GB CABIN TALCOTT TELEGRAPH OFFICE

 

With trains traveling in both directions on a single track in certain locations, communications became vital to avoid the collision of trains traveling in opposite directions.  To address this situation, the C&O Railway, along with other railroads, established telegraph offices called cabins that were identified with alphabetical call signs.  They were located at each end of the single track and other locations depending upon the need.

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When double tracks were extended from Lowell to Talcott the GN Cabin Lowell was relocated to this spot on 12 May 1902 and renamed to GB Cabin Talcott.  IN preparation to putting in an interlocking system manufactured by the National Switch and Signal Company of Easton, Pennsylvania.  This system allowed trains to traverse the single track between the GB Cabin Talcott and MW Cabin Hilldale and vice versa making collision close to an impossibility.  The system is complex to explain but the actual operation was not difficult. Double tracks were established in 1932 upon the completion of the Big Bend Tunnel.  This eliminated the need for the GB Cabin.