Teletype

[NW Mailing List]

Mr. Burnett asked: "Does anyone have information about when Teletypes (abbreviated TTY) were first introduced on the N&W, and how long they lasted? I think they came around sometime in the 1940s. I can remember them being used at the time I hired in train service, 1964. And a guess, based on a few random memories, is that they were replaced some time in the mid- (perhaps) 1970s with those early, old-style pixel-printers which appeared about the time the American public began hearing that strange and incomprehensible word, "digital." Sadly, I was too focused on hand brakes, air hoses, switches, signals and Train Orders, and thought not to inquire or make mental notes about this very interesting technology from the 1920s. But I did pick up a sack full of those lovely 255-A can-type polar relays which were used in TTY transmission, and they are a thing of beauty for speed and delicacy of operation and and still fun to tinker with even today."

I think many railroads shifted to teletype for messages, freight consists, etc. around the 1940s but have no information. My understanding is that teletype improved consists and wheel reports because during the telegraph era, consists were generalized such as "12 box cars, one tank car, five gondolas, etc." The teletype enabled individual car initials, numbers, lading, and other information to be typed once. As blocks were added or deleted, a punched tape for those changes along with the original consist could be resent between offices.

Teletype was still in use at Potomac Yard during 1970 when I failed a typing test. I had used them at C&O Richmond Main Street Station and at QQ office in Richmond during the Summers of 1972 and 1973. At Virginia Electric & Power's Fuel Department in 1982, a successor to teletype was Telex and coal mines submitted offers in messages. By 1988, the first personal computers were see in offices but there was no Internet that I recall until it budded during 1982 among the more tech-savvy individuals.

Southern Railway used "Long-Distance Xerox" to send train orders to origin terminals as it eliminated operators during the late 1960s.  It constructed microwave relay towers to support these transmissions.  I believe Southern Railway was an early adopter of radio communication between the dispatcher and train engineer, again cutting out operators as middlemen for exchanging messages between a dispatcher and train crew.

For what it's worth,

Frank Scheer
f_scheer at yahoo.com