Last wknd I traveled to southwest KS to a estate sale of a retired SF worker who had several rr items for sale. A fool & his money, I came back home w/a trackside dispatcher phone box. Up until about 20 yrs ago, this was the primary method of train to dispatcher communication until the upgraded microwave radio systems were installed. In the 1980’s as a train watcher, I remember seeing phone boxes all along the trks. This now has all faded… I remember when the Mopac local would come in town, they stopped at the SF crossing, the brkmn would get off and walk almost one block to the phone to call the SF dispatcher to ask for a signal. Of course all this chatter now talkes place on the radio (or reverting back to phone via cell calls). My plans are to repaint the box silver, stencil it “phone”, mount it to a post and set it in my back yard. I just had concrete poured for a patio and I’m hoping to get this done in a few wks as I’m going to have a cookout. No doubt a phone box in my back yd will strike up interesting conversation from non rr people. Question: do any of you out there have a phone box in your personall collection? Its a item you just hear about in rr talk.
We still have one in use where i work, so there not totally gone yet.
Ya aught to get yourself a yard squawk box also, then ya would have alot of questions to answer.[:)]
I’ve got a fire box (rings 1 4), but not a railroad phone box…
Are you going to put a phone in it?
My dad had a large antique phone, with a crank on one side and the receiver and hook on the opposite, with a mouthpiece bell on teh front–wood finish. In the antique store he owned, he hinged the front of the phone and gutted it–inside he installed a working touch-tone wall phone. Two surprises–one when the thing rang, and another when you opened it up to answer the real phone (Dad’s day job was for the phone company).
i got a what someone told me was an old caboose phone… basicly its a small metal box that has a shoulder strap on so it can be carried… it has a phone type hand peice and 2 places where you can hook up 2 wires with tighten down screws to hold them in place as well as a place to put in 4 D sized batteries…it has Eire railroad in yellow paint stenscled on the sides… dont know nor did i ever do the resurch to find out if it was to be used at phone boxs type locations or was an early attempt of a hand held 2 way radio…
csx engineer
since i found this topic…i went to the closet and pulled it out to see if i could find a year made or anything like that on it…all i was able to find was a lable that says Monophone made by Automatic Electric and on the inside top cover is a small circit diagram of how the wireing is inside the unit…now im curiouse to when this was made… anyone have any ideas
csx engineer
…Larry, over in Johnstown, Pa. not too many years ago there were still fire boxes on poles at various locations. I did stop and take a pic of one of them, but I’m sure it’s not in digital…It’s a good clear photo too.
I would wager there are still some of them at various locations on poles. Of course none of them were in use anymore. I’m surprised there were any still there the way some people will take anything regardless to whom it belongs.
…Over in my home area in Pennsylvania on the S&C of ex B&O, one could see those concrete phone {shelters, booths}, along that railroad…I know of one person that has one on his home property…They were similar to octagon shaped and perhaps 6 or 7’ in height. Don’t know how anyone would have moved them off RR ROW to get them home…Surely, they had pretty good weight.
I’m guessing here, for the most part, but…
Googles for Monophone and Automatic Electric show products in the 30’s-50’s range. I couldn’t find anything that resembled what you describe. Is there a model number on the schematic anywhere?
As for usage, my suggestion would be that this phone would be carried in the caboose, and could be taken to a lineside pole and connected to the train wire (dispatcher’s phone line), either by scaling the pole or by having a wire pair available at ground level, perhaps in a phone box. That would help reduce vandalism and theft of the telephone instruments.
The conductor could also contact the dispatcher from virtually anywhere on the line. Not as convenient as radio, but a large step up from having to use Morse code (which was also done).
I don’t have a line side telephone box, but I do have an operator’s desk phone. The candlestick kind on the scissor extension with a headset. I have it hooked up to my phone line. I can’t dial out on it, but I can answer on it.
Out around Omaha there are still a couple of metal boxes stenciled “UP Phone.” The phones have been removed and the boxes are empty. There are also a few of those yard talk back/speakers around, also out of service.
Jeff
My understanding is that the conductor would have had a longish pole with a loop or contacts at the far end - and of course leads down to the bottom - with which he could reach up and tie into the Dispatcher’s line. Someplace I’ve seen a black-and-white photo of that . . . like in an old AAR or company PR publication . . . but I can’t quite recall exactly where, though.
- Paul North.
I ran a “Google Advanced Image Search” for “railroad telephone”, got 209 “hits” in return, clicked on this one first - titled “Telephones on the Narrow Gauge” - and immediately got some pretty useful information:
http://www.faradic.net/~gsraven/telegraph_tales/drgw/instruments/telephone.html
Click on the blue “hotlinks” within it, too, for more info, esp. this one for “The 1314-A Portable Railroad Telephone Set”:
http://www.faradic.net/~gsraven/telegraph_tales/drgw/instruments/1341a_fone_cat_sheet.JPG
Look around a little more, and enjoy !
- Paul North.
A general Google of “railroad telephone” led to this webpage, which is titled “Telephone Equipment in Railway Applications” on the “Telephone Tribute” website:
http://www.telephonetribute.com/railroad_phone_equip.htm
Most of this article is about the fixed installations and is pretty technical - beyond my easy comprehension. However, scroll down to the bottom and there is:
1.) A photo of a restored station agent’s installation at the Santa Rosa station of the NWP (Northwestern Pacific ?), though mislabeled as the “dispatcher’s desk”; and,
2.) Better yet, at the very bottom of the page is an illustration of what appears to be a conductor standing on the running board of a steam locomotive with flood waters halfway up its drivers, talking on the field phone with the portable phone box hung off one of the classification lights on the locomotive’s smokebox, and with the phone’s wires draped from the box to the phone’s pole hanging from an adjacent lineside pole, where it appears to be connected to the wire circuit. It appears to be from a reproduction of the front cover of the April 1913 Western-Electric News (magazine), Vol. II, No. 2. Check it out !
Right across our property line on the sunset line, there is a similar booth to what you’re describing, except that it’s round, witha pointed roof. It would remind you of a rocket. There is also one just like it at the railroad museum in New Braunfels, TX. I think we could have it for the railpark in Flatonia if we asked, but like you said, they must be awful heavy. My stepsons have a tractor, but where it sits it would be hard to get to. I’ve never actually gone up and looked at it closely, believe it or not, but that part of our property has a large copperhead population, and I can’t stand sneaky snakes!
m
Right across our property line on the sunset line, there is a similar booth to what you’re describing, except that it’s round, witha pointed roof. It would remind you of a rocket. There is also one just like it at the railroad museum in New Braunfels, TX. I think we could have it for the railpark in Flatonia if we asked, but like you said, they must be awfully heavy. My stepsons have a tractor, but where the booth sits it would be hard to get to. I’ve never actually gone up and looked at it closely, believe it or not, but that part of our property has a large copperhead population, and I can’t stand sneaky snakes!
m
I have been looking for a new place to live and one place the man had a phone box on an old pole with a cross arm. No phone in the box. I remember some phones on the CNW had a crank ringer. You had to crank so many long and so many short rings to get the tower you needed to talk to. The dispatcher phones were just an open line. You picked up the phone and listened to hear any talking and if no one was one the line you said hello dispatcher. Most anyone on that line at a tower or station with that line on a speaker could hear what you said. In the phone box there was notes with the code for each tower on that line. I would guess this is all gone now.
…Mike:
The Copperhead population would certainly keep me at a distance…Have no use for them…at all…!!!
Searching for “railway phone” I found this photo of a portable unit labeled as a “Railway Phone”, which is on the “Virtual Museum Canada” website, apparently from the Museum of Telecommunications at LaSalle, Quebec:
Clicking on the photo should result in an enlarged image, and clicking on the “TEXT ATTACHMENT” should result in a brief explanation in a pop-up window, which is consistent with the previous posts.
- Paul North.
that one is close to what i have but not 100%… i dont have any website to post pics i ook last night of it… or i would post them up…
csx engineer
Well, Quentin, I was out and about a couple of hours ago, so I ran down there. I got out and was going to climb up the grade to get a better look, but quit, as it’s quite steep there, and I didn’t want to fall on one of our brown scaled friends. But, I bet the thing weighs a TON! It’s about 7 ft. tall, about 3 ft. across, solid concrete, I’m guessing three inches thick, including the roof, and you can tell they poured it into a footing in the ground, no telling how deep. the bottom was about eye level from the right of way road. I told my wife about it, and she said it would be worth a try with the tractor, but then what? We have plenty of trailers on the place, to carry it, but I got to wondering how we’d deal with it once we got it to Flatonia. I was gonna talk to Sidetrack Tommy about it, but he was taking his beauty sleep and I told his wife not to bother him, it wasn’t that important. But this thread has gotten me interested in doing something with it, as it isn’t something you see all the time, and having one that close to our house and the possibility of putting it in the railpark is a cool idea.
Off the subject: Why do you call yourself Model Car? Do you still do them? If you do, do you have any pictures? If I had a dollar back for every one I’ve built in my life, I’d be a rich man, but I’m down to four of my favorites.
mike