Washington Ave tower copied train orders for movements in all directions out of Saginaw. It was not unusual to find numerous train order pads on the table at all times. Obviously, only trains going west past the tower could receive their orders directly "hooped up" by the operator. For trains originating going to Toledo, Detroit, Port Huron, or Bad Axe, the orders had to be delivered by other means. For an extended period, a yard clerk would drive over to the tower, pick up the orders and deliver them to the conductor at the yard office. However, the operators started time slipping this procedure because delivering train orders was included in their scope rules, but NOT in the clerks' rules! There was no provision for a "middle man." To stop the time slips, they started having the conductor ride with the clerk over to the tower, and the operator could then hand the orders directly to the conductor. Problem solved. Eventually, a fax machine was installed and the operator sent the orders directly to the yard office. The conductor would then call Washington Ave to verify that they had received the proper documents. This procedure was also implemented for the 4 southbounds originating at McGrew. (When Kearsley tower was still open, these trains once received orders there).
We dispatchers didn't get radios for direct communication with trains until 1985-86. We had to depend on the line-side telephones to the dispatcher's line to talk to train crews. The operators at Wash Ave, Plymouth and Carleton had radios that could reach a short distance, and we could relay information through them if necessary. The yardmaster at McGrew had the radio with the greatest range, BUT he was not an operator, so we could not relay any kind of movement authority via him. The best we could do is have him ask the engineer or conductor to call us from the nearest line-side phone. Nor could the yardmasters talk directly to the dispatcher with any kind of pick up information. They had to call Kearsley (before 1972) and later Wash Ave and relay the information to us that way.
Locals/Road Switchers at non-operator stations could not put themselves on duty or tie-up directly with the dispatcher. They had to call the nearest operator, who then relayed the info to us. When I worked at Carleton, the Monroe local would call the tower with his on duty or tie-up information for us to give to the dispatcher.
There were also many rules about how crews could be utilized based on what seniority district they were in. Some crews were in a "pool" (like Saginaw-Walbridge) or were assigned like locals and inter-divisional trains like McG-GR or Sag-GR via Baldwin. Unit grain train ready to move at Breckenridge? Send a Saginaw crew with power to go get it? Nope. The Elmdale Sub was in the Grand Rapids crew district. You either called a cab hop out of GR to come and pick it up for movement to Saginaw, or deadheaded a crew via auto to Saginaw and then send them out to get it. All of the operator rules are long gone; however, railroads today still have crew utilization rules in effect.
There were times when we had to give a train order directly to an engineer or conductor on the phone to change a meet or in case of unforeseen events or emergency. Even then, the nearest operator was entitled to be paid for a "call" which was 4 hrs 20 mins at time-and-a-half, which equals 8 hours pay. We WERE allowed to give speed restrictions directly to the engineer or conductor if it was imposed after they had passed the last train order office and didn't get the order there. No time slips for that! However, we had to watch our semantics, saying "here's a speed restriction" and not recite an actual train order to them!
There are many many other things I could talk about, but this thread is already long enough!
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