Pennsy influences

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2005 21:24:06 -0500 
To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org 
From: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Subject: The Term "CT"

At the risk of setting off all kinds of alarm bells
and being accused of "bad faith" and other rancorous
persuasions, I'll nevertheless pose a question.  Many
will have speculations, few will have information. 
So, here goes...

In N&W parlance, thinking and history, what did the
letters "CT" (or "C.T.") stand for?

An answer can probably be offered by those who have
read the annual reports of the 1880s and 1890s. (Which
I haven't...)

I have found use of that term in the Cumberland Valley
RR annual reports from the 1870s, where it meant
"Chief of Transportion."  Along with the 
Master of Machinery and the King Tut of Track (who's
official monkier I have forgotten,) the "Chief of
Transportation" made a dutiful yearly appearance in
the annual reports, accounting for his stewardship of
his department during the previous year.

Given the fact that E. W. Clarke & Co. brought into
the N&W mix some people of ... er, shall we say
"northern extraction"... is it possible that 
these gentlemen brought the "CT" nomenclature along in
their carpet bags?  That "other" railroad from which
some of them came (ya know, that other 
ray-road that used Tuscan Red on its passenger
equipment) continued to have an officer called the
"Chief of Transportation" at least through the early
1930s, perhaps later.

Do the N&W annual reports shed any light on the use of
"C.T." on the old Narrow & Weedy RR/Ry (as R.H. Smith
was said to have called it) ?  Or is the issue lost in
the dustbin of history and addressed only by 
uninformed speculation?

Let the dog fighting begin !

-- abramo burnett

Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2005 22:17:36 EST 
To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org 
From: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org 
Subject:  Re: The Term "CT"

CT = Conducting Transportation. Remember the Form
CT-37 ?  On the other hand, maybe you never filed one.
                                                    
Harry Bundy



February 13, 2005

Hello, Abram:

Thinking that your point is that "C.T." was one of the
Pennsylvania Railroad influences upon the N&W, I
believe you are right.  The fact that N&W converted
from semaphore to position light signals after 1923 is
another outward sign.

It is the ultimate irony that the "Standard Railroad
of the World" appears as the revived reporting mark
"PRR" on some NS locomotives that were received when
Conrail was partitioned.  The same irony extends to
"NYC" for CSXT when at one time the New York Central
System extended its influence over the C&O.

If your underlying interest in the "C.T." abbreviation
has a different thrust, I hope you'll elaborate. 
Harry's explanation is probably better founded than my
one-time belief that it meant "communications and
transportation" for forms associated with the
operating side of the company.

GN&GM




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