A new member of the forum is registered under “O.S.” If it is something personal, no need to entertain my prying, but if it is rail related, what does it stand for?
A poster formerly known as “Gabe”
I don’t mind saying. It’s a convenient handle, like LC for LimitedClear or Overmod – whatever THAT means, or Gabe, which stands for “Get another beer, Ethel.” OK, I’m probably making that last one up. [:D]
OS means “On Sheet.” When a train passes a control point in CTC or 251 territory, or a station in timetable and train-order territory, the time of its passage is noted on the train sheet in the proper place. Train sheets are like big spread-sheets, with all the timetable stations for that territory preprinted in a vertical column. Vertical columns are drawn on either side of the station column, and a convention is established that sets all the columns on one side as westward (or southward) and all the columns on the other side as eastward (or northward). Horizontal lines are drawn between each station and across the width of the sheet, dividing it into boxes.
Each train gets its own vertical column on the side of the sheet that corresponds with its direction of movement. A train enters the trainsheet at the station at which it starts, and as it progresses the time at which it passes each open station is reported by that station and entered by the dispatcher onto the train sheet. This forms a permanent record of how the railroad was operated, and by its very nature it establishes a dynamic record of each train’s movement authority. You can look back at it later to see patterns from which major operational and investment decisions are derived, to see where improvements in efficiency might be obtained, and to understand how a collision caused by an authority excursion came about, and where the error started.
In the trainorder and timetable days, operators in open stations “OS’d” each train to the dispatcher by telegraph or telephone, sending a message like “OS X5431W at Cisco, 10:13.” Closed or unmanned stations couldn’t report, of course, and unless there was a temporary or permanent requirement for the train to OS itself by telephone or radio at a given st
OS:
In the days before computers were CTC machines; other than being glued to the light how did the dispatcher get the exact time a train crossed an OS point for the sheet?
Actually, the paper train sheet lasted a long time into the computerized CTC machine era. Some offices only stopped using paper sheets as recently as 5 or so years ago. An old head like BaltACD can answer this better, because the old relay machines with levers were gone from most roads by the time I hired out, but as I recall being told, the dispatcher watched the track lights and entered the correct ID manually on the train sheet each time a train lit up a track light at a control point. A bell dinged on some machines, too. A recording pen on a moving paper roll (or wheel) also recorded train movements graphically – you’d insert a new roll or wheel every 24 hours or some shorter period. Essentially the same thing occurred with the early computerized CTC machines.
I should add, all improvements technology and the elimination of old types of busywork have been matched – or exceeded – by a commensurate increase in workload and new and truly egregious types of busywork. Technology hasn’t made the dispatcher’s job easier, only harder, because it has enabled the territories covered by one man to become mammoth. The old image of the dispatcher studying his trainsheet while smoke slowly curls upward from the lit cigarette in one hand before issuing some pithy and brilliant order that meets four trains and a track machine, has been replaced by a madhouse of 10 to 20 phone lines and radio calls all lit up and waiting from before dawn to after dusk, while 30 or more trains are looking for a signal and crew times tick toward pumpkin time – and after dusk, consoles are combined. Every time I walk into a dispatching office these days, the urge to actually, physically, bolt for the door and run until I’m over the horizon is almost uncontrollable.
OS
On the other hand O.S. could stand for a common expletive heard in the dispatch office when a train crew reports that the last operating locomotive on their train just died. [V][banghead]
That would be much too mild.[:)]
I hear the UP use that word when talking to a train when the in a Signal block.
“Contact me when you get in the OS!”
O.S.
thanks for the information.
stay safe
Joe
To optometrists, O.S. means oculus sinister (left eye). Isn’t it interesting that sinister (from Latin) means left. How appropriate that left wing politicians are sinister. Larry
I’ve been called a lot of things, though sinister is a new one. Oh well, if the shoe fits … However, I must declare that I’ve always been right-handed.
Sinister is indeed Latin for left. Because most people are right handed, they carry a weapon in their right hand, and the left side became the side unguarded, therefore the unlucky side. So the first synonym for left became unlucky. Unlucky came to mean the same as unfavorable, unfavorable to bad, bad to evil. The fact that left-wing and sinister share the same root is coincidence. Had 90% of us been left-handed instead of right, you’d be joking that right-wing politcians are evil.
And Ned Flanders has cut you from his Christmas Card list.
OS
OS:
My recollection of years long gone is that O.S. meant “Out of Station.” Is that viable, or am I all washed up?
The are several variations, On Sheet and Out of Station are the two most common. In my experience Out of Station was considered the definition.
Dave H.
K.P.: The old head dispatchers I’ve worked with, some with seniority dates back into the 1940s, all insist that OS means On Sheet. But perhaps it meant something else somewhere else – like in the East. Alas, the bookshelves are all a bit sketchy on the origin of OS. Most of them equivocate between On Sheet and On Station. No source I can find says Out of Station. So I spent some time reviewing “Rights of Trains,” 1954 edition (originally published 1904) and the rule books to see if I could arrive at a logical rationale for OS meaning On Sheet or On Station – or maybe Out of Station.
What I see in the rules is that OS from a dispatcher’s or operator’s point of view must refer to the front of the train, not the rear. The reason has to do with how trains were granted authority to occupy a main track in train-order days, and the fact that trains are prioritized. Trains are directional, and the direction is forward. In order to move a train, authority must extend in front of a train. The dispatcher didn’t concern himself with the location of the rear of a train, because it was protected from following movements by a flagman as well as the 10-minute separation between following trains. At a meet, the rear of the train is self-protected, because the inferior train could visually verify that the superior train hadn’t cleared the meeting point.
The highest priority train on a railroad is the first-class passenger train. By rule the trains running in one direction are superior to trains of the same class running in the opposite direction. Thus the entire railroad runs off the schedule of the first-class passenger train that runs in the superior direction. That train shall not be delayed, so the dispatcher wants all inferior trains tucked out of the way at least five minutes before the first-class train arrives. Thus, the time that is most important to the dispatcher is the time the first-class arrives at an open station, because that’s the last time from which
Read this thread yesterday…
Decided to ask the yardmasters where I work what they thought…four former SP dispatchers, four guys from UP, a boomer and a guy from the PTRA ranks…the SP guys said On Station, the UP guys said On Sheet, and the boomer said On Sheet as well…the PTRA guy never used the term at all.
By the way, the boomer worked for the Santa Fe, the Rock, the Katy, then us…
4 On Station
5 On Sheet
1 don’t know
Ed
On Sheet.
And I didn’t have to ask anyone to determine this. I was a train dispatcher for 17 years. No other meaning that I ever heard of…
For anyone who’s curious, a short Latin lesson:
Sinister=left
Dexter=right.
I suspect that prejudicial connotations were added when the terms moved to other languages, notably ours.
Brothers and sisters We here in indianapolis still have to OS ALL of our trains on trainsheets.
As an ex-telegrapher and interlocking operator for the SP.
Yes, you are concerned with the front of the train. However, when you OS’d a train it either “arrived”, “departed” or was “by”.
To arrive a train, you first had to know that its markers were in the clear or past the point where time applied if not between siding switches. This was particularly important if a train was having to double since the front “1/2” of the train would arrive, but the rear half would still be out on the railroad somewhere. You could tell the dspr what was going on, but you could not arrive the train because it wasn’t all there.
To depart a train, if it was starting from a yard, such as its originating station, it would be departed at the point of first movement after permission to depart had been given. This time had to match the engine crews departure time. You then told the dispatcher when the train was completely on the main. At a siding, after a meet, if at an open office, it was when the markers cleared the points and the rean man had lined the gate and was aboard. If the train had stopped on the main, it was departed when movement first began again.
If the train roared right by without stopping and it was a timetable movement, it was either “by OT” (On Time) or “by at (time)” which was the time the markers went by the depot or the point where time applied. Extra movements were “by at (time)”.
Interlockings, where they were controlled from a remote spot, or where the point(s) where time applies were not clearly visable to the operator, required a track occupancy indicator which “lit” when the front of the train crossed its point and “extinguished” when it had passed. With a CTC machine (all on our division were CTC machines - the USS relay/lever type -) and also the indicator type, CTC rules applied and you can get a real detailed explanation from OS above.
Having said all of the above, I clearly remember my first Rules Examiner correct me
Thank you OD, Vermontanan, Ed Blysard, and csx-dispatcher for expanding my knowledge. The rule that Eric cites brings more clarity to my understanding of OS’ing a train in the days of yore than all my airy discussion did.
OS
While I have heard all the other acronyms for “OS,” we should recall its earliest use back in the days of Block (Station) Operators and Timetable and Train Order Territory. Pneumatic and Armstrong levers mechanically linked to semaphore signals and all that romantic nonsense ruled the day. The dispatcher contacts the operator (telegraphically though later by company phone line) and has the operator copy orders for the next Westbound. “Copy 6 West.” The operator copies the orders, repeats them back, sets the signal to Pick Up Orders and fixes the orders in a stand or hand held hoop for delivery. When the train picks up the orders, the operator notes the time and reports to the dispatcher Train Such and Such OS Station Whatever at 12:01 am. The operator is reporting. “Orders and Signals.” At least back then… G. Span