Seen this one? - Western Union Telegraph Car

Western Union Telegraph Car - Glen Cove 1946 Photo: Elmer Seifts Archive: RMLI


Anyone with further info on this? No LIRR reporting marks...

You probably know that the LIRR leased its right of ways for open wire lines to Western Union to carry telegrams. Nassau Tower, for example had a small patch board (on its south wall upstairs) with jacks and jumpers for the Western Union lines along the Main Line. As late as the 1970's the operator there was occasionally called and asked to switch the patch cables to allow access to different wires.

We must assume that some maintenance was done by Western Union personnel, and that car probably carried materials for wire repair and replacement.

Wester union probably stopped maintaining its wires when ATT started adding area codes and started using direct dialing from your phone o anywhere in the USA. As LD rates went down telegrams became less priority. WU did keep a lot of business work that used punch tape info to headquarters. It also switched to ATT long lines as 20 dedicated TT lines could operate on one pair of copper lines.

Microwave towers, Coax cable and the start of fiber optic cable around 1965 were the final nail in the coffin.

Signal did a lot of it too, when we'd address a signal supervisor on a Form 19, (going back here) it was "T&S O'booie" and when I'd asked what T&S was for, it was for telegraph and signal. Some references may be found around to that as well. Some locations you could see a lot of old telegraph equipment or remnants of it, Locust Valley and Montauk are two that come to mind. Alaska had railroad telegraphy up until the late 1980's, the equipment was easier to maintain and up until then satellite comms were unreliable to either atmospheric conditions and/or high latitude.

Once you set up the equipment it was relatively easy to maintain and fix, if you had a line break. The one thing that needed the most work was the batteries, which were big bulky jars that were open and leaked electrolyte as they discharged. Maintaining those would've necessitated having a boxcar like that to run up and down a system periodically.

Super insight/input folks! Thank you.

Additional input sent to me: (edited below) The complete link: https://www.train-museum.org/2018/11/27 ... r-project/

Approximately 120 such outfits were in use at the height of the repair and rebuilding work conducted by the Company from about 1920 to 1930. A slow decrease in camp car use occurred until the last full outfit was disbanded in 1960. At least one partial outfit operated
until September of 1963 when it was finally disbanded, as well.

Western Union retained some tool and material cars for company storage of materials nationwide as the camp car outfits were disbanded. These cars would be parked in railroad yards for access by Western Union personnel from their trucks in the 1950s and 1960s. The Museum’s car #3558 was last parked at the Atlanta repair office for the Company when it was acquired by the Atlanta Chapter, NRHS, in 1966.

A typical outfit consisted of a tool car, two former Pullman cars rebuilt as living quarters, and a material car similar in appearance to the tool car. The tool and material cars typically had only one diaphragm to connect it with the other three cars of the outfit. The other end was blind.

A tank car with water was included with the outfit where local water resources were hard to find.

he Tool Car also housed the Delco electric generator and glass batteries. These provided the electric lights for the entire outfit.

Lloyd Neal has studied railroad history and operations since he was a teenager in 1966. He retired in 2011 from a 36-year career as an auditor with the federal government. He has also retired from a part-time accounting business as well. He is a life member of the National Model Railroad Association. He is also a member of the Atlanta Chapter, National Railway Historical Society. He is the Assistant Librarian for the Southeastern Railway Museum.

west point wrote: ↑Sun Mar 20, 2022 10:33 pm

Microwave towers, Coax cable and the start of fiber optic cable around 1965 were the final nail in the coffin.

17 million annual telegrams each year might disagree with that final statement

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyN07jKXJ3o

Rbts Stn wrote: ↑Fri Apr 01, 2022 2:14 pm

west point wrote: ↑Sun Mar 20, 2022 10:33 pm

Microwave towers, Coax cable and the start of fiber optic cable around 1965 were the final nail in the coffin.

17 million annual telegrams each year might disagree with that final statement

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyN07jKXJ3o

That coffin was for Western Union using above ground lines beside the railway, not sending telegrams.

Observe the train-lines, signal and air. The car could be towed by a passenger train.

4behind2 wrote: ↑Fri Apr 01, 2022 9:22 pm Observe the train-lines, signal and air. The car could be towed by a passenger train.

But if 1946 picture why no steam line for passenger service. Might only be on trail of a train to facilitate dropping and adding from any passenger train.

Good point. A car built in the 1920's intended to be parked by itself for extended periods probably had a coal stove, but the signal line would be needed for movement, even on the rear of a passenger train. In fact, now that I think of it, I see what looks like a chimney sticking out of the roof.

Good eye; smokejack for stove!

Hi guys.
Having notice even more telegraph poles being removed and their ROW south of the main track Between bridge Hampton and east Hampton completely bulldozed clear for some project.
When was the last time this poles and the wire (long gone) were used to seen a message/call?
We’re they in service beyond the 1960?

That said the old poles are dropping fast, these 6 miles were full of them some In good condition considering their being long abandoned, Now all bulldozed.

workextra wrote:We’re they in service beyond the 1960?

Good question! No one I had known or met had recalled any use of Morse, and it could've been gone way before 1960, as the technology for magneto phones/block lines was mature prior to WW II. We still used the block lines up until the early 2000's, and I can still hear that AC hum/whine over the speakers from poorly grounded amps on certain branches, the ones along the Atlantic Branch were the worst. Also, Western Union dumped human operators for machines that used "telex" or some variation of teletype after WW II.

One thing that always struck me as odd was looking at how telegraph pole insulators became a collection item. I remember looking at the telegraph poles often after east of Amagansett, as they were easily seen along Montauk Hwy, and watching the insulators get pilfered over time. By the mid '90s, they were gone. There had been one on the last pole which was located on at the end of Montauk Yard, but it needed a ladder to get at, and finally the pole tumbled in Hurricane Sandy and all I could find was some fragments. When I go upstate you can see the same thing along the various ROW's along the Thruway, etc. as long abandoned poles get their insulators ripped off.

While Montauk was slow to get modern conveniences like Cable TV, etc., they did pick up a good phone system when NY Tel built a microwave link for the USAF radar station to Noyack in the early '50s. Or, even sooner when the Navy virtually took over Montauk during WW II. There was plenty evidence of it in the old station building, but unfortunately the "artists" erased most of that when they picked up the building. It was a shame as the ticket office was very well maintained, despite last seeing a ticket clerk (weekends only) in '95. It was amazing the poles lasted as long as it did without maintenance, and were a tribute to the folks who put them in. If anything, it may have lasted longer on some of the other branches, as mentioned earlier in this thread.

There’s still a significant number is poles left bell port area, no insulators.
And east of Hampton bays to montuak with several have succumbed or have simply been removed.
As I said previously all the poles between MP96 and MP 100 are completely knocked down. Some
Are laying in the brush In pieces south of their former ROW which had been cleared .
Montuak had one in the bush west of the Y.
Almost All of them are there through hither hills but very rough.

I found one recently that was well hidden that still has 4 insulators on it.
They won’t last line though.