Passenger Operations

I was recently going through a number of documents that I have regarding passenger operations. It's not something I have dug into a lot, simply because on my layout it's just a station stop for every train that comes through. But when researching what I had on the Conductors' Reports for the freight operations, I found that I had the information regarding Forms 1591-1595 for the Conductors' Passenger Train Reports.

I have three different copies of General Manual of Instructions for Conductors and Ticket Collectors.

This one dated February 1, 1937 is incomplete and only contains pages 25-34, 69-72, 111-121-A plus an appendix with a map. It also has a second, slightly different, set of 113-121 and the map which is evident because of slight formatting differences.

I recently acquired one of these other two. They are undated and, I thought, identical. It turns out they weren't. The Traffic Manager and Auditor are different at the bottom of the cover. 

At the bottom of most pages are notations indicating when that page was published. For example:

3rd revised page 71 - Eff. 1-1-44

Correction No. 137

Not all of them have this notation, and some that have a revision notation don't have the correction notation. But after looking through it, it seemed clear that the Correction No. was sequential and indicated the number of changes that had been made in the booklet as a whole over time. I was unclear whether the Revision No. indicated is was the 3rd Revised page in that issue of the booklet, or the 3rd Revision of that specific page. While pondering this, I noticed that the two later books weren't identical, and had a number of different pages that are easy to identify because of this notation. Curious, I made a spreadsheet to identify the differences.

It became clear that the Revision number was probably referring to that specific page. The book confirmed this and also another practice that I had identified in numbering the forms, but had never seen in writing.

INTRODUCTORY

(c) This Manual supersedes all previous Passenger Traffic Department and Accounting Department circulars. The instructions are issued in loose leaf form and all additions, cancellations and amendments will be published in loose leaf revised pages with effective date shown thereon. When page is reprinted the first time, it will be designed "1st revised page." Each subsequent reprint of such a page will be numbered consecutively, i/e/ "2nd revised page," "3rd revised page," etc. When there is not enough space on a single page for additions, changes, etc. additional pages will be added as may be necessary, and to which the same page number will be given, but in addition thereto, a letter in alphabetical sequence will be shown as "page 10-A", etc. On revised pages the symbol "*" will be shown against items which have been added or amended, but not against items brought forward to revised pages without change.

This entry confirmed the way the railroad identifies revisions of a form:

(g) Suffix number shown on forms after regular form number refer merely to the number of times that form as been revised; for instances, form 346-13 is the thirteenth revision of form 346. For this reason form suffix numbers are not shown in these instructions.

The section I referred to before, regarding the Conductors' Reports, is inserted in the books prior to the Index, and numbered from page 1 to 5. The Index uses Roman numerals for the page numbers (I-VI), and then the book starts at page 1 again. I find it interesting that it is inserted in two different books since it's not contained within the Index. It's the same format (size and number of holes punched) so it appears it was designed to be added to it, but for whatever reason was not incorporated into it.

Oddly, page V of the Index has the same revision and correction number in both copies, but differ significantly in their content. It is primarily a list of corrections, in one book from Correction No. 277 to 476 and in the other book from 400 to 583. Both are 1st revisions, Correction No. 276 and dated 7-1-55.

I didn't notice such an error elsewhere, but it seems like this is a rather important page to get correct...

The book is primarily concerned with the processes of collecting tickets, payment, and verifying that every passenger has paid (including checking the saloons). For example, I didn't realize there was a $0.90 surcharge for the Hell Gate Bridge that had to be collected if the ticket didn't already include it. The map I mentioned shows various non-New Haven routes for which passage over Hell Gate Bridge is free. The second (almost identical) version of the map doesn't reference the Bridge Arbitary at all, and instead is referencing free transfer privileges in New York and Grand Central Station.

Once I started digging, I decided it would be easier to make a spreadsheet and found that only about a third of the pages are the same across all three books. Another third is the same in at least two of them, and the final third is different in all three. I even started compiling a comparison of all of the differences but, while interesting, I decided it was an exercise better left for later (or someone else) since the minutia of changes in collecting tickets on the NH wasn't very relevant for what I'm doing.

Model Operations

Something that is often forgotten when operating passenger trains on a model railroad is that the time listed in the time table is the departure of the train, not arrival. Sometimes it will list both the arrival and departure. So to run on schedule it's important to arrive several minutes early, but not leave the station until the time noted on the Time Table.

From a modeling standpoint, there is little here that is likely to be used, but there are options. At RPI we experimented with some simple paperwork to simulate the basic job, and make station stops a bit more interesting (and probably last a little longer. 

In the bill box there were "waybills" for people and baggage. Each one had a train number, and either the number of people or pieces of baggage that got on or off. A simple table was used to track the number on the run and, if I recall, we experimented with either picking up or leaving the cards there for the next session. 

It would be easy to go a step further if one was more interested in passenger operations by using the actual Conductors' Reports, and replicas of the tickets and baggage check tags instead.

Model passenger trains are often run with just an engineer, even when the layout has two-person crews for freights. But with a passenger conductor, they could handle the tickets and complete the conductor's report. 

It would be educational, and interesting to me anyway, for a layout with long passenger runs. Particularly on our shorter-than-prototype runs, and makes the process more than just run-stop-wait and repeat.

At RPI, one of the few layouts I've run with very long (and frequent) passenger runs, there were often long waits after arriving at the station since the short runs (even with a fast clock) made it difficult to replicate travel time between stations. The paperwork helped fill these longer waits, and also drew attention away from them.

Completing such paperwork certainly won't be for everybody. But if your layout is particularly focused on passenger operations it seems like it could be an interesting addition.

Here's a variety of tickets, each of which is mentioned in the manual and serve different purposes. There are many others that I don't have copies of yet.

Exch 23

A ticket for cash fares beyond conductor's run to stations on:

B&A, B&M, and PRR. Also used for stop-over.

CFEX

To New York and return.

This is noted as a change effective 7-1-55. It isn't present in the 7-1-61 update.

OW3

A one-way ticket for all stations except Cape Cod Points.

Since there is text on the back of this one, here it is:

RT-3

A round-trip ticket for all stations except Cape Cod points.

Fu 2-X and LB-PSX

Neither of these are listed in any of the three books.

The first form looks like it is for furloughed military personnel. It's not dated, perhaps during WWII?

The second is for Pullman travel, which I think was needed in addition to regular ticket.

PA-861-2, -3, -9, and -10.

While the number after the dash is usually a revision, these all have different info on the front. They aren't listed in the books, at least under the forms, but the instructions indicate they are to be used to account for tickets that are not lifted (taken from the passenger). A physical ticket or form appears to be required to correspond with the report submitted by the conductor at the end of the run.

They had specific envelopes to return the reports/completed forms. Sleeping cars and club cars had separate envelopes from the tickets. I don't have any of these specific envelopes listed, but they can be recognized because they also have form numbers. This one is listed in the book as a plain envelope, small.

Unexpected Information

Last week I wrote about some information I found in documentation from a telegraphers' dispute with the railroad. It's a good example of being able to find useful information in unexpected places.

Here's another one.

Don (signaldesign) posted lists of Public Railroad Crossings that the NH compiled on the NHRHTA Forum recently. I hadn't taken a look, since while seemingly interesting enough, I know where the grade crossings in New Britain are. But I knew I would want to grab it just to have the information.

What is helpful is that the date of installation of the automatic gates/signals is noted.

Here's the Berlin Line

But, you say, that's information that is expected in a document like this. Very true, but it wasn't what I found most intriguing.

As I noted on Monday, I was working on a page for the New Hartford Local/New Hartford Line on the new site, so I decided to grab the list of crossings for that line. And what did I find?

Not only information on the crossings, as expected, but also when each section of the line was abandoned, including the number of the ICC docket of when the abandoned the section from Collinsville to New Hartford after the 1955 floods. That actual abandonment was a full year later. I haven't dug up the ICC docket yet (it doesn't look like it's online), but it's on my list now.

I had seen it reported that the line outlasted the New Haven, but it appears it was abandoned 10 months earlier, in February, 1968. The 1967 date of the section from Unionville to Collinsville makes sense, since Collins & Co closed in 1966. It looks like the traffic to Unionville wasn't enough to warrant maintaining the line at all.

Thanks again to Don for posting these on the forum.

New Haven Yard Operations IV

On October 21, 1948 the New Haven Railroad published a booklet entitled New Mechanized Train Consist and Car Record System in which it states: 

"...developed by New Haven officers in cooperation with engineers of the International Business Machines Corporation. Studies first projected in 1940 by the New Haven's transportation and communications departments culminated in a definite plan in 1942, but, because of war-time priorities, equipment was not received until the latter half of 1945 when operation was commenced between Maybrook, Cedar Hill, and the car service office at New Haven."

This booklet tells the story in great detail of the old and new Yard Operations processes and paperwork. In my quest to better understand the the inner workings of  New Haven Railroad, this was the single most informative document I found regarding the paperwork and processes used in yard operations. 

I've already told that story.

But there is more to the story of researching New Haven Yard Operations and the IBM-Teletype system. Such as, when was it placed into service?

Such records are probably long gone, so it's probably more a question of trying to narrow down the window of time. What clues did I have?

Narrowing the Window

The Along the Line article from February, 1946 says that it is "already installed between Maybrook, Cedar Hill and the Car Service Office, the new procedures will be extended to Bay Ridge, Oak Point, Hartford, Springfield, Worcester, Northup Avenue, Framingham and Boston."

The February 23, 1946 issue of Railway Age has an article regarding the system, again only referencing Maybrook and Cedar Hill as being online.

The system is also mentioned in another Along the Line article, from November, 1947. This also mentions the installation is only complete at Maybrook and Cedar Hill, and, "...we have been authorized to complete the installation between our other gateways and our important yards all over the system."

The IBM-Teletype booklet doesn't have a date printed on it. The text is a blend of the first Along the Line article and the Railway Age article, plus new text, but still only references Maybrook and Cedar Hill as being online. The exhibits have reproductions of actual railroad paperwork so we may be able to determine an approximate date from those. It has examples from 1942, '45, '46, '47, and the latest from January 30, 1948. With publishing lead times, perhaps mid-'48?

I also have the Standard Operating Procedure from the Car Service Department, from June 28, 1957. Although it doesn't specifically state it, it seems clear that the system is fully implemented by this time. 

So that's a window from mid-'48 to mid-'57. The second Along the Line article also states, "...we started in January 1944...After much delay caused primarily by the shortage of critical materials we now have the system in operation between Maybrook, N.Y., and our largest classification yard, Cedar Hill at New Haven..." So it took about a year-and-a-half to get the initial installation completed.

So from a model standpoint, why does this matter? 

In my case, I have trains originating at Maybrook, Cedar Hill, and Hartford. Chris has trains originating at Cedar Hill and Hartford. We know that by late '45 Maybrook and Cedar Hill were using the Teletype printed paperwork, so Wheel Reports (Outbound Consist Lists) for trains originating there will be in that format. But are trains from Hartford still using handwritten paperwork?

At this point I could reasonably guess that through at least mid-1948 Hartford was still using the old system and then pick a year to switch from handwritten to Teletype paperwork from that yard.

The Internet to the Rescue

And then, in my quest in the farthest reaches of the internet, I actually found an answer. In The National Railroad Adjustment Board Awards 5601 to 5700 Third Division. Huh?

This is a book of railroad labor disputes and their settlements. And Docket No. TE-5487, settled with Award 5627 on January 23, 1952 lists the dates when the yards were actively using the new system.

The dispute was filed by The Order of Railroad Telegraphers against the New Haven Railroad claiming that since the new system used Telegraph Printers (Teletype machines), the terms of their collective bargaining agreement required that the machines be operated by Telegraphers and not clerks.

It states:

Prior to July 1945 all communication service of record...was transmitted and/or received by employes under the Telegraphers' Agreement. The approximate time that printing telegraph machines, with the auxiliary card-controlled tape punch or tape-controlled card punch machines, began operations and such operations assigned to persons not under the Telegraphers' Agreement are:

Maybrook    July, 1945

Cedar Hill    June, 1947

Hartford    December, 1947

Springfield    December, 1947

Worcester    January, 1949

Framingham    December, 1948

Boston    October, 1949

Providence    June, 1949

Oak Point    March, 1949

There are two interesting things in this list.

First, Bay Ridge and Northup Avenue aren't on it, even though they were to receive the system. Was it not implemented yet? Did they decide not to install it at all? Or was it simply missing from the list. Note that they also do not list the Car Service Office, which may or may not have had Telegraphers performing any of the work prior to this system. My assumption is that it had been installed, and they were just not listed as part of the complaint for some reason.

Second is the date listed for Cedar Hill. We know it was in operation by the end of 1945. So it appears that either the date is wrong, or that until June, 1947 Telegraphers were operating the machines at Cedar Hill.

It also provides a date for the IBM-Teletype booklet - October 21, 1947. But we know that it had examples of paperwork from January 30, 1948, so this obviously isn't quite correct. Perhaps it should have been listed as 1948?

So this would have been interesting enough, as is the case (spoiler alert - the Telegraphers lost). But no, it's better. Because it includes a full description of the process, again similar in content but different enough to answer a few questions. For example, concise descriptions of the different reports and their uses. Listed under the Carrier's Statement of Facts:

The dispute arise from the installation on Carrier's lines of a new technique for the preparation, use and handling of the following:

Interchange report.

Switch lists.

Wheel reports.

Train consists.

Passing reports.

Car movement information.

Car record books.

These reports are defined as follows:

(a) An interchange report is a list of cars received by a railroad from another connecting carrier at a junction point. It contains, among other things, the number and initial, contents, origin and destination of each car and serves as a record of the delivery and receipt of the car by the respective railroads.

(b) A switch list is prepared at a yard where trains are broken up and cars switched to classification or other tracks for assembly in different order into outgoing trains. It gives the information necessary to place each car in the train being broken up on the proper track in the yard.

(c) A wheel report is a list and description of the cars in train order given to the conductor of an outgoing train to enable proper handling of the cars enroute and to serve as a report of the work done by the train at the conclusion of the run.

(d) A train consist is a list and description of the cars in a train in the order in which they stand in the train. It is used by the yards at which it originates, through which it passes enroute, and at which it terminates, in handling the cars, in the preparation of the other documents listed above, and for other like purposes.

(e) A passing report is a list and description of the cars passing through a particular yard or junction point. It is used by traffic and other railroad offices in tracing shipments and advising consignor and consignee of the location and progress of their freight.

(f) Car movement information refers to a number of lists of selected cars and associated data prepared at different locations to meet special needs.

(g) A car record book is a list of all cars passing through a particular yard during a given period arranged as nearly as possible in car number order. It is used for information purposes at the yard in tracing the handling of particular cars through the yard and for locating underlying records evidencing such handling, such as the interchange, train consist, wheel report, and other documents.

The essential data with respect to the movement of loaded freight cars - the car initial and number, contents, type of car, weight, route, origin, shipper, consignee, destination and other clerical detail - is contained in the waybill prepared at the station where the movement originates. This document accompanies the car from origin to destination, in the possession of the freight train conductor enroute and of the yard forces at yards where trains are broken up and re-assembled. Without this document the car may not be moved. Because the waybill accompanies the car it is necessary that each office at terminals through which it moves abstract and transcribe from the waybill the data necessary for proper handling and for making proper reports. This work has always been done by yard employes represented by the Clerks' Brotherhood.

I haven't seen the various reports so clearly defined. Although terminology and actual processes will vary from road to road, this has clarified several things:

1. The Wheel Report (Outbound Consist List) is the working report of the conductor on the New Haven. It provides the information needed for working the train on the way. Because of other resources, we know the conductor can be given additional work along the way by Train Orders, and they will document those car movements on this report as well. While this isn't clearly evident in the couple of examples I have, it points me in the right direction.

2. Switch lists on the New Haven refer to documents provided to the yard switching crews. 

3. Although I have seen them listed, I didn't know what a Passing Report was, or what it would be used for.

4. The Outbound Consist report replaces the Wheel Report that is provided to the conductor. Although the conductor still has to provide a record of work done during the run. Exactly what paperwork was used for this purpose remains a bit of a mystery, although I suspect it was still the old paperwork completely by hand by the conductor.

However, with the Teletype printed consist, did they only record additional movements by hand, or did they still transcribe the information from the Outbound Consist to their own Wheel Report? I suspect that this is the case, at least for local freights.

Still more to find, but at least I now know for ops sessions in 1946 and '47 that trains from Hartford will still have handwritten Wheel Reports, but Maybrook and Cedar Hill will have teletype Outbound Consist Reports. By 1948 all trains will be using teletype reports since Hartford was online by then.

New Haven Yard Operations II

On October 21, 1947 the New Haven Railroad published a booklet entitled New Mechanized Train Consist and Car Record System in which it states: 

"...developed by New Haven officers in cooperation with engineers of the International Business Machines Corporation. Studies first projected in 1940 by the New Haven's transportation and communications departments culminated in a definite plan in 1942, but, because of war-time priorities, equipment was not received until the latter half of 1945 when operation was commenced between Maybrook, Cedar Hill, and the car service office at New Haven."

This booklet tells the story in great detail of the old and new Yard Operations processes and paperwork. In my quest to better understand the the inner workings of  New Haven Railroad, this was the single most informative document I found regarding the paperwork and processes used in yard operations. 

This is also not that story.

But it is the story of an article in the February, 1946 Along the Line that provides an overview of the new system.

Another New Haven First!

The article proudly states:

Revolutionary developments in the handling of interchange reports and train consists are being put into effect by the Car Service Department. They represent the first civilian adaptation of techniques used during the war by the Army Air Forces and the Office of Defense Transportation in Port Control work.

The piece is largely promoting the benefits,

...each yard will receive detailed train consists showing all pertinent information on each car in the train well in advance of the train's arrival at the yard. This will enable the yard to know exactly what is coming and allow it to plan its work before the train has arrived.

This is the biggest advantage, and the biggest change in operational procedure because of the system, as we'll see in the booklet that was published later. 

Already installed between Maybrook, Cedar Hill and the Car Service Office, the new procedures will be extended to Bay Ridge, Oak Point, Hartford, Springfield, Worcester, Northup Avenue, Framingham and Boston.

It continues to detail how it will streamline the processes of moving freight trains through the yards quicker, reducing errors, and providing information more quickly between points on the railroad, among other benefits such as,

Prompt transmission of this information and its quick availability also will forestall many of the telephone calls now being made to various interchange points and yards. For example, since January 15 the Car Service Office at New Haven has been furnishing most of the car records and passing information that previously was only available at Maybrook. This will relieve the already crowded telephone circuits and should make for general improvement in telephone service.

It provides an example of an Erie freight entering Maybrook:

As soon as the train reaches us at Maybrook, the bills are forwarded to the General Yard Office through a pneumatic tube and cards are punched from the bills on a printing key punch which types across the top of the card as it punches holes in the body of the card. Punched and typed on these cards is the car initial and number, contents, kind of car, gross tons, billing road and route, arrival train and time and data of arrival, the origin, shipper, consignee and destination. 

 

These cards are then put through a card-controlled tape punch which cuts a teletype tape. The tape is put through the teletype printer which simultaneously prints the interchange report (at Maybrook this is the inbound consist) for Maybrook's use and transmits it to the Car Service Office. 

 

After the cards have been used to make the tape, they are racked with the bills in the eastbound bill rack, awaiting departure in an outbound train. 

 

When the track check for the outbound train is received at the yard office, the bills with the cards are pulled from the rack and arranged in the outbound train order. The cards are then separated from the bills and put through the card-controlled tape punch to cut a teletype tape, which is put through the teletype printer to print the outbound train consist and simultaneously transmit it to the Car Service Office and to Cedar Hill. After the train has departed, the cards are sorted in car number order and filed for index record purposes. 

 

Under these operations, it is no longer necessary to sheet by hand the inbound train consist, type the interchange report and write up by hand the outbound train consist or wheel report, nor post the records manually to index books. 

 

When the advance consist of a train departing from Maybrook is received at Cedar Hill, a teletype tape is produced at the same time as the consist is being printed. The printed sheet goes to the various clerks at Cedar Hill for checking diversions, etc., while the tape is put through the printing punch to produce a card covering the cars in the train. 

 

These cars are held until the arrival of the train when - after necessary checking and making out of new cards for any cars that might have been picked up enroute - they are used to make a teletype tape and print a final inbound consist, which is transmitted to the Car Service Office. This final inbound consist becomes the wheel report in the Car Service Office. 

 

Following this, the cards at Cedar hill are racked with the bills and the same cycle of operation as occurred at Maybrook is repeated to secure an outbound consist of a train as it leaves Cedar Hill.

The emphasis is mine, because that particular bit of information is not noted in any of the other sources I've found on this system. This accounts for the fact that even on a through freight there may be work on the way to the "next" yard.

It also includes a two-page photo essay of the process:

12 a. Interchange Report of receipts from the Erie at Maybrook prepared from cards punched from bills, in lieu of typing from hand-written train sheets. 

 

b. Advance Outbound Consist of OB-2, printed from punched cards and transmitted to Cedar Hill, Supt. of Frt. Trans. and Supt. of Car Service immediately after departure of the train from Maybrook. Inbound train reference appears after each car on outbound consist. Punched record cards for (c) and (d) a loaded car, and (e) and empty.

This last photo also gives us some additional information we can mine from the paperwork.

Freight Cars from Erie NE-98 January 30, 1946

SFRD    33313    loaded with cauliflower from Mobest, AZ via ATSF-ERIE

NWX    2269    lettuce from Huma, AZ via SP-ERIE

FGEX    51211    lettuce from Blythe, CA via ATSF-ERIE

RD    24663    lettuce from Blythe, CA via ATSF-ERIE (with typos)

BREX    75825    GRJC (?) and it looks like there's a second line for that car

Freight Cars on OB-2 (Maybrook to Boston) January 5, 1946 

PFE    93889    carrots from Watsonville, CA via SP-ERIE

IC    via B&O-ERIE

CN

WM

MBK

NH

WFEX

WFE 

 

RDG    74107    coal from Meadowbrook, WV via B&O-LNE

PRR    348864    empty

Some industries as well, Sawyer CO, and S. Strock Co in Boston receiving produce, WJ Fallon Lea (?) in Boston, Thompson Wire Co in Fairmont, Blaine C Co in Midway.

New Haven Yard Operations

On October 21, 1948 the New Haven Railroad published a booklet entitled New Mechanized Train Consist and Car Record System in which it states: 

"...developed by New Haven officers in cooperation with engineers of the International Business Machines Corporation. Studies first projected in 1940 by the New Haven's transportation and communications departments culminated in a definite plan in 1942, but, because of war-time priorities, equipment was not received until the latter half of 1945 when operation was commenced between Maybrook, Cedar Hill, and the car service office at New Haven."

This booklet tells the story in great detail of the old and new Yard Operations processes and paperwork. In my quest to better understand the the inner workings of  New Haven Railroad, this was the single most informative document I found regarding the paperwork and processes used in yard operations. 

This is not that story.

But it is the story of the first hint to the public, and most employees, of what was to come was reported in the October, 1945 issue of Along the Line.

We "Kept the Home Fires Burning"

This is an article about the movement of tank cars during the war. Due to U-boats attacking tankers offshore, the movement of oil was moved (almost?) entirely to rail. ODT Order No 7 required the railroads to move tank cars of oil as soon as they were ready, over the shortest routes, and with the highest priority, superseding all other rail traffic. Since the oil was for the war effort, it was shipped primarily to northeastern ports, of which the New Haven had "between 600 and 700 unloading places." The change in traffic on the New Haven was enormous, and immediate.

In January, 1942, the New Haven handled 702 tank cars of oil. In February, this total more than quadrupled to 3,198 cars. March and April continued the trend, to 8,993 and 13,365. From that point the New Haven handled between 12,000 and 16,000 tank cars daily, with the highest total in March 1943 of 19,351 cars. The decline in shipments occurred in 1944. In January it was 11,507 cars, and 8,461 in December. In July 1945 the total was 6,747, still almost 10 times the prior normal.

In September 1942, a new process was implemented on the New Haven to make it possible to track the tank cars "hour-by-hour." As the article states:

Agents had a special report requiring the following information:

Car Number;

Oil Train Symbol;

Shipper;

Consignee;

Commodity;

Point of Origin;

Destination;

Date and Hour Received;

Date and Hour of Each Move;

Date and Hour Placed for Unloading;

Date and Hour Released by Consignee;

Date and Hour of Each Move;

Date and Hour Delivered Off Our Line.

These were transferred to individual car records, filed numerically in loose-leaf binders-a separate "car record sheet" for each car. As soon as report of a car's arrival on our line was received, a record sheet was inserted for that particular car. Then, as each subsequent move was reported, it was "posted" on the record until the car was delivered back to a connecting line..."

To start, I just want to point out how efficient, if labor intensive, this process was. The amount of information generated and recorded by the railroads through paper was enormous. This was a special project to track tank cars, but this information was recorded for every car, every day. For tank cars alone, the war-time increase was on the order of 400-500 cars per day. That's 4 to 5 additional trains running of nothing but tank cars.

While there is a lot of work involved, when the process as a whole is studied, I can't imagine a system that would be more reliable or efficient than what the railroads had devised by this time. Reports were sent to the Car Service Department by train. I've seen it noted somewhere that important ones went on the next passenger train. So as soon as the reports are finished in, say, Providence. They are sent via the next passenger train to the Car Service Department in New Haven.

It was the next step of the process, though, that I think also served as a test/proof-of-concept for the new system that would be implemented shortly after the war.

The finished record sheet was then removed from the loose-leaf binder and all the information was transferred to a "punch card" on an International Business Machines tabulator.

Number symbols are used for this purpose. Commodity "3" for instance, is heavy fuel oil. Origin "1" is Texas. Shipped "99" is a miscellaneous shipper. Consignee "3" is Socony. Junction point "31" is Maybrook, and connecting line "56" is the N.Y., O.&W., so entry 3156 means it was received at Maybrook from O.&W. Destination 2022 is East Providence. "17" is Cedar Hill. "23" is Northup Avenue.

This system allowed them to quickly and easily print reports, usually for 10-day periods. The 10 days ending Septermber 30, 1943 showed 4,718 cars took an average of 20 hours from arrival to destination, 5 hours to placement, 11 hours to release, 12 hours to departure, and 18 hours back to the connection, or an average of 88 hours on the line.

They show examples of the paperwork involved:

The implementation was centralized at the Car Service Department. That is, the Agent reports were taken to the Car Service Department, where the loose-leaf records were kept and then transferred in the "punch-card bureau" as noted in one of the photos. These were where the IBM tabulators were to create and read the punch cards.

With tank cars, the IBM system was used only for the purpose of reporting after the car movements were completed. But I think it was more than adequate to prove that the IBM systems could streamline the process, if there was any question before. The next step would be to use the machines in "real time" to generate operational paperwork.