When I hired out on the Coast in 69 we were still in the "Stone Age" as far as radios and telephones were concerned. I was an engineer but listened a lot in the many telegraph offices where we would have to sit and wait.

SP owned one of the largest private telephone companies in the world. You bet AT&T, Bell System and others were worried. They had all kinds of laws where the SP could not call out from their system to a Bell System number in order to not pay the toll charges. As the SP system got bigger they had to enlarge what they had or look to new technology.

We were still using a single pair for a dispatchers line. Another pair ran next to it called the "Farmer Line". All the line side phones were crank style and even some depots didn't have dial out capabilities. Of the open wire phone lines they picked up a lot of noise. They had also used carriers that were built to handle 12 pairs and were loaded up to 24. The teletype would work but along came machines that would print out consists, etc. and the systems kept breaking down.

In 70 I went on my honeymoon by rail to Chicago and back via the PNW. I rode the head end from Billings to Livingston and what a difference. Their radios had 2 to 4 different channels that worked. They could talk to the dispatchers on the radio and most of the track was CTC and it all worked through microwave. What a difference from the SP.

Well, someone in the City finally woke up and they started to put in microwave to replace the old carrier systems and open wire. It took a few years but what a change. They contracted with IBM for a system wide computer system and things were really looking up. This new company was called "Sprint".

Everything went fine for years until top management decided they wanted some money. That's when they got rid of PMT, SP Pipe Lines and then Sprint. I don't know who made these stupid moves I think it was BFB, but it was a very, very bad decision.


Nudge