Story: Pere Marquette begins using telephones for dispatching - 1910

PERE MARQUETTE DISPATCHING TRAINS BETWEEN SAGINAW AND TOLEDO

LINE IS 135 MILES IN LENGTH

Chief Dispatcher is Located At Saginaw and Thirty Stations Are Used in Operating Trains.

The Pere Marquette is soon to join the already log list of railroads using the telephone to dispatch trains, supplanting the telegraph, which was considered the standard for handling train movements for a great many years.

The Pere Marquette has ordered instruments, selectors and line material to equip a line from Saginaw, Mich., to Toledo, O., approximately 135 miles in length, with the telephone for train dispatching. This is understood to be the beginning of the adoption of the telephone system over the entire road, extensions to follow the completion of the first circuits.

Between Saginaw and Toledo there will be 30 telephone stations.The Chief Dispatcher will be located at Saginaw. The entire equipment is being furnished by the Western Electric company.

Because of the great ease and facility of transmission, the telephone has in the past couple of years been making rapid strides into favor among railroad managers. It performs the work formerly done by the telegraph in a more rapid and efficient manner, and the adoption of the telephone standard by a great many of the largest railroads in the country has caused a complete change in dispatching methods.

[St. Joe's Herald-Press-1910-0929]