Railroad Pocket Watch Inspection

[Tony Ambruso]

I have read more than a few articles on the railroad pocket watch. I have followed many of the threads posted on this Message Board and visited good web sites covering this topic. But I have one seemingly simple query: Between the inspection points of a man's watch, didn't he come across a regulator or two and reset his watch? If he did, wouldn't that invalidate the inspections, or was that considered cheating? I have yet to read anything about when a railroad man reset his watch.

[Tony Ambruso]

I have read more than a few articles on the railroad pocket watch. I have followed many of the threads posted on this Message Board and visited good web sites covering this topic. But I have one seemingly simple query: Between the inspection points of a man's watch, didn't he come across a regulator or two and reset his watch? If he did, wouldn't that invalidate the inspections, or was that considered cheating? I have yet to read anything about when a railroad man reset his watch.

[doug sinclair]

Tony,

In a recent discussion I had with a retired railroad watch inspector for Canadian Pacific Railway, he indicated to me that these watches were to be inspected every two weeks, between which times, the railroader was forbidden to re-set his watch. But, if I talk to an old time rairoader of the era, they will admit to resetting them whenever they found it necessary. So, your point about the validity of the 30 second per week accuracy standard on a watch that is being re-set between inspections is a good one. I get the feeling that railroaders knew the bounds and were conscientious enough not to cross them, because it was their neck too if something happened.

I will add to this that, 20 years ago, when I first met a now retired railroader, he asked me to look at his Hamilton 992B as it was out as much as 20 seconds per day, after its required inspection servicing. He'd had it back to the inspector numerous times to no avail. He resorted to wearing his Accutron 218 railroad wrist watch. I serviced the 992B for him, properly, and during the first month back in his pocket, it was out 8 seconds! So, once in a while, inspectors had a lot to do with creating problems for railroaders in this regard.

[Tony Ambruso]

Thanks, Doug. With all the information out there on railroad timekeeping and all the stats, logs and time tables, I found the answer you just gave to me to be absent in all the discussions of standards and inspections. And I wondered what was really going on. I hope historians start to include these stories in the write-ups.

[Jeff Hess]

AS usual Doug is right on target.

Minutes of meetings held by Webb C. Ball with watch inpsectors indicate great frustration with "then me" setting thier own watches.

Further, many of them indicated that the inspectors worried that the men would set their own poor timekeeping watch right before inspection time to keep the from having to buy a new watch!

Jeff Hess

[Tom Walker]

A watchmaker once told me that railroaders would call him to obtain the correct time -- supposedly to reset their watches before inspections. Apparently, it was a fairly common practice.
Tom Walker

[Kent]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">A watchmaker once told me that railroaders would call him to obtain the correct time </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Tom:

There was no need for a railroader to call a watchmaker for the correct time. Standard clocks were available all over the railroad from which an employe could learn the correct time.

There is at least one document that addresses the subject of railroaders setting their watches in order to "fudge" the semi-monthly inspection. In This 1941 Instance (http://static.flickr.com/41/103624727_780fcd7cd3_o.jpg), the General Chairman of the Burlington System Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen approves of semi-monthly inspection insofar as there were watch timing machines coming into use that would display the watch's rate accuracy, regardless of the time shown on the dial.