[GreenKeys] Western-Union time service

[Til128 at aol.com]

Hi gang:
  I'm copying this information from the "slowspeedwire" group. (Hi  Derek)
  They are a group of ex-railroad telegraphers. I hope you find this  as 
interesting as I did.
  -----------------------------------------------------
 
The time signal for the road offices came by the Morse wire at noon. About  
11:56:05 a message would come on the wire " t i m e f l a s h t i m e " Then at 
 11:57 the sounder would start a series of dashed I imagine one second apart. 
 This continued thru the first minute, then a pause and it would start off on 
the  11:58 minute. Then a pause and the start of the 11:59 minute. At the end 
of that  minute a slight pause and the 12 noon click would be given and then 
a period,  I'm sure the signal was from a tape in WUX I believe from Richmond. 
It was the  Naval Observatory time. All stations had to set their office 
clocks  accordingly.

Along line of road most offices were furnished a Seth Thomas  clock vintage 
1876. There is one in the Smithsonian in DC.... In some of the  offices they 
had replaced the Seth Thomas clocks with the synchronous electric  clocks.

At Pot Yard, we had a clock loop that to the best of my knowledge  came from 
Washington over the PRR cable or it may have been provided by a  C&P Cable. At 
any rate, it went into the crew clerks office to a standard  clock. The 
Western Union would put a DC pulse on that loop every hour to set the  clocks on 
the loop. The clock had a heart shaped cam in it and a follower on the  cam. If 
the clock was less than thirty seconds off, it would be set It had a  very 
simple motor to wind it. A bar with contacts would descend as the clock ran  down 
and make contact with two contacts, part of the motor, This caused the  motor 
to make and break and it would operate a lever against a cogged wheel and  as 
it pulsed it would wind the clock. This occurred hourly. We had to put two  
No. 6 dry cells in the clock periodically to keep it going. Cocke and Co,  
Jewelers in Richmond was supposed to maintain the clocks but when the clock in  
the crew clerk's office stopped I was called and
by replacing the batteries  it would go for a time. It finally quit when the 
crew clerk was moved to the new  office building....

The clock loop went on down to 41 yard office and  grounded there. Those were 
the only two offices so endowed at Pot Yd. Richmond  had clocks tied in with 
the Western Union I know in the dispatcher's office and  the Chief ?Engineer's 
office. It may have gone to the Stationmaster's office.  but I'm not sure. 
Not to familiar with the Richmond set up.

The PRR sent  out the time signals on their selector ringing system. I don't 
know if it was  the dispatcher's or the power director's ringing circuit. 


73,
DE:  Tom Tillson
All Things  Electromechanical.
ITTY
GREENKEYS
HEAVYMETAL
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