A photo caption in a book reads as follows:
In the above context, what is the meaning of OS?
The book in question is Steel Wheels Rolling: A Personal Journey of Railroad Photography, by J. Parker Lamb, 2001, and the photo can be found on p 101. I&GN is the International & Great Northern Railroad, purchased by the Missouri Pacific in 1956. The reference to the Eagles is the MoPac railroad’s many passenger trains which included that word.
I have heard OS used as a phrase meaning departed a yard or “Out of Station”. When trains left our yards they would radio the yard office with their OS, such as: 6362 West OS Winona 1845 hrs.
Not sure about the “OS”, but the “Indian” statue is still there on the roof as it has always been, and it is occupied by a credit union (I am from the SA area). The credit union did a really good job of restoring the depot for use.
“OS” stands for “On Sheet”. In older days, a railroad employee known as an operator would write the train’s information such as engine number and direction, onto a form and then transmit the following to the train dispatcher: “IGN San Antonio, Extra 3447 North by at 10:10PM” That information let the dispatcher know where his trains were located.
It’s a dispatching term that means “has passed.” It stands for (depending on who you talk to) On Switch, On Station (or Out of Station), or On Sheet.
The control point in a CTC machine is referred to as the O.S. When a train lights it on the dispatcher’s board, that time is marked on the dispatcher’s electronic trainsheet in a column that is headed “Last OS.” That becomes the permanent record of the train’s movements.
Signal maintainers and engineers have adopted the term O.S. and use it to refer to the control point – everything between the facing signals and the insulated joints they stand beside.
RWM
O S was the telegraph symbol for train report. After telephones had supplanted the telegraph, the operators would still say “O S” when they called the dispatcher to make a report.
It was a sanctioned abbreviation in the rule book.
Jeff
Not the very best scan, but here is the photo w/caption under discussion:
Although not in the photo caption context, OS in transportation circles also means Optional Stopping.
Heard of it being On Sheet. Thats how Osco Illinois got its name. On Sheet Cattle Office or Osco.That was in the Rock Island and Peoria days.
The woulda coulda shouldas that everyone tries to say is for nothing back in the day it ment on sheet, but for the last 20 years its only means 1 thing location. last location backed up 3 miles. thats it not brain surgery.
In Southern Pacific’s unique rule book, it was not listed in the General Section, but in the Control Operators and Dispatchers Hand Book (an additional Rule Book for rules that applied only to Telegraphers (Operators), Levermen (Interlocking Operators), and Train Dispatchers) it was listed in the abbreviations section as On Sheet.
The time listed depended upon what the train was doing. Arriving at a terminal, it was when the caboose came to a stop on the recieving track (for matching against the train crews time sheet for pay purposes). The Telegrapher also kept a record of the time the markers passed the FP (Foul Point) on the yard lead.
Entering a siding, it was when the markers on the train passed the FP. When the train departed, it would be the time that movement commenced. Again, the Telegrapher would keep a time when the train was completely on the main track.
If there was no siding, or the train did not stop, it would be at the point where the timetable specified that “time would apply” - usually the point where the Station Sign was located. The train would be “by at (time)”.
So, arriving a train at Coos Bay (a terminal) the Telegrapher would say “OS MF”, the dispa