Nostalgia & History > Rock Island yard office, Fort Worth

So many questions, like what is the wall mounted gang of electrical boxes on the upper right wall,
and any guess as to what the positions are of the gents in the photo?

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Here's my guesses; the guy in the right background is the operator by virtue of his position among the tools
of the trade; the scissor phone and telegraph sounder. The man at the far right is probably a billing clerk (close 
to the pigeon holes). The youngster in the foreground is either the assistant trainmaster or an agent (cool socks
and low-cut shoes). The older man wearing hat facing the camera is the yardmaster or 'Dinger' (he starts and stops t
he crews by the bell). The hat wearer is too busy to look up so he's visiting from the 'head shed'. The man standing
close to the operator is visiting there on business with the operator, probably a traincrew member. Love the photo,
just like hundreds of yard offices 

Charlie

And the amazing thing is that you can actually see clearly across the room because there's no cloud of the usually everpresent cigarette smoke!

That is a marvelous image.

I have attached a 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 image taken in the dark enginehouse office in the long-gone Stevens Yd C&O enginehouse in Silver Grove KY.

Sorry for the blurry image, but what I can tell you is:
-That's me on the right in 1964
-That's the enginehouse foreman on the left, one of the nicest gentlemen I've ever met.
-The roundhouse 'gopher' seated in the middle distance would run errands and also tended to the stationary boiler and engine that supplied steam/and electricity for the entire yard
-The prim and proper clerk sits in the distance tending to endless paperwork.  They had an office cat but he was out on his rounds.
-In front of me is an oxy-acetylene regulator and gage that someone had dropped on the roundhouse floor and written up as 'BAD'

These types of photos remind me of the sights/smells of RR offices.  

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That skinny bracket for the old Royal typewriter must really be STRONG!
I've got one of them and they are heavy.

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

cewherry Wrote:
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> Here's my guesses; the guy in the right background
> is the operator by virtue of his position among
> the tools
> of the trade; the scissor phone and telegraph
> sounder.

check

>The man at the far right is probably a
> billing clerk (close 
> to the pigeon holes).

Manifest clerk. Pigeon holes ore for the bills of cars in the yard. After listing up a train, he'll pull the waybills n order, head end to rear. Holes are labeled by the last diget of the car number.

If he is also working mudhop, there is a pigeon hole for each track. It is his job to ensure that the current list of every track is there when the yardmaster wants it.


> The youngster in the
> foreground is either the assistant trainmaster or
> an agent (cool socks
> and low-cut shoes).

I think Chief Clerk, maybe billing clerk or both. Billing in with the yardmaster would be unusual. The billing machines I've seen and used have a wider carriage. This one looks like it has upper/lower case, which billing machines do not.

> The older man wearing hat
> facing the camera is the yardmaster or 'Dinger'
> (he starts and stops t
> he crews by the bell).

Check

> The hat wearer is too busy
> to look up so he's visiting from the 'head shed'.

That's the one I think is the TM. Not too many Asst TM in those days.


> The man standing
> close to the operator is visiting there on
> business with the operator, probably a traincrew
> member.

Maybe a messenger. There is a window for trainmen. Looks like the register is on the shelf.

The boxes on the wall behind the operator - don't know. They don't look like anything I've seen.

Love the photo,

Me too.

TAW



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/29/20 23:08 by TAW.

The boxes on the wall were where the company comm lines came in the office.
If there was line trouble the wire chief would have you open a line (with a plug) or
patch a line using severl plugs.  They were hinged on the bottom and had a latch
on the top so that you could open them.  If they were open, that killed that line into the office.
zr190

zr190 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The boxes on the wall were where the company comm
> lines came in the office.
> If there was line trouble the wire chief would
> have you open a line (with a plug) or
> patch a line using severl plugs.  They were
> hinged on the bottom and had a latch
> on the top so that you could open them.  If they
> were open, that killed that line into the office.

That was my first thought, but I zoomed in and still didn't recognize them. I've never seen a patch board that looked like that.

TAW

It was surprising for me to see that many.  Usually when they had more than a couple of circuits, they would use
the"locker" type patch  boards.  When I worked Tinley Park, IL. in '66 we had 2 of those in the office.
zr190