Birds Nest Changes

[Pete Masterson]

In my early days working at a railroad, I became aware of "railroad
time." Before the national "Uniform Time Act" that regularized
observance of daylight savings time, the railroads simply stayed on
Standard Time year round. None of that silly military time for the
American railroads ... they used AM and PM -- but to ensure clarity,
trains rarely every arrived or departed exactly at noon or midnight
-- it was the normal course to establish a departure at (say) 12:01
AM -- funny, how adding the extra minute seems to solve the confusion.

The standard time all the time, did generate confusion -- after
giving a train schedule, I'd often be asked, "Is that your time or my
time?" -- even when a local daylight savings time was not in effect.

The Uniform Time Act did solve the problem, since the railroads had
to comply with the law and publish their schedules observing daylight
time. The unintended result was, however, is a bit silly. The
railroads have a rule that no train shall leave its station before
the scheduled time. All over the country, on 'fall back' day, trains
come rolling to a stop and sit for an hour, so that they don't leave
a station before the scheduled time. Of course on 'spring forward'
day, a lot of trains are suddenly "late."

Pete Masterson
'95 Blue Bird Wanderlodge WBDA 42
aeonix1@...
On the road at Lockhart, TX



On Nov 25, 2008, at 9:32 PM, Frank Damp wrote:

> Military time saves a lot of misunderstandings. Midnight is 00:00,
> noon
> is 12:00.
>