Here is my Hamilton 950 in a Star Watch Case 14k Gold Filled. It looks like the Traffic Special Case and the #16 Case but in 14k GF. Has anyone seen this case before. It was a Presentation Watch to B.F.Bardo who was in charge of the Electric Power Plant in Cos Cob, CT that powered the Locomotives of the New Haven Railroad between New Haven and New York City.

Inside Back Cover inscription

Movement Hamilton 950

Back Cover, Forgot to mention it is White Gold Filled

An interesting watch and pretty much open to speculation as previously noted. All types of scenarios can or may be envisioned.

The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, commonly known as the New Haven, operated in New England from 1872 to 1968. Interestingly, the line went bankrupt in 1935 !! It was reorganized, went bankrupt again in 1961, and in 1969 was merged with the Penn Central, which was formed a year earlier by the merger of the New York Central Railroad and Pennsylvania Railroad. It wasn't an ideal merger and The Penn Central proceeded to go bankrupt in 1970, becoming the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history at the time !!

In 1921 one out of ten persons riding on a United
States railroad rode on the New Haven. There were
130 road miles (570 track miles) of electrified
line on the New Haven. The railroad owned 108
electric locomotives, seventy motor cars and
ninety-five trailers which produced 335,000
passenger miles per month, 160,000 motor car miles, 75,000 freight locomotive miles and 70,000
yard locomotive miles. There were forty-one of the
original type of passenger electric locomotives
still in service. They had been in use for fifteen
years and were averaging 150 miles per day. The
peak of electrification was reached in 1927 with
700 track miles on the New Haven.

The electrification of the New Haven Railroad was an innovative technological venture. The pioneering engineers of Westinghouse and the New Haven Railroad created the first long distance railroad electric transmission system in the United States. The Cos Cob power plant supplied the system with single phase alternating current at 25 cycles and 11,000 volts. It was a successful trailblazing effort that set the standard for American railroads. On September 22, 1986 Cos Cob Power Plant was shut down and phased out.

I note the case was carried in its lifetime on a watch chain a big part of its life and it was serviced for 4-5 years before servicing apparently ceased, which opens it up to more scenarios and speculations ! The possibilities are mind boggling and perhaps endless.

Unfortunate that there is no documentation which leads us to merely speculation. Its interesting from all view points.

I see it as unusual due to the time frame for a presentation watch with gold still being in the mid $30 dollar range per ounce, that a gold case wasn't selected. With 235 employees contributing say .50c or more each towards the purchase, there should have been enough for a gold case for the watch, one would think ?

The 950 bridge model movements were top of the line and demand an aura of respect that other watch manufactures would only marvel at and try and imitate until they slowly went out of business one by one.....

regards,
bb

Photo of Cos Cob Power Plant in Ct. and the transmission lines;

I have seen Hamilton advertisements for the Traffic Special 974 movements in 10k Yellow Gold filled cases but not 14k White Gold cases.That is what i was inquiring about. I do believe that the case and movement are original to each other. Why that case was chosen we will never know. It was in the middle of the Great Deppression and Gold Cases may not have been available then as gold ownership was prohibited except gold jewelry. As for Benjamin Franklin Bardo the receipient of this watch he was the Superintendent of the Electrical Transmission & Communications Dept and was in charge of the overhead catenary wires, work trains, power plant etc. He later was the Superintendent of the Maybrook Freight Yard in New York during WWII. My Grandfather was an Asst. Superintendent in the Boston Division till he passed away in 1934. Thank You Lindell and Buster for your Knowledge. I always look forward to your replies. That is what makes this such a great club to belong to

To add a little to Lindell's great post is quoted from an article authored by Larry Treiman in 1978.
"By 1926, though, Hamilton apparently had no three-position watch to offer to the electric railway trade. The 948 had been discontinued in 1920, reflecting the decreasing popularity of the 18-size watches by that time. However, the discontinuance of the grade 978 ,movement in 1924 was the very likely a sign of the decreasing importance of the electric interurban railways, as well as an effort by Hamilton to concentrate their production in fewer grades.
Regardless of the reason, the discontinuance of the three-position double roller,lever-set grade left a gap in the Hamilton line. To fill that gap, Hamilton changed the grade 974 in about 1928 to a double roller, three position-adjusted grade , marked 974 Special. The 974 Special stayed in the Hamilton line into the late 1930's, if not longer, as a complete cased watch called the Traffic Special."

Attached is a pic of one that I have. It is as one I saw in a Hamilton advertisement a few years ago.


Ed