breezinup posted:Coincidentally, I was watching a Milwaukee Road video yesterday, and one of the scenes showed orders being passed to the crew from fixed forks on a pole. There were two forks, one mounted above the other. When the engine went by, the engineer grabbed the orders from the top fork, and when the bay window caboose went by, the conductor - through the bay window - snagged the lower set of orders.
For passenger trains, there were three forks and three sets of orders (or messages) -- the engine crew got the top one; the Conductor, in the train, got the middle one; the Flagman got the bottom one, from the rear vestibule.
For freight trains, there were only two forks and two sets of orders (or messages) -- the engine crew got the top one, and the rear end crew, form the caboose, got the bottom one.
