I had to download it at 33 1/3 rpms into my audio editor and slow the speed and clean up the sound.
I do not know what railroad these reports are from, nor the time period. At any rate it is very interesting listening. 
I attached about 5 minutes of it here (the record, once slowed down, runs about a half hour altogether) in hopes someone could identify the railroad. Engine numbers and train symbols are given, but not many locations. Some of the train symbols are:
HD-33, 2nd XTS, Highland Park Turn, BAS, Main Road Switcher, 1st Wilmington Turn, Hill Turn & 3rd District Pick-Up.
Some of the tie-up locations are:
"On The Hill" & "Top Of The Harbor".
Also mentioned are :
"Runaround At Dingle", "Valley" & the 2nd and 3rd Districts.
Any help is greatly appreciated, and I hope you find this bit of "insider's " audio interesting.
Thanks,
Ken Gear
 

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As to what railroad, I have to defer to others more familiar with the locations mentioned.
As to content, these appear to be engineers calling to report their just completed trips to 
the crew dispatchers office. Some of the elements of information include, obviously the name
of the caller (engineer) which pool assignment they worked and a couple of constant elements;
"switch time", "tie-up" or off duty time, "miles" and some remarks such as being run-around en route
or running around another engineer en route. En route run-arounds needed to be reported to ensure
proper placement for subsequent service of all involved. As to the time frame, they would have to
be made some time after firemen were required on all assignments, post 1964, as only one engineer
reported a fireman's time and the miles they made.

All of these elements have meaning and are necessary bits of information required under union agreements
for the proper placement of these men back onto their respective pools for subsequent or later service.
The term "switch-time" or "Yard-Board Time" is generally the time used for determining when the person will
be placed back to their 'turns' be it a pool assignment or an extra-board standing. The "tie-up" time is necessary
to determine when the person can next be called under the federal Hours of Service Law or possibly union agreements.
I notice that they all included their "miles". Where ever this recording was made, they apparently enforced that part of
union agreements stipulating that engineers not exceed a specific number of miles in their respective checking
period; where I worked (SP & BN) this was typically between 3200-3800 miles. For perspective, 100 miles was 
the traditional equivalent of a days pay. By registering their 'miles' they were assuring that the proper amount of
engineers were assigned to either the 'pool' or extra list. "Miles" registering has largely vanished in the industry,
being replaced with so-called 'guaranteed' working lists where you must be available for service for a stipulated 
period of time before you can 'collect' the guarantee.

Very interesting to this old dinosaur.

Charlie
 



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 06/23/20 14:08 by cewherry.

Sounds like Santa Fe in California.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/23/20 15:31 by NYC303.

Yep - Santa Fe mostly in LA area.

If these recordings were sequential on one record, then the time frame is probably early 1970.  Santa Fe did a general renumbering of much of its roadswitcher fleet in 1969/70, and the engine numbers reported on the recording come from both the pre- and post-renumbering series, including GP30's in both the 1200's (1217 and 1254) and the 3200's (3220 and 3274).  The newest locomotive mentioned is SD45 #5612, built May 1969.

Thanks everyone! 
Ken Gear

One gentleman indicated that there may have been mileage restrictions.
I know from my days on the railroad as an engineer that there was a top mileage that would require more turns to be put on.
Same way with the extra board. If mileages were exceeded for a period more turns were added.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

Judging by some of the names that I could understand and recognize, this is a recording from the Santa Fe at San Bernardino, CA of tieup's off of the Hill and Valley Pools and other unassigned freight, and the San Jac Local and the Wilmington Turn. And as previously mentioned, the engine numbers and train symbols make the timeframe to be late 60's, early 70's.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/24/20 14:45 by Chico43.