This is a fascinating page about it [1]. Note that for many of the images, you can open in a new tab and zoom in. The second one, with the time and distance from Washington DC, is amazing (I noticed that it says Honolulu is in the Sandwich Islands and Panama is in Nuevo Granada). I wish the scan of the North American railroad map (the 1884 Chicago and Alton RR) was of high enough resolution to read the city names on all those branch lines!

But anyway:

Chicago Tribune, November 19, 1883

> Shortly before the new time was put into effect yesterday a Tribune representative called at the office of the Train Dispatchers of the Pennsylvania Company, Burlington, Pan-Handle, and Alton Railroads, at the West-Side Union Depot, to witness the ceremonies attending the change. The Division Superintendents, Train Dispatchers, Depotmasters, and telegraph operators were all at their desks. All looked unusually solemn, and their faces showed that something of an extraordinary nature was about to happen. At about a quarter to 12 o’clock, Chicago time, the conductors, engineers, and other train-men dropped in one by one, each having his timer-piece in his hand and watching closely the hands on the dials. Depot-Master Cropsy had his chronometer under a powerful magnifying glass to be sure that he made no mistake. When the clock on the wall in the office, by which the running of the trains in the depot is regulated, stood at 12, it was stopped. The telegraph instruments were then connected with the pendulum of the clock in the observatory at Allegheny, Pa., from which the Fort Wayne and Pan-Handle receive their time. Each move made by the pendulum of the Allegheny Observatory clock was faithfully repeated on the telegraph instruments, and at precisely nine minutes thirty-two seconds after 12, Chicago time, the movement of the pendulum stopped, indicating that it was exactly 12 o’clock, and the timepieces in the hands of the large assemblage were simultaneously set to that figure, and the clock on the wall, which had been stopped at 12 o’clock Chicago time, was again set agoing. The Fort Wayne and Pan-Handle then set their watches back twenty-eight minutes having heretofore been keeping Columbus time, by which their trains were run, The Burlington and Alton set their timepieces back nine minutes, having heretofore kept Chicago time, by which their trains were run. The feat successfully accomplished, general murmur of satisfaction ran through the room, and everybody, with the exception of the operators, departed with a sigh of relief.

At sharp noon yesterday the Western Electric Manufacturing Company changed its chronometer and began to furnish its subscribers with the new standard time. All of the subscribers had been instructed how to act, and at noon the clock and chronometers were turned back nine minutes. All of the leading jewelers had men in their places to make this change, and as soon as it was made cards bearing the inscription ‘The New Central Time” were placed in the window chronometers. These cards met the eyes of the passersby, and from noon there were groups in front of the jewelers’ windows almost constantly engaged in changing their watches. The corporations and companies who depend upon the jewelers for their time made the change as soon as it was announced, and the indications are that the change will become universally adopted much sooner than was expected. The general greeting on the street yesterday was “Have you the new time?” And if there was a negative answer the questioner would kindly furnish it.

Indianapolis Sentinel, 21 November 1883

> Railroad time is to the time of the future. The Sun is no longer to boss the job. People—all 55,000,000 of them—must eat, sleep and work as well as travel by railroad time. It is a revolt, a rebellion. The sun will be requested to rise and set by railroad time. The planets must, in the future, make their circuits by such timetables as railroad magnates arrange. People will have to marry by railroad time, and die by railroad time. Ministers will be required to preach by railroad time – banks will open and close by railroad time – in fact, the Railroad Convention has taken charge of the time business, and the people may as well set about adjusting their affairs in accordance with its decree. … We presume the sun, moon and stars will make an attempt to ignore the orders of the Railroad Convention, but they, too, will have to give in at last.

[1] https://chicagology.com/transportation/timeconvention/