[GreenKeys] OT: Teletypes, Telephone & Railroads

[Charles Ring]

My first exposure to Teletype was at age 8 or so at the PRR office where 
my dad was yardmaster. When they moved from a very old small building to 
a newer one down the track, they replaced  the 19 with a 28ASR.  At some 
point after the merger they switched to  Friden Flexowriters  and iirc 
then back to Teletype (?). About the PRR phone system, i remember from 
the 60's that the railroad phone lines had really poor sound quality and 
noise. Can't complain though as it was good enough for my parents to 
meet each other in 1950 by.


pdwills at cedarknolltelephone.com wrote:
> Most railroads had very extensive communications networks
> with trunk facilities that could handle all manner of AC and
> DC communications.  My experience was mostly with ex-PRR
> facilities which were built to AT&T toll grade standards
> using Western Electric equipment and cable.
>
> The trunk circuits were usually phantoms with three voice
> paths and four telegraph/teletype paths.  Later, the DC
> paths were used for dial signalling and the teletype was
> moved over to FSK carrier units.
>
> There was a set of regenerative repeaters in the Pittsburgh
> station that I am still kicking myself over not grabbing
> when I had a chance!
>
> Someone asked about the nature of the Teletype traffic the
> PRR sent but I only remember the CT-220 reports (passenger
> train consists) of the early Amtrak era (1977-1978).  The
> service went between New York and Washington and it was the
> last vestige of the PRR TTY network.
>
> A lot of business traffic must have gone by Teletype since
> they had full Teletype message facilities in the major
> cities.  There was at least one Teletype switchboard in
> Philadelphia.
>
> There were a lot of local loops for special functions such
> as distributing information within a large station or
> sending consist information to a hump tower.  Hopefully,
> there are those on this list who would know more about the
> subject.
>
> PDW
>
> ----- Original Message Follows -----
> From: John Hensley <w5jv at hotmail.com>
> To: <greenkeys at mailman.qth.net>
> Subject: [GreenKeys] OT: Teletypes, Telephone & Railroads
> Date: Thu, 16 Apr 2009 17:14:48 +0000
>
>   
>> Maybe its a two thing: two wires, two rails ... i.e. what
>> can you do over two wires or two rails ... I know that for
>> years private offices had their ASR's running off a
>> telephone modem of sorts as did Telegram Offices.  I
>> suppose the railroads did the same (use existing telephone
>> lines).   ... semaphore is two flags ...  the first
>> telegram delivery vehicle was on two feet until the
>> bicycle was needed (two wheels) ... morse and baudit both
>> pattern their language after two components (one short,
>> one long) ... and there were, by the way, two signal lamps
>> hanging in the Boston tower alerting locals that the
>> British were detected on the sea route ... 
>>
>>     
>>>>> http://dvice.com/archives/2009/03/astonishing_mos.php
>>>>>           
>>     
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