O.B. Kirkpatrick is the author if The Station Agent’s Blue Book, written in 1928 as a manual (523 pages) for railroad agents.
This is quite a book, covering just about everything that might occur to a station agent. It is in textbook form with questions at the end of each chapter. Chapters (44 total) cover everything from freight to passenger service, bills of lading, per diem, freight claims, diversion and reconsignment, storage, and accounting functions.
The book is based on 13 hypothetical United States railroads and shows all forms and accounting functions which might arise. It even has a hypothetical month (August) with listings of transactions which occur with reports due on the 1st, 15th, and 30th of the month.
Has anyone seen or read this book? Was this the standard manual for training agents back in the day?
Brousing thru the book, I have quite a respect for the responsibilities of agents. It would have been an interesting job…the railroad’s face in a community.
Maybe you’re not really here. Maybe none of us are. Perhaps we are holograms projected into this 3D reality simulation, and the “real” you is somewhere else.
Perhaps my late friend Chuck Harris read this book in his younger years. I got this quote in an email from Chuck a few years back. Chuck Harris was a telegrapher for the L&A and the SSW. “My field of expertise is in telegraphy, station accounts, waybills, consists, copying and handling train orders, dispatching, and maintaining a register where non-stopping trains threw off a register ticket. And, of course, selling tickets for passenger trains. Railroading as it was in 1948 thru 1955.”
Does it cover the art of getting a mule’s leg back inside a stock car after the mule kicked a slat off?[:)] Such supposedly really took place on the C&O’s Lexington division many years ago.
That’s really well-said - knowledgeable, pithy, and with a touch of irony perhaps. I hope he was proud of it - he should be. It would make a good epitaph or remembrance for the right person. Thanks for sharing.
I have a bumper sticker from my plumber that goes like this:
“A hundred years from now, they will gaze upon my work and marvel at my skills, but never know my name. AND THAT WILL BE GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME.” - HeatingHelp.com
I have a pen-and-ink cartoon drawing of a station which is entitled “Down at the Depot” (or maybe “Station” instead). It depicts a harassed agent in a throughly overwhelmed with clutter depot with about 5 people at once waiting for him - the name sign says J. Pluto Bolivar, if I recall correctly. People have compared my office to that at times. I have no idea what they’re talking about, though . . . . [:-^]
EDIT: It’s “At the Old Depot”, and a version - purportedly by a C.D. Poage - can be seen at:
Paul, if I must, I shall. The account of the question about how to handle the mule’s leg came from a C&O Big Sandy division dispatcher, who worked in the same room with the Lexington dispatcher. One day, the Big Sandy DS overheard two interchanges (in code) between the Lexington DS and a certain conductor, who seemed unable to handle any situation that was not covered in the rule book. In the first message, the conductor said that he was at a certain station, and had discovered that a mule had kicked a slat off the car, and asked, “What must I do?” (apparently, the station agent kept himself out of the problem) The answer was to get a hatchet and some nails and put the slat back on. Some time later, the same conductor sent a message from another station, and described a worse situation–one mule now had a leg outside the car after a slat had been kicked off. The agent at this station also excused himself from solving the problem. The DS did not have time to go into detail as to how get the mule’s leg back inside, but instructed the conductor, “Get that carload of mules in here any way you can, and we’ll make conductors out of them.” Naturally, the conductor felt abused by the response, and a few days later the DS was called into the superintendent’s office and asked to apologize to the conductor for calling him a jackass. The DS managed to save face, and the conductor left the office. After the door was closed, the DS turned around, and the superintendent was rolling on the floor, laughing: it seems that he was well aware of the conductor’s ability, and apparently had been put out with his actions in times past.
Again, I apologize to all conductors who may read this; I am certain that you who participate in these forums can handle any such situation that may arise in the co
[tup] Thanks, Johnny - a well-done summary of that tale !
Now, to keep this post on-topic, note that the important part of the station agent’s job here was to accurately and quickly transmit these messages, by telegraph - and while doing so, not fall on the floor laughing out loud !