First Use of Semaphores on the N&W: When ?

[NW Mailing List]

I would like to pose a question to the group, the answer to which will require some meditative interpretation of the evidence. 


When did the semaphore signal come into use on the N&W? 


Take note, I am >> N-O-T << speaking about semaphores used as automatic block signals. Rather, I am speaking of what, in the old parlance, were called "Station Signals," i.e. manually controlled semaphores located at telegraph offices (one for each direction,) indicating that a train was required to stop (for orders or some other purpose.) 


Here are some ingredients for the stew... 


(1) The telegraph was invented in 1844, and was first used to direct the movement of trains at Turners (now Harriman,) New York, on the Erie Railroad in 1851 or 1852. 


(2) I think the evidence indicates that a telegraph wire was in use on the Virginia & Tennessee RR at the time of its completion, 1857, but the use to the telegraph which it was put is not apparent. 


(3) Good photographic evidence exists covering the construction of the Trans Continental Railroad in 1869, and its stations were not at that time equipped with semaphore "station signals," and written accounts indicate that a red flag was displayed somewhere "at the station" should a train be required to stop. 


(4) The first interlocking in the country was installed at Trenton, NJ, in 1870, and having been purchased from England, it utilized semaphore arms (lower quadrant) as signals, a feature that brought comment due to its novelty. 


(5) Even a railroad as big as the Pennsylvania Railroad operated entirely without signals until 1875, at which time procedures for the manual blocking of trains were sketched out and the old "Banner Box" type signals were installed at telegraph offices, in preparation for the anticipated traffic crunch which would accompany the nation's Centennial celebration in Philadelphia. There seems to be no record of the use of semaphores on that railroad until the early 1880s. 

(5) I have no idea when Manual Block Rules were implemented on the N&W, but semaphores would have almost been a prerequisite for a manual block system. (The scheme of manually blocking trains was created by Ashbel Welch in 1865, for use on his Camden & Amboy RR, but it remained for the Train Rules Committee of the General Time Convention [predecessor of the American Railway Association] to formulate a comprehensive "Manual Block System" of operation in the mid-1880s.) 


And so I ask, when were semaphores introduced on the N&W ? 


Now that I have given everyone his home work assignment, please excuse me... I have to go study for my Russian class tomorrow ! 


-- abram burnett 
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