Dispatching Overview

In general, train directors and levermen were found at busier locations, dividing the functions performed by block operators at most towers. In the typical tower the block operator received instructions from the dispatcher and did everything necessary at his location, which could include lining routes and clearing signals, copying orders and handing them up to the engineer and conductor (as well as the engineer of the helper, if there was one), and retrieving the order hoop or fork after the orders were delivered. (This required either one or two trips downstairs: if order hoops were used, to stand there with 2 or 3 hoops as the train went by, thereafter retrieving the discarded hoops from the weeds (maybe leaving the retrieval until later if the phone was ringing upstairs or another move was imminent; if a post was provided for order forks, he could go back upstairs after placing the forks in the brackets, going downstairs again sometime after the train passed to get the empty forks.) At the same time he had to record all train times on his block record as well as reporting them to the dispatcher. A busier tower might require a train director and a leverman to split the workload. At "A" tower in New York Penn Station there were 2 train directors and 2 levermen. One train director would make the decisions and call out the routes to the levermen, each of whom worked one half of the machine. Both had to know what switches and signals were involved in any route called out, with no time to think about it -- reactions had to be immediate, and each leverman would move the levers on his portion of the machine. The other train director would note all times and any other information on the block record, and after 4 hours would swap positions with the other train director -- their function was considered to stressful to maintain for more than 4 hours at a time. I think the train directors also directed movements at the other 3 towers in Penn Station. (There was also at least one signal maintainer on duty continuously -- no time to send for one if there was a problem.)

In the beginning cTc was a registered trademark of the General Railway Signal Co. of Rochester, NY; the PRR bought most of their signal equipment from Union Switch & Signal, on line at Swissvale, PA, and referred to the practice as operation of trains by signal indication, with remote controlled interlockings, and the areas they controlled were referred to as Rule 261 territory. The job titles didn't change, and I believe there was a provision in the labor agreement that dispatchers could not operate the machines -- they still had to issue instructions to the operators. As a result the machines were mostly placed in the existing towers, with some consolidation of neighboring interlockings at one location, but no large-scale "control centers" as found on other railroads.

Simmons-Boardman published a paperbound book quite a few years ago called Railroad Operations and Railway Signaling, which contains some information that might be useful, and it was published at a time when that type of operation was prevalent. A more recent book, called The Railroad -- What It Is, What It Does, I think also published by Simmons-Boardman, may also be helpful. I don't know whether either of them is still in print, but copies may be available on the internet.