Printed Copies of Documents
We can make printed copies of any of our 17,000 document scans, or any of thousands (and growing fast) of photo scans. In addition, we can make photocopies of other documents. That’s the easy part. The tricky part is finding a desired document or scan to copy or print.
That requires finding aids, and we’ve been building up databases of finding aids for years now. They are all available at the archives for searching, but it is difficult to put them on the website. It can be done, but will take a while to set up.
In the meantime, we will display lists of some of the most valuable items. The first list is of Dispatcher’s Records of Train Movements (a/k/a dispatcher train sheets). As trains moved around the railroad, and operators in stations and towers reported them passing by, the dispatchers recorded the train locations and times on their train sheets, along with notes about delays, unusual occurrences, pusher operation, etc. The result captures the entire operation of trains in the dispatchers’ territories.
Although we would like more, the Society is very lucky to have a good selection of dispatcher train sheets, representing various years of O&W’s life. In some cases, we have multiple sheets for contiguous dates. That helps paint a complete picture of locomotive and crew assignments and utilizations. Below is a list of the dispatcher sheets we have.
