www.aldonco.com
IN FOR THE LONG HAUL: 109 YEARS OF RAILWAY SAFETY
priceless
S U MMER 2 0 1 3
Tracks, Time, and Telegraph Bind a Nation
May 10, 1869: A great day in
American history.
Locomotives of the
Central Pacific and the Union Pacific Railroads
face each other at Promontory Point, in northern
Utah. As construction crews and newspaper
reporters look on, and as the nation awaits the
news, a railroad official pounds a gold spike into a
silver-faced laurel tie of the final section of track.
Telegraph wires attached to the spike and hammer
instantly transmit each hammer blow to telegraph
offices back East. Then the telegraph operator at
Promontory Point taps out the word “DONE.” This
marks the completion of a transcontinental railroad
that stretches 1,907 miles from Council Bluffs, Iowa,
on the Missouri River, across the Rockies, to San
Francisco, California.
Currier and Ives 1872 colored lithograph: ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA TRUCKEE RIVER SIERRA-NEVADA. © Classic Stock/Masterfile.com
Promontory Point, Utah. May 10, 1869. Public
domain photo via Wikipedia.com
Begun in the middle of the Civil War and completed
six years later, the transcontinental railroad ended the
isolation of California, Oregon, and Washington from
the rest of the Union. Passengers and freight could
now travel entirely by rail from the Eastern seaboard
to the Pacific coast instead of having to go by sea
around the bottom of South America. This opened
the West to rapid settlement and development.
Within a few years, an extensive rail network linked
all parts of the nation, carrying passengers, freight
and U.S. mail on thousands of trains. The operation
of such a complex transportation system was only
made possible by three 19th Century innovations: 1)
the telegraph, 2) standard time zones, 3) a uniform
track gauge.
The Telegraph
Andrew J. Russell, Telegraph Corps at work, Weber
Canyon, Utah, c. 1868 (detail). Stereographic
collodion glass plate negative, 5 x 8 in. Collection of the
Oakland Museum of California. Purchase.
1844
Samuel F. B. Morse is credited with inventing
the magnetic telegraph. Morse also devised the code
that bears his name — a system of dots and dashes
representing the letters of the alphabet. By tapping
on the telegraph key, the operator could make or break
electrical contact, thereby creating short and long clicks.
These sounds could be instantly
recognized and recorded as
words by another operator a
thousand miles away. The
telegraph revolutionized
communication. It gave the Telegraph key, Central Pacific
railroads the means to issue
RR Co., 1860s. courtesy,
orders to its station masters
Division of Work & Industry,
NMAH, Smithsonian Institute
and train crews in real time.
The telegraph remained the principal means of
communication on the railroads until the 1920s, when
radio telephones took its place.
Time Zones
November 18, 1883. On this day, at
noon, a new concept of time came into being.
American and Canadian railroads began running
on Railroad Standard Time, a system in which the
North American continent was divided into five
time zones, each one hour apart (approximately
Hamilton Railroad
centered on a longitudinal meridian). We still
Watch ca. 1915.
use the original names for the United States zones:
©2013 Hamilton
Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific. A fifth zone,
International
Limited
for eastern Canada, was called Intercolonial, and then
later, Atlantic Time.
Gauge
1830- 1890
In railroad parlance,
gauge means the
distance between the
inside faces of two
parallel rails spiked
to wooden ties. The
flanged wheels of
railroad cars and engines require that the
gauge be kept to rather close tolerance to
avoid derailment.
In the past two centuries since railroads first
The growth of railroad traffic, the speed of trains, and the distances the
appeared, many different track gauges have
trains travelled made precise time-keeping essential. Time had always
been used, ranging from 7 feet wide to as
been determined locally by sun-dial, but how do you determine time for
narrow as 36 inches. But today, most of the
a railroad hundreds of miles long? Most railroads used the time of the
world’s railways — and almost
principal city on their line as a
all North American railroads George Stephenson
reference and kept their stations
— use what has come to be
informed by telegraph. At one
1781-1848
known as standard gauge unattributed image in
point the railroads operated on
the public domain via
(4´ 8½´´).
75 different time systems. At
wikipedia
stations where several railroads
Credit for the 4´ 8½´´ gauge must go to George
converged, a traveller would
Stephenson, the British engineer who has been
find a clock for each line, each
called “The Father of Railways.” In the 1820s
giving a different time. This
Stephenson built the first steam locomotive and the
chaos in time-keeping had led
first commercial railway in England. In deciding on
to numerous railroad accidents,
the gauge for his locomotives and track, Stephenson
1883
confusing timetables, and missed
followed the example of British coal mines, which
connections for travellers.
had traditionally built tracks 4´ 8´´ wide for their
The railroads set the boundaries of the
new time zones to include as much of their
horse-drawn coal wagons. Stephenson added 1/2´´
By the early 1880s, the huge
trackage possible within a zone. Note how
to reduce wheel binding when his faster-moving
growth in rail traffic had forced
Florida and a good part of South Carolina
locomotives entered a curve. Thus was born the
the railroads to develop a
were in Central time. Since then, time
4´ 8½´´ gauge. The term standard gauge probably
standardized way of keeping
zone boundaries have shifted considerably
originated when Parliament passed the Gauge Act
time. The change-over in 1883
westward and are still subject to change.
in 1846, making Stephenson’s gauge the standard
to standard time zones made it
possible to schedule more trains William Frederick Allen papers. Manuscripts and Archives Division, for British railways.
the New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations
on the same tracks with greater
The first American use of the 4´ 8½´´ gauge came
precision and safety.
in 1829, after engineers of the newly-formed Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad inspected Stephenson’s locomotives and railway.
The official time-keeper for the new time zones was the U.S. Naval
They decided his gauge was practical and adjusted their tracks
Observatory at Washington, D.C. For many years, the Observatory
accordingly.
had provided Washingtonians a local noon-time signal by dropping
a large rubber ball from a pole on the dome of the observatory. The
Other American railroads in this early period chose different gauges
Observatory now began sending its noon signal through Western
since there was little inter-connection between rail lines. But in 1863,
Union’s telegraph lines to all the railroads. This instantaneous messaging
when Congress authorized the construction of the transcontinental
of standardized time enabled station masters, dispatchers, and engineers
railroad, it looked ahead to future rail development and mandated
to synchronize their watches and clocks.
the 4´ 8½´´ gauge for the new line. By 1890, the need for a uniform
track gauge throughout the country had become an economic
The public reaction to the new railroad time zones was mixed. Some
imperative and most railroads converted. This meant that now
communities adopted railroad time and some did not. Many people
freight could be shipped across the country, from one rail line to
continued to rely on the sun for time-keeping into the early 1900s. In
another, without having to be reloaded onto different freight cars
1918, in the midst of WW I, Congress made time zones official by passdue to differences in track gauge.
ing the Standard Time Act.
References for works consulted in preparing this article appear on page 2
ALDON Company, Inc. | 3410 Sunset Avenue, Waukegan, Illinois 60087 | 847.623.8800 | aldonco.com | [email protected]
BASIC SPUR TRACK SAFETY
Blue Flag Signs & Holders
Clamp-On. Economical
and simple to use. For
exposed rail.
NOTE: Sign plates are not
included with sign holders. Standard and custom
wordings are available.
Magnet base. Just
plunk it down on any
rail surface — exposed
or flush rail. Rare earth
magnets hold sign in
place ... even in a high
wind.
Mousetrap Sign Holder
Derails
Cast Steel Wheel Chocks
Emergenc y stopping devices to
protect rail sidings and parked rail cars.
Permanent Hinged and Portable styles.
We have short and long-handled models with single
or double chocks. All are available for exposed and
for flush rail, with or without flags. Aldon cast steel
chocks feature rail-biting steel spurs to hold chock
snug against the wheel. Spurs can be turned three
times to a sharp edge and then replaced.
Track Clearance
Marker
standard sign plate wordings
DON’T FOUL THE SWITCH! Flexible,
durable, urethane cone clearly indicates
where to spot cars to avoid collisions
with cars on adjoining tracks.
MOUSE TRAP. Foot operated, spring loaded sign holder. Step on pedal, sign goes up.
Step on pedal again, sign falls down.
NO DAMAGE Box Car Door Openers
Use the power of your forklift to open stubborn box car doors
without damaging car door or forklift.
ALDOR for exterior docks
EASY-SLIDE for interior docks
Custom made to your forklift blade. Opens car
doors from within a 10-foot doorway.
If your exterior dock is at least 12 feet deep,
you can open car doors in a single parallel
pass alongside the box car. Fixed-length and
extended-length models available.
PLANT MAINTENANCE PRODUCTS
Molded from recycled polyethylene. Resist most chemicals.
© 2013, Aldon Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Stepped
Wedges
Stepped surface tilted down
for better grip. Lanyard is
provided to pull wedge free.
Hose and Pipe Walk-Over Bridge
Protect exposed hose lines
and piping and provide a
walkway for workers. Twopiece bridge snaps together
to create a ramp 70” long x
24” wide x 6.75” high. Holes
in Bridge accept two 3”, two
4” and two 5” hoses/pipes.
S teps are 8.5” long
and 3” tall.
Widths: 3” and 6”
Works Consulted for article on page 1
Ian R. Bartky, Selling the True Time: Nineteenth Century Time Keeping in America (Palo
Alto: Stanford University Press, 2000).
H. Roger Grant, The Railroad: The Life Story of a Technology (Santa Barbara: Greenwood, April 2005).
Douglas J. Puffert, “The Standardization of Track Gauge in North American Railways,
1830–1890,” The Journal of Economic History Vol. 60 No. 4 (2000): 933-60
ON LINE SEARCHES:
Wikipedia: “Standard Gauge” “Track Gauge” “History Time U.S.”
railroad.lindahall.org: “Time Standardization”
history.com: “railroads” “time zones”
Carbide-treated
surface provides
sure footing.
Yellow base with non-slip grit walking surface.
Shipped in two pieces, 70 pounds each.
ALDON Company, Inc. | 3410 Sunset Avenue, Waukegan, Illinois 60087 | 847.623.8800 | aldonco.com | [email protected]