Here's one of my favorite photos from the N&W site I found last year.

Checking the master clock

Regards! Mark

...and another...

On time

Regard! Mark

Some neat photos there, Mark. Thanks for the link.

Norman

There's a similar clock in the shop where I work.

They were electric/mechanical. They had an electric battery that wound the mainspring. From then on, they were mechanical. I worked in the shop for months before I figured it out. To me, it sounded like an air-compressor, outside, was periodically, going on and off.

I also understand that some of them could be reset at Western Union, by telegraph... bringing a unified time throughout the railroad system.

So... they must have been the ultimate authority for the correct time, especially for conductors who were going out into remote areas.... where their's could be the only truly accurate watch on the train.

I also wonder if the "office" was a popular spot for the dreaded watch-inspectors... hoping to snag some poor conductor with an errant watch before he could hide the "evidence!"

Cool link Mark
Great info Peter
Thanks I found it very interesting

I second Roberts motion.Here is another....

http://www.uprr.com/aboutup/history/index.shtml

Mike

Thank you for that information, Peter! Ironically I did some telex work back in the early '70's, and worked along side a lady who had worked for years for Western Union before coming to the plant I worked at. She once told me she was responsible for supplying the time signal from their main Western Union office to the system clocks every day at noon, including those at the N&W dispatcher's office in Portsmouth, Ohio.

I really wish I had been more attuned to this hobby then, as I would have picked her brain on exactly what that duty entailed.

Regards! Mark