Towers and Passenger Trains

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Mr. Bundy:

Did N&W towers "block with" adjacent open Train Order Offices, reporting times to them, after the advent of Automatic Block Signaling?  During my daze on the N&W I wasn't very cosmopolitan and didn't pick up on it, if they did.  From my recollections, I only heard open offices report trains to the DS.  But boy, you better not try stuff like that in heavily trafficked 4-track Rule 251 territory !
 Abe:
  I can't say with certainty that the open offices "blocked" trains before automatic block signals. A bit
  of clarity from a previous post -- After the elimination of train order offices on the PD District of the
  Pocahontas Division, the dispatcher recorded passing times at certain points (Iaeger was one of
  them).  Entries from the 1984 trains sheets show arrivals and departures rounded up to the nearest
  five minutes, i.e.   No. 86 arr'd Iaeger at 3:50 PM and departed at 3:55 PM.  This, too, kinda makes
  one wonder about the accuracy.

  Incidentally, in the 45 miles between the distant signal for the diamonds at Suffolk and the east
  end of traffic control  at Disputanta, the Crewe Dispatcher relied on the "dummy" operator east of
  Zuni for OS's .  In the 60's, this was one of those trackside defect detectors that made a racket
  as the train passed.   The "dummy" operator never transmitted "O Ss, so there weren't any
  penalty time claims.                                                   Harry Bundy  
 
 



 
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