Everyone seems to have a differfent opinion on this. What constitutes a Rail Road or Railway Watch? I have seen that it has to be open face, arabic numbers only, 17 + Jewels etc.. I would like an explanation from the experts as to what makes up a true railway watch.

Well I was going to tell you but you said you wanted the answer from the experts so that leaves me out. LOL

You might want to open up your copy of the 'fat' book. Got excellent info in the front part. Don't have it with me at the moment or I'd give you page references.

Also of note is that the standards that the railroads accepted changed over time. So you have to know what time period you are talking about.
An example is that at one point 18s watches were accepted, but this changed to 16s watches and only those who already had 18s were grandfathered in.
There is also a distinction between railroad approved and railroad grade.

David, here is some reading for you.

Railroad Pocket Watches In Canada By Fred Angus


Information on Railway Time Service and Watch-Clock Standards By Peter Kushnir, CP Rail Time Service Technician

All excellent sources. As mentioned, standards changed over time. In 1977 a guy with the Soo Line Railroad here in MN said that along with certain wristwatches, any newer pocket watch with a white hairspring would do.

Mr Deuber copyrighted the term Railway so the other brands could not use term Railway in their marketing ads, if they did Mr Deuber could sue them for copyright infringement.

Railway is the more preferred term but since up to 1928 that would have been copyrighted the other companies used the term Railroad. In general the term Railway and Railroad are interchangeable.

So in my book there is no difference in a Railway watch and a Railroad watch, only that the other brands were not allowed to use the term Railway in their ads so they used the term Railroad. You can think of this as using the term "Freeway" or "Interstate"

Wikipedia topic Wikipedia topic

On the topic what constitutes a Railway or Railroad watch that topic will raise a whole bunch of debate. Some people try to apply a universal standard over the years but even if you only take the class one rail companies there was a great deal of diversity.

You had some rail companies that required 17j adj5p when other class 1 rail companies only required 17j adj3p. Some brands offered watches that were assured to meet all railroad standards because they met the most stringent requirements out there.

So there is always debate on this topic, I tend to take a more open approach, if I can find the rules for one or more of the larger rail company and look at the watch rules and if a watch I am looking at was made in the timeframe of that rule and the watch would have met rules then it could have been used.

I have some anecdotal information learned over the years from watchmaker friends/customers who had been railroad watch inspectors. I wish I had more print documentation. Example: the Milwaukee Road favored Montgomery dials. Soo Line Canadian Pacific owned) required 24 hour Canadian dials. I have acuired a 1946 Union Pacific time service rules bulletin that seems to indicate that complicated dials were not allowed-No 24 hour or winding indicator ("unnecessarily complicated")etc. Also no Hamilton 992B made before 1946 could enter service. (They didn't want WWII watches). I'm still analyzing this bulletin.

William that is the type of diversity I was talking about. It would be nice to have a section for railroad/railway pocket watch over the years since the did change over the years and even in the same timeframe were different

Also there were a lot of large class 2 rail companies that most people just sweep under the rug,but some of these class 2 systems fell just under the cutoff for class1/class2 and had enough track to be regional rail systems.

The smaller class 3 railroads are the typical sight seeing excursion types or the one that an old one in my area Gainesville-Midland Railroad Gainesville-Midland RR history

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Railroad chronometer

Railroad chronometers, or Railroad Standard Watches, are specialized timepieces that once were crucial for safe and correct operation of trains in many countries. A system called Timetable and Train Order, which relied on highly accurate timekeeping, was used to ensure that two trains could not be on the same stretch of track at the same time.

Regulations of the watches used by critical personnel on the railroads (engineer, conductor, switch yard controllers, etc.) were specified almost from the beginning of widespread railroad use in the 1850s and 1860s. These regulations became more widespread and more specific as time went on, with some watches that were "railroad standard" in one time period falling away to no longer being qualified in others. There was no absolute, universal definition used across different railroad lines; each company appointed one or more "time inspectors" (typically a watchmaker) who decided which watches they would work on and accepted as usable. In the United States, the American Railway Association held a meeting in 1887, which resulted a fairly standardized set of requirements, but not all railroads adopted them.

One notable watch inspector was Webb C. Ball. His first job as a time inspector was when he was brought in by the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railways in 1891 after a crash and was tasked with bringing their time inspection standards up to industry normals. Ball's career eventually led to him being the time inspector on more than half the United States' railways, leading to a far more uniform set of standards in the U.S.

A typical railroad's requirements for a watch in the early 20th century might include:

• only American-made watches may be used (depending on availability of spare parts)
  
  
• only open-faced dials, with the stem at 12 o'clock
  
  
• minimum of 17 functional jewels in the movement
  
  
• 16 or 18-size only
  
  
• maximum variation of 30 seconds (approximately 4 seconds daily) per weekly check
  
  
• watch adjusted to at least five positions: Face up and face down (the positions a watch might commonly take when laid on a flat surface); then crown up, crown pointing left, and crown pointing right (the positions a watch might commonly take in a pocket). Occasionally a sixth position, crown pointing down, would be included.
  
  
• adjusted for severe temperature variance and isochronism (variance in spring tension)
  
  
• indication of time with bold legible Arabic numerals, outer minute division, second dial, heavy hands,
  
  
• lever used to set the time (no risk of having the stem left out, thus inadvertently setting the watch to an erroneous time)
  
  
• Breguet balance spring
  
  
• micrometer adjustment regulator
  
  
• double roller
  
  
• steel escape wheel
  
  
• anti-magnetic protection (after the advent of diesel locomotives)

The Waltham Watch Company and the Elgin Watch Company were both used as early as the 1860s and 1870s as railroad standard watches. Later, Hamilton Watch Company, Illinois Watch Company and many of the other American watch manufacturers all produced railroad-grade watches.

The Time Signal Service of the United States Naval Observatory was used to ensure accuracy of railroad chronometers and schedule American rail transport.

The minimum requirements were raised several times as watch-making technology progressed, and the watch companies produced newer, even more reliable models. By WWII, many railroads required watches that were of a much higher grade (as many as 23 jewels, for example) than those made to comply with the original 1891 standard. End



As to the nomenclature I like the post by Bill Kapp with the following quote:

quote:

Ther term Railroad Watch is generic for Railroad approved, Railroad standard, railroad grade, etc. etc.

The post can be found in this topic: Your Favorite Railroad Watch Show and Tell

RR