For years, two of us have exhibited railroad grade and railroad approved pocket watches at the largest model train show in Canada. The pavilions are the size of three (Canadian) football fields, and in the two day show there will be 15,000 plus folks who are interested in the hobby, show up. Our exhibit did include maybe 10% watches that were special interest, though not railroad standard. There were two Swiss Brandt CCR 19-jewel models, plus Ball, Dueber, Elgin, Hampden, Hamilton (12- 992Bs), Illinois, Waltham, 7 Keystone Howards, one Edward Howard, and numerous electric, electronic (Accutron), and quartz wrist watches. And two Seth Thomas World railway standard clocks. Unusual this year! For the first time we've done this show, on the second day of the show, we had all 100 antique watches and clocks, running, and on time! It seems there are usually a couple that act up on us at the wrong time.
Very nice collection! Well displayed too. A closeup picture of a watch with description would be cool. Any favorite watch?
Yes. Custom made display cases. Made by a guy who does this work as a hobby. A favourite? How much time do you have? One would be my 1883 model Waltham, 17-jewel, CPR model. Hard to choose. The one that is displayed in a case by itself with archival material is a 1908 model Waltham Crescent Street that was used by the locomotive engineer in the picture, over a 45 year career with CPR. Shown with the watch is a printout detailing 32 of the 36 repairs the watch had over those years. They are organized by maker (Ball to Waltham), and by size. Where possible, 16-size by maker, then 18-size by maker. There are a few that were never designed for railroad use, sprinkled through the display. Very few do we actually know which railroad they were used on. The only actual railroad marked models (3 of them) are CPR. Three are CRTS (Canadian Railway Time Service). We wouldn't be averse to adding watches marked for US railways, but those that become available appear to be gobbled up by American collectors, so generally, we don't see them in Canada. (And I don't buy watches on eBay.)
Love that CPR beaver & shield logo. (Although that could be a squirrel, not sure ) Did railroads supply their employees with watches that met company specs, or did employees have to purchase them from the railroad? Or could employees buy any watch as long as it met some sort of standard?
The railroads didn't supply their employees with watches suited to their jobs. 19th century railroads knew inaccurate watches were often implicated as a cause for accidents. It is known that some railroads purchased high quality, accurate watches, and provided them to employees. These watches were often either destroyed, or pawned in a very short time. Railroads adopted a hard line. Thereafter, crews had to supply and maintain their own watches. Standards for watches often varied from railroad to railroad. But generally, railroad time service rules specified which watches the railroad would accept on their system. Crews had to purchase a recommended watch. Inspection procedures were invoked that crews had to follow in order to assure maintenance and accuracy of watches in service. If you didn't maintain your watch, you didn't work! Simple as that! This was all at the employees expense. Watches existed that might well have maintained a standard as set out in a railroad's time service rules. These were often called railroad GRADE watches, but they were not railroad APPROVED watches. The employee was given a list of railroad approved watches as mandated by the railroad. He had to choose one from the list. That is a beaver on top of the CPR crest.