The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-07-04
RAILROAD NEWS.
Rock Island Telegraph Depart
ment Being Rebuilt.
Appropriation of Half Million
Dollars Available.
TO IMPROVE SERVICE.
Best and Latest New Equipment
Being Installed.
Gossip and Matters Of Interest
in Railroad Circles.
TO IMPROVE SERVICE.

With an appropriation of upwards of
half a million dollars the telegraph de-
partment of the lines Of the Rock Island
system proper is being. reorganized and
rebuilt
New through wires are being added
to facilitate the handling Of the increased
business, and all wires are being made
to handle double the business formerly
handled. by use of the quadruplex and
1nultipIex sets
The telegraph department of the Rock
Island is being made to conform to
the system used on the Santa Fe rail-
road. The Northern Pacific railroad is
said to have been the first railway
system to adopt the methods and i'm
provements of this system, and the
Great Northern railway was the next to
fall in line Later the system was adopt
ed on the Santa Fe and by autumn the
telegraph of the Rock Island viii have
been entirely overhauled and rebuilt
The two principal offices will be To-
Gated at Chicago and Topeka The office
at Davenport will be the largest repeat
ing office on the line. but the repeating
viii be accomplished automatically. and
the repeaters, which VIII do the work
of &c Individual operators, will be han
died by one man.
Within thirty days an entirely new
set of equipment win be in use in the
Topeka offices, and the facilities of the
local Office will be more than doubled.
The local quarters of the telegraph de-
partment are being moved from the sec
ond floor to the third floor of the gen.
eraI office building here in order to SCI
cure the additional room necessary on
account Of the increase in the import
ance of the office and the enlargement
of the same.
The rebuilding Of the telegraph is one
of the features embraced in the general
plan being worked out bS H. U. Nudge
for the betterment of the Rock Island
system. The work Is directly in charge
of J. G. Jennings, superintendent of tele-
graph, and F. s. Spafard, assistant
superintendent of telegraph, is now in
Topeka in charge of the work within the
jurisdiction of grand division OF the
road governed from this point.
Repeating stations. testing points, and
important points where quadruplex ap-
paratus is used viii be Chicago, sDaven-
port. Kansas City. Topeka. Herington,
Little Rock. Oklahoma City. Cedar
Rapids. Des Afoines. F'afrbury, Goodland
and Trenton.
Aside from the Chicago office. which
will constitute the general headquar-
tiers and fountain head from which
source the bulk OF the telegraph bust
ness emanates, Topeka will be the most
important telegraph station on the lines.
me Office mere VIII Ue III CHdlSC VI H
O. Swartwood, as manager and wire
chief Mr.. Swartwood has been with the
Rock Island here several years.
The Topeka office will be the center
Of a system of through wires reaching
to Chicago, to Little Rock. to Okla
homa City. to Herington and to Good
land. all of which wires will be used
with quadruplex apparatus. and from
which points the telegraph business will
be handled to local points within the
territory covered by each.
The latest improved equipment known
is being stalled in the various offices,
and within a few months the work will
be completed The work is era sually
being accomplished without interference
with the general run of business.