N&W in 1908--Telegraph

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Bluefield Daily Telegraph
December 5, 1908

FLAT-TOP YARD TELEGRAPH OFFICE ABANDONED
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Two 'Phone Operators at Less Salary Displace Three Brass Pounders

    The Norfolk and Western will in the next day or two abandon Flat Top Yard as a telegraph and block office.  Telephones have been installed there with direct connection with the general office at Bluefield and in the future the train crews will receive instructions direct from the Bluefield headquarters.  Two men at a considerable less salary will displace the three operators and perform about the same service that is now performed.  Under a recent act of Congress it is unlawful to work a telegrapher who has to do with the handling of trains more than nine hours out of twenty-four.  This law forced the railroads of the country to put on hundreds of men in order not to violate the federal statute.  Many railroads of the country made various attempts to evade the law, some by closing for an hour the telegraph office which literally would seem to be keeping within the provision of the act, but the interstate commerce commission ruled that where a telegraph office was opened 13 [Indistinct. Best interpretation shown.] out of each 24 hours, such office was construed to be a day and night office, and hence the operators would not be kept on duty more that nine hours.
    The Flattop [sic] Yard office was one of the first telegraph offices opened by the Norfolk and Western when their line was completed into Pocahontas from Radford long before Bluefield was dreamed of as a terminal point.  The Norfolk and Western have now installed telephones in each office between Columbus and Bluefield, which are used by the operators in place of the telegraph wire in the blocking of trains.  This does not mean that train orders are handled over the 'phone.  The train dispatcher's wires are still used, and it is generally believed that the telephone will never displace the telegraph as a means of running trains.
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Gordon Hamilton
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