Re: Railroad phone patch board
That is a fine looking jackfield in the picture. I have never seen one like that, but then I haven't seen too many in railroad service in the first place. No the board at Carsonville did not even remotely resemble that board. It was on a rather thick backboard with everything exposed. It was designed to use only single wire circuits and the connections instead of being made with a patch cord were made with polished brass plugs. They were to be inserted at the cross point of the "X" and "Y" brass busses that were for the circuits. It was a rather small board about six circuits I think and it said WESTERN UNION on it. Now I know that might not mean too much as the railroad might have repurposed it but it definitely was not designed to be used with a balanced twisted pair type of circuit such as a telephone circuit. Thank you for increasing my knowledge though of telephone practice on the railroad. Think I will be scheduling a field trip this summer to see if it is still there, in the depot / boxcar on that farmers land. I'll report back anything I find. Dennis H.
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