Ball was instrumental in bringing about a unification of time inspection standards, which included watch requirements, in the early 1890’s. The Path to Codified Standards It is widely believed that Webb C. Nevertheless, these two were typical of watches used in railroad time service on those roads specifying watches of a certain minimum quality. Of course the Pennsy wasn’t the only customer for these watches and a large number probably only rode the rails when their owners took a trip somewhere. Raymond, built in 1867, also saw service on the Pennsylvania Rail Road.īoth of these had dials signed for the railroad. Furnished some model 1857 Appleton, Tracy & Co.
Some of the earliest American machine-made watches went right into railroad service. The Pennsylvania Rail Road also purchased watches and published this rule. Accordingly, there is documentation that as early as 1850, the Boston and Providence Railroad ordered 45 English watches, from Bond & Son, Boston, for use in just such circumstances. It should be obvious that suitable watches would be needed to apply rules similar to this. As railroads grew bigger and busier, the hour interval fell by the wayside, but the concept continued with shorter headways. On the Eire Railroad, a “time interval system” was used into the 1850’s. Very early on, those movements were described in terms of scheduled times and by how far off of scheduled time a train was. Here are the photos of the watches: History of Railroad Pocket Watches The use of watches on American railroads goes back almost to the beginning.Īs soon as there were two trains moving in opposite directions on a single-track line, there arose a need to control their movements. I was very fortunate to be able to work with my father for over 20 years. Dad would overhaul these watches and inspect them so they would be up to the railroad’s standards. All the workers on the railroad needed their watches cleaned and timed on a yearly basis. He was the railroad watch inspector in our area. My dad was a watchmaker for over 50 years. Pocket Watch Repairs and Info I would like to dedicate this page to my dad, Joe Sirianni, for teaching me the fine art of repairing these beautiful watches. The other numbers indicate the quality the watch should live up to, according to details from the English Ministry of Defence which issued it.The 6BB indicates it was for pilots. Evidenced by the last 2 numbers in its serial number. CWC stands for the Cabot Watch Company, and this CWC was issued to a RAF Pilot in 1980. We offer serial number lookups for manufacturers such as Elgin, Illinois, Waltham, and Hamilton.