All this talk about cardpunch readers & the primitive systems (which of course, were state -of-the- art) reminds me of a friend I had at Harpur College (SUNY-Binghamton) in 1968 or so. Martin Zimelis was at the time, cheif engineer at the college radio station - WHRW-FM. I worked reading news in my spare time and got to know him pretty well. He told me about the big mainframe in the school that had been taught to shoot craps. I told him about the computer at the yard office in Conklin that 1. was near the door & exposed to the elements everytime someone entered or left. 2. Was looked on with suspicion and deposited with coaldust, dirt, and occasionally tobacco juice from one of the clerks. I knew this thing had something to do with sorting consists and checking trainlists, but I had no idea it needed to be protected from the elements (and employees).
There was a junkyard at the east end of Conklin yard that got all the scrapped IBM machines and Zimelis said he'd like to see what was in there. I guess the deal was, IBM didn't want anyone to go over their machines for engineering secrets but we could get in from the railroad side by walking into the yard and crossing the mainline then through the fence. I took Marty there one weekday afternoon and as we started across the mainline, I heard #2 approaching and grabbed Zimelis' arm. He figured he had plenty of time, but the curve the yard's built on gives you a deceptive look at the speeds. Before we knew it, The E-8s were roaring by us. I was used to it, but Marty was really impressed. BUT, he had a great time in the junkyard with his small toolkit unfastening little microswitches and so forth. Of course this was before circuitboards performed functions like this.
Oh, yeah, I just remembered another adventure with these new machines. The D&H had some kind of computer in their yardoffice and one of the clerks felt threatened so he shot it with a .38. He then shot the yardmaster - an early example of 'going postal'.
It's hard to remember how primitive things were in the 60s. ALL the engines had radios, but the only 'portables' were Motorolas like small suitcases with a telephone type handset on the top.
These were mostly used on the roadjobs on the mainline. I don't remember them on the 2 Syracuse division freights and of course they were way too big for yard switchmen to have in their pockets.
You had to KNOW handsignals and whistlesignals to get along then.
Regards to all,
Walt Smith
> Date: Sat, 4 Oct 2008 13:13:47 -0400> To: erielack_@_lists.railfan.net> From: rmcclive@twcny.rr.com> Subject: (erielack) ibm cards> > > >Re:(erielack) punch cards> >> >i still have a stack of unused IBM punch cards about 3 inches thick > >in a desk drawer - started in a bank in buffalo in 1959 - one of our > >customers was C&O rr which had paychecks that were punched cards- > >they were a trip, weekly we looked for a guys check that went to a > >greasy spoon to cash his check, bacon grease and egg all over it - > >needless to say that check wouldn't go thru any of our machines, > >anyone remember the cummins card conditioner?? - last time i used > >punched cards was in 1981, did an application in north carolina > >where decks of ibm cards were made up to used to test old, obsolute > >missle systems that went into remanufacture for a middle east > >country - i still have the forearms developed from those 5200 blocks > >of the cards - straight computers from 1982 till i retired in 2002 - > >ralph in syracuse> > > > > >----> >> >> > From Archives@Railfan.net> >Message-ID: <928480.85146.qm@web33805.mail.mud.yahoo.com>> >In-Reply-To: <id.03102008220152.00000@FPE>> >Date: Fri, 3 Oct 2008 19:31:41 -0700 (PDT)> >From: "Gary R. Kazin" <gkazin@yahoo.com>> >Subject: Re:(erielack) punch cards> >> >- --- On Fri, 10/3/08, Janet & Randy Brown <jananran@mymailstation.com> wrote:> > > I wonder if a spare bedroom would hold a card punch and a> > > reader and a sorter - not to mention the noise and the> > > stress on the framework of the house. These things were> > > MACHINES!> >> >When I started college in June 1969, the school actually OWNED an > >IBM 1620 computer, which had its own card reader and punch. It was > >about the size of an office desk. It also had several off-line > >card punches, a card SORTER, and a machine that read cards and > >PRINTED their contents. The room was half the size of a regular > >classroom, and it was full. Over in the corner was a programmable > >electronic calculator from Wang Labs. It h!
ad one p
art on the table > >and another (bigger) underneath. Together, it weighed about 40 > >pounds. Most of the machines were noisy, either in themselves or > >because of their cooling fans.> >> > > Not only did the cards carry the data (as we learned to> > > call "information") but they held the programs as> > > well. Oh, boy! The excitement and vocabulary lesson when> > > someone carrying a stack of program cards dropped them!> >> >5200 pick-up, as we called it. The sorter helped, if you could > >figure out which columns you wanted sorted and in what order - > >assuming you'd bothered to number the cards as the instructor had warned.> >> > > And, remember -- not all nor everywhere was punch cards.> >> >Yes, there was paper tape, magnetic tape, and something called > >magnetic core storage. The 1620 had something like 10K!> >> > > Many of us spent untold hours shortening #2 Eberhards> > > transcribing deathless "data" onto sheets which> > > were . . . not faxed, but sent by company (Army, in my case)> > > mail to someplace else, where someone else did something> > > else with them (probably putting them on punchcard) while we> > > went back out and did another yard check.> >> >At work, we switched from IBM computers to Control Data, which used > >a different coding scheme for special characters. EVERY program had > >to go through a conversion program, so suddenly we had more than > >double the cards we had before: the IBM deck to use until the > >hardware was changed and the CDC deck to use afterward. If the data > >got updated, or new info was received, we had to change BOTH...> >> > > The good ol' days . . .> >> >NOT!> >> >Gary R. Kazin> >DL&W Milepost R35.7> >Rockaway, New Jersey> >> >> >> >> > The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List> > http://EL-List.railfan.net/> > To Unsubscribe: http://Lists.Railfan.net/erielackunsub.html> >> >------------------------------> >> >End of EL Mail List Digest V3 #2887> >***********************************> > > RRRRRRR> RR RR> RR RR> RRRRRRRR> RR RR> RR RR Ralph McClive> RR RR rmc!
clive_@_tw
cny.rr.com > > > The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List> http://EL-List.railfan.net/> To Unsubscribe: http://Lists.Railfan.net/erielackunsub.html
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