Emergency telephone.

[NW Mailing List]

Up to the wide spread use of radios.  This emergency phone was stashed in
the caboose with a collapsible wood pole to pick up the wires and clip them
to the overhead wires.  One can find these emergency phones for sale
occasionally.  The poles are much more rare.  The white insulators were used
to indicate the 'correct' wires for communication hook-up.

 

Normal crew-to-dispatcher talk was on the line side phone placed by signals
or sidings.  These fit the operating practices of the district better.  The
emergency phone was used for break-downs and such where getting to a
line-side phone was difficult.

 

Gary Rolih 

 

From: nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org
[mailto:nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org] On Behalf Of NW Mailing List
Sent: Thursday, August 01, 2013 8:37 AM
To: NW Mailing List
Subject: Re: line poles

 

What era was that Gary? 

 

My father started on the Radford Division in 1947 but he never heard of any
such thing done by the train crew, they always had to walk to a lineside
box. A signal maintainer, yes, that is who I got my metal phone from, but
I've never heard of train crews doing such.

 

Just curious.

 

Ken Miller

 

On Jul 31, 2013, at 1:07 PM, NW Mailing List wrote:





The two white insulators were for the telephone line to the dispatcher in
the older days.  Train crews could carry a telephone that could be clipped
to these. 

 

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