Train orders...how did they work? - Trains Magazine
Mia Phillips
Updated on April 07, 2026
Big subject. For a good start, see the 3 articles linked below in the Trains "Railroad Reference - ABC's of Railroading" series here, as well as the articles in past issues that I also reference below. If you're lucky, we'll also get posts from Railway Man, BaltACD, jeffhergert, and Agent Kid, among others who know the subject way better than I do. Nevertheless, I also answered a couple of your questions directly below.
- Paul North.
"Train Orders", By William L. Gwyer -
"Railroads' Traffic Control Systems" by Frank W. Byan
"Railroad Signals" By Frank W. Bryan & Robert S. McGonigal
Of Rule 93, Form S-C, and the bow and arrow country
train-order dispatching on the Rock Island
from Trains July 1980 p. 44
dispatcher order
ABC�s of railroading: Marching orders
train movement authority
by Bryan, Frank W.
from Trains June 1994 p. 76
ABCs of railroading: train orders: sic transit gloria
train orders used less and less
by Gwyer, William L.
from Trains June 1992 p. 20
Selected railroad reading: Where was Extra 654
delivering train orders
by Womack, Mark S.
from Trains February 1982 p. 45
Recollections of an Omaha brasspounder
learning and using the telegraph
by Brovald, Ken C.
from Trains June 1982 p. 22
Had GR&I No. 5 passed Mill Creek?
the operator was asleep
by Norman, Harold B.
from Trains January 1974 p. 32
Morse memories
the job of a telegraph operator
by Womack, Mark S.
from Trains October 1977 p. 22
Old Bo and the lady operator
taming an engineer
by Beckum, W. F., Jr.
from Trains November 1982 p. 39
Dismantling the dispatching fortress
the decentralization of dispatching
by Bryand, Frank W.
from Trains May 1999 p. 26
dispatcher management operation
Dispatching BN�s Dakota Division
using all kinds of technology
by Knutson, Rick, Rsmussen, Karl
from Trains October 1992 p. 66
telegraph; hoops or train order stands were used to avoid the train having to stop, but sometimes it did, such as to sign for the orders - see below - or to do station work, either freight or passenger type, etc.Ulrich
[snipped] . . . or teletype, . . . via a hoop . . .
Signing for them. Form 31's - which restricted or took away some or all of a train's operating rights - had to be signed for, for precisely that reason and the one you mention. Form 19's, which granted or added to the train's operating rights, did not have to be signed for, and so could be handed up "on the fly" - if the crew forgot about or ignored them, no harm done.Ulrich
Was there any mechanism whereby train crews would acknowledge receipt of hooped up messages? What if a train order was ignored and the crew later claimed they never received it?
[Edited to shorten URLs]
"This Fascinating Railroad Business" (title of 1943 book by Robert Selph Henry of the AAR)
