Milepost 100
For the past several months, I've included a milepost notation on each of the posts I've made. I've done this for several reasons: first, I wanted to keep tabs of the total number of posts I've made here. I also wanted an easy way to refer back to previous posts, you know, "...see Milepost 83" etc. And, mileposts would be something that would often be seen along the right of way.
The two photos above are from the Nickel Plate mainline which ran between Buffalo, New York, and Chicago, Illinois. As you might guess, the post was located 362 miles from Buffalo and 161 miles from Chicago.
The mileposts served as reference points along the line. As such, their precise placement was of extreme importance and was a high priority of the road's engineering department. Almost all facilities were referenced by their relative position to a milepost. A station might be located at Milepost 37.6, a passing siding might be at Milepost 53.7, etc. And, obviously, mileposts allowed a train crew to know where they were and just how far it was to their next destination or even point of reference.
My friend Ben, a former railroader, tells me that there are other uses for the mileposts. Train crews have to check their train speed with a watch and two mileposts. Just like in your car on the Interstate highway, it should take you one minute to travel between two mileposts at 60mph. If a train has to stop for a reason, the crew can notify the dispatcher of where they are by the mileposts. A dispatcher can also give a train crew permission to use a certain section of track between two mileposts. And a train crew might be notified of a possible problem or of a maintenance crew working in the area of a certain milepost. These are just a few of the many reasons that railroads had and still have mileposts in place on the railroad.
Through the years, the Nickel Plate acquired other railroads and added them to their system. The milepost pictured here was between Peoria, Illinois, and Sandusky, Ohio. This line was the Lake Erie & Western that passed through Findlay.
Today, the mileposts are usually small metal squares mounted on a metal signpost. Certainly functional but not nearly as neat looking as the old cast concrete posts featured here.
Until next time...
dlm
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