Page 202 - 38. MRH13-04-Apr2013

"19 East, Copy Three - 2
showed how to set up a timetable and apply TT&TO to a model
railroad. This book combines both sets of articles into one vol-
ume and improves some of the writing and illustrations. It is
loaded with useful graphics, examples, forms, and good color
photos.
Timetable and train order operation came into being on North
American railroads in the late 1800s and was commonplace
until the mid-1970s. Only in the past few months has the Long
Island Railroad phased out the use of traditional TT&TO. The
system relied on a printed schedule, a dispatcher, a network
of train order stations and operators, telegraph to pass along
orders, a system of rules, and railroaders well-schooled in
operations.
“19 East” will not tell the model railroad hobbyist precisely
how operations were handled over Marias Pass on the Great
Northern in the 1920s, or the SP's Santa Cruz branch in the
1960s, or any of the very specific situations modelers like to
replicate, but it will give a very good grounding in the system
that most U.S. railroads used for a very long time.
Previously, people interested in TT&TO were advised to read
Peter Josserand's “Rights of Trains,” a professional manual
intended for working railroaders. The information was there,
but it was tough for an amateur to plow through put the dis-
patching system into practice. “19 East” uses numerous exam-
ples, from simple to complex, to show how train orders work
in the real world. Chapter 10 is a useful “Dispatcher Shortcuts,
Timetables and Miscellaneous Items,” the kind of things you
might learn if you were lucky enough to know an experienced
dispatcher – not the sort of information printed in a manual.
Here is an excerpt from "19 East, Copy Three"
index contents
MRH-Apr 2013