Nostalgia & History > Comm-code lines' greatest hits: (vol 20)

It’s funny how most of us hated having to shoot around those pesky comm-code lines! (But now… ;^)

1. AT&SF 5943 leads Santa Fe’s Director’s Special for 1980, approaching North Jct in Wichita, KS. Photo date: May 26, 1980.
From a 2¼ square B/W negative by William A. Gibson Jr, now in the James T Wilson collection.

Thanks for looking back!
Lance Garrels (santafe199)
Jim Wilson (jtwlunch)
Remembering the late Art Gibson, aka ‘wag216’



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/04/25 17:31 by santafe199.

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Very cool!!

Wow, I look at that and my first thought is how many tons of copper, board-feet of lumber, etc. went into putting lines like that across the system.  
Imagine the number of jobs that created, not just in the railroad, but all of the supply chain that did business with the railroads. 
And just as there are track plans, there must have been a lot of signal/comm plans to keep track of all of the circuits.   

When code lines went away, (for me) they removed one of the essential visual elements of railroad photograpy.

The photo: Oakland, Maryland, October 31, 1971. Eastbound Amtrak Parkersburg-Washington train behind a B&O E-8,  with a C&O 1600-series 52 seat coach, and a C&O 1610-series coach-diner.

Art House

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santafe199 Wrote:
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> It’s funny how most of us hated having to shoot
> around those pesky comm-code lines! (But now…

Yeah, gotta hate a really good photo with comm-code lines, a signal bridge, and F45s pulling varnish. :^)

JG
 

jgilmore Wrote: > ... Yeah, gotta hate a really good photo with comm-code lines ........

(chuckling) Yep, Art did a very good job here! But I remember dozens of places just around Kansas where those poles & wires always seemed to be on the sunlit side of the track(s). I had to take a great many 'secondary' shots where a much better angle was bombed out with the poles and lines... 

;^)

Lance-from an old Santa Fe Wichita Switchman, the train is headed east towards North Junction, North Wichita and probably deadheading to Topeka. Yes-the west sun coming across the nose. The logic of the view is the iron fence on the left side is on the east side of the grade going up to Union Station. The buildings on the right are on the west side and there was a track along them that was connected to South Yard. The Signal bridge the single aspect on the left side of the signal bridge was the signal to go east out of the depot down the lead to get onto the south track to proceed east to North Wichita. Jim Wilson

I was thinking about the date and I photographed this train when it was westbound south of Cleburne.  I was Staff Assistant on the Northern Division headquartered at Fort Worth then.  Now I have to find the slides........

Thanks, I can sorta see that now. The code lines have been gone so long I keep forgetting which side of the tracks they were on. I’ll amend the thread whenever I can get back home…

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hotrail Wrote:
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> Wow, I look at that and my first thought is how
> many tons of copper, board-feet of lumber, etc.
> went into putting lines like that across the
> system.  
> Imagine the number of jobs that created, not just
> in the railroad, but all of the supply chain that
> did business with the railroads. 
> And just as there are track plans, there must have
> been a lot of signal/comm plans to keep track of
> all of the circuits.   

As far as the signal lines, very little copper. Almost all signals lines were made of iron. Copper was used to deliver electricity to the system (often 480 VAC) and if the territory was CTC, then the two coded pulse lines (L1 and L2 for US&S) would be copper, usually to support 100 VDC.  Iron was sufficient for line relay voltages, typically 10 to 12 VDC, with circuits of 1/2 to 2 miles in lengths.

I can't speak for what the Communication Dept did. Their lines carried the phone, telegraph, and teletype traffic. Nor can I speak for what Western Union did. They least crossbars and had their own lines.

Another costly aspect for signal lines was line maintenance. This included brush and tree removal, storm damage, vandalism, damage from derailments and automobiles. And in some territories, like Donner, snow removal. Towards the end of the signal-line era, most railroads didn't want a Signalman to climb poles in order to eliminate injuries, preferring that they use bucket trucks. From a management standpoint, it was a no brainer to rid themselves of the signal line menace.

But I was always an admirer of railroad signal lines. They made a railroad look like a railroad. I miss them.

they do look naked with out them, the DRGW had just a telegraph wires along side, and big mainlines would be loaded sometimes on both sides.   They may have helped keep sprinklers from wandering onto the tracks occaisonally.  in todays meth head world, they would be problematic, just like the ones serving the few semaphores in NM.