Nostalgia & History > Manual block on MILW in 1940: how did it work?

The April 1940 timetable for the 190 miles west from Mobridge

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FAT0sTrlh0ES9jXzJhMug0fb5ASCYp_h/view?usp=sharing

No ABS -- says train-order signals are Block Signals.
So any station that has a TO signal must be a
block station? So which stations would that be?

You'd think the timetable would make that clear, but
it doesn't. Possibly one of those letters along the
right margin of the first page, but looks unlikely.
Presumably P is phone, and J looks to be junction,
W is water and C is coal, R is register, Y is wye,
K might well be standard clock. Only one E and
one B in the 190 miles, so they can't be it.

No help on the second page. Every station has
a telegraph code, even if no office. So when a train
is cleared west from Mobridge, how far can it go?
Wakpala closes at 5 PM -- signal is clear after that?
Then McLaughlin closes at 7 PM. From 11 PM to 7 AM,
no open offices for the first 99 miles. The manual block
is that long?

"week days" -- that includes Saturday? But not Sunday.
Is Lemmon the only open office, all day Sunday?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/24 10:47 by timz.

Here's a link to the 1939 edition of the Consolidated Code of Operating rules.  These are the operating rules the Milwaukee Road used and the book is one they issued.  Scroll down to page 74 and you'll find Manual Block signal indications, and the rules for Manual Block operation follow.
https://wx4.org/to/foam/maps/1rule/books/ConsolidatedCode/1939ConsolidatedCode-Habegger.pdf
 

I wonder if my first reaction is on to something.....this could be dark territory, so the only signals are at such stations to be equipped with trainorder signals.  Could it be?

AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

Correct -- no signals except train-order signals.
Question is, how do we know which stations had TO signals.

timz Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Correct -- no signals except train-order signals.
> Question is, how do we know which stations had TO
> signals.

On the SP in the employee timetable there was the letters TO to the left of the station name.

Posted from Android

timz Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Correct -- no signals except train-order signals.
> Question is, how do we know which stations had TO
> signals.

That probably gets into the engineer's qualification on the territory. However, it would probably be accurate that if the timetable shows continuous or office hours, there was a train order signal.

When a part time office closed, there was a procedure for that office to establish the block clear in both directions and notify the adjoining operators that the office was closed. The reverse would happen when the office opened, determining block occupied or clear and re-establishing the separated blocks between adjoining offices.

TAW

Wakpala is 12 miles west of Mobridge--
the office closes at 5 PM. So if a westward
train leaves Mobridge at 4:50, how far
is it cleared to go?

timz Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Wakpala is 12 miles west of Mobridge--
> the office closes at 5 PM. So if a westward
> train leaves Mobridge at 4:50, how far
> is it cleared to go?

To the next open block station. I don't remember specifiic MILW application, normally a closed office had a clear in both directions or dark signal.

TAW