Why were accurate watches so important to operating a railroad? The common method of operation in the early years was to run trains on a time-interval system i.e., a train was required to leave a station a certain number of minutes behind an earlier train moving in the same direction. The list would include assistant superintendents, chief and train dispatchers, yardmasters, trainmasters and their assistants, stationmasters, conductors, brakemen and baggagemen, switch foremen, traveling engineers, engineers and firemen, roundhouse foremen and hostlers as well as division engineers and their assistants, section, bridge and building foremen, track, signal and bridge supervisors, and signal and telephone maintainers. All employees concerned with the operation of trains must have watches, and new men joining the Company in such capacity must purchase or be issued watches. This was required in order that a train crew member could not accidentally alter the time setting while winding their watch. Perhaps the feature that most recognizably defines a railroad watch is the lever setting. Most railroads eventually had their own Timekeepers Office, which was responsible for servicing, inspecting, and in some cases was the only approved source for watches approved for use on that specific railroad. These were the base standards for a railroad-grade watch, however, some railroads were more stringent in their requirements. be open faced, size 18 or 16, have a minimum of 17 jewels, adjusted to at least 5 positions, keep time accurately to within a gain or loss of only 30 seconds per week, adjusted to temperatures of 34 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit, have a double roller, steel escape wheel, lever set, micrometric regulator, winding stem at 12 o'clock, grade on back plate, use plain Arabic numbers printed bold and black on a white dial, and have bold black hands." As a result, in 1893, the General Railroad Timepiece Standards were adopted, which mandated the following standards for railroad watches: In the early days of railroading, when trains ran by strict time and timetable rules, that 4 minutes proved to be fatal.
From that day on, I knew I'd have to have one of those wonderful watches, and that like my grandfather, and father, I would be a CPR man one day.īut where did those watches come from, and why? As most know, the great North American railroad watch became an institution after a fatal crash in 1891, which was caused in part by the stopping and then restarting of the engineer's watch, which caused it to be 4 minutes slow. What really caught my attention at the time was the engineer's big gold pocket watch, firmly attached to his bib overalls, and how he explained to me how important that watch was to keeping his train running safely.
What a thrill to be lifted up into the inner sanctum of the cab and sat down upon the right hand seat. I can still remember standing next to those giant driving wheels, amidst the swirl of steam and the smell of coal smoke, as my grandfather introduced me to those gods of steam, then engineer and the conductor. I can remember, as a young boy, being taken by my grandfather to see the train coming in at Windsor Station in Montreal. When one thinks of the glory days of railroading, there are two images that inevitably come to mind, those of the steam locomotive, and the conductor with his gold pocket watch.
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