N&W depot communications wiring

[NW Mailing List]

Good morning!
 
The attached O. Winston Link photo is from NIGHT TRICK and depicts the agent-operator at Waynesboro (Basic City), Virginia.  I have't seen other N&W interior agent's office views other than for Green Cove.  If anyone knows of other interior pictures by any photographer, I'd welcome the referral.
 
The details I am focusing upon are the communications wiring.  There appears to be twisted-pair insulated wires leading to the Western Union unit 1-C switchboard boxes.  Three are in view, which I am assuming are for telegraph wires such as dispatcher, message, and Western Union.  If they were used for telephone communications, there would need to be two unit 1-C switchboards used in tandem for each phone line.
 
Several questions come to mind:
 
1) Above the switchboards is a shelf with a battery box.  I think three large dry cells fit into this size of a container.  How were the batteries used in the circuit(s)?
 
2)  On top of one of the unit 1-C switchboard is a small box which held spare lightning arrestors.  Has anyone seen an original box?
 
3) There is a Chicago Railway Telephone visible on the desk.  What sort of switchboard was used for this?  Nothing appears in the view for the telephone wiring, but I'll assuming that the phone lines entered the office at the same location as the telegraph wires.
 
4) These "pipe phones" had a press-to-talk button on the bottom left side of the box below the microphone.  Was a floor switch ever used so that the operator didn't have to use one hand to press the button when using the phone?
 
5) Any thoughts about what forms might have been on the various clipboards hanging on the walls?
 
Best wishes,
 
Frank Scheer
f_scheer at yahoo.com
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