Railroad time

[NW Mailing List]

A good explanation of Western Union synchronized clocks can be found at:

http://www.telegraph-office.com/pages/time.html

In the Norfolk & Western Historical Society Archives in Roanoke there is a 
large wall clock that once hung in the Virginian Railway yard office in 
Roanoke and was synchronized by a Western Union time signal.  I remember a 
similar clock on the wall of the Norfolk & Western Railway's Shafers 
Crossing roundhouse office in Roanoke.

Gordon Hamilton

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "NW Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
To: <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 26, 2011 10:29 PM
Subject: Railroad time



> Last night my mother gave me a railroad watch certification card for my 

> great-grandfather's watch that he used while the engineer on trains nos. 1 

> and 3 in the 1930's.  I know of the great wreak in 1891 that led to the 

> creation of special watches manufactured specifically for railroad 

> personnel. And I know these watches were required to be set to the correct 

> time every 14 days, and re-certified every 6 months.  But who kept the 

> official time (down to the second) and where did they get their time from?

>

> Today it's all computerized, but in the early days of steam when the 

> telegraph was king the concept of synchronized time seems very difficult 

> to attain.  Does anyone know how they did it?

>

> Regards,

>

> Blair Miller

>

> Sent from my iPad

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