Pneumatic Tube Message System at Shaffers Crossing

[NW Mailing List]

Yesterday I put out a little essay on the pneumatic tube system which TuscanRed.com used here in the Harrisburg area. 

A part of that little musing contained some memories of the pneumatic tubes the N&W used at SX. I am posting the N&W information to the List herewith. The younger generation would never imagine that the N&W had such a system in place. The tubes are, no doubt, still in place somewhere under the soil at SX. 

Somewhere I have several copies of the "Engine Tickets" mentioned. When I run across them, I'll scan one and post it to the List. 

-- abram burnett 



>> 

The only place I ever saw a functioning pneumatic tube system in a railroad operation was at Shaffers Crossing in West Roanoke. It had been installed as part of the 1942-1943 rebuilding of the Hump, and was really quite a clever operation. The system connected the Shaffers Crossing Yardmaster (on the second floor of the Hump Yard Office) with the Round House Foreman and the Crew Office. The system was used for the transmitting "Engine Tickets" between these three offices and worked on a system named "Ordered/Furnished/Called." Here's how the system worked... 

An "Engine Ticket" was a three-piece document about 10" wide, and the three portions were made separable by vertically punched perforations. When the Yardmaster wished to run a train, he removed one of the three-piece Engine Tickets from a book or pad (I can't remember which.) He filled out the left coupon, which was marked "ORDERED," indicating the time he wished to run the train, the destination, and the tonnage, and then send the entire ticket to the Round House Foreman through the pneumatic tube. 

When the Round House Foreman could furnish an engine good for the required tonnage, he indicated on his portion of the Engine Ticket, which was identified as the "FURNISHED" coupon, the time the engine would be available, and tubed the Engine Ticket to the Chief Crew Dispatcher. 

When the Crew Dispatcher could get a crew for the train, he filled in in his portion of the Engine Ticket indicating the time and the crew names. This was the "CALLED" portion of the Engine Ticket. The Crew Office then tubed the Engine Ticket back to the Yardmaster, and at that point the Yardmaster knew he had both an engine and a crew. The Yardmaster then hung the Engine Ticket up on a spike on the wall, where the Telegraph Operator and crews registering on duty could see it. Somewhere in the process the two coupons on the right were torn off... the Round House Foreman and the Crew Office each probably retained one of the coupons, but I am not sure of the exact procedure. At any rate, only the left coupon came back to the Yardmaster, and it had all three times on it: Ordered, Furnished and Called. 

"Ordered/Furnished/Called." A pretty slick system. The tubes were still in use when I hired in 1964, but I think they fell into disuse a year or two thereafter. By the 1970s, I think the three offices were working by telephone, but the Engine Tickets (showing Ordered, Furnished and Called times) were still hung up on a spike in the Hump Yard Master's office. 
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