This document was originally created in WordPerfect by scanning the original book of rules (BoR) and running it through an optical character recognition (OCR) program, OmniPage. This was exported into Rich Text Format (RTF), OmniPage's WordPerfect format export being broken. The WordPerfect document was then formatted to look as close to the original as practical.
The HTML version of this document was created from the WordPerfect original by WordPerfect Internet Publisher. WPIP is a decent HTML document creator but not a terribly good WordPerfect-to-HTML translator. Links have to be inserted by hand, images are not automatically translated into *.jpg or *.gof format, and WPIP only creates HTML2, not HTML3 or other (e.g. Netscape) enhancements. Thus, the HTML version is a somewhat non-optimized document, which hopefully will be improved, time permitting, by hand. The Table of Contents is ultimately intended to be a series of links into the body of the document. For now, please be patient and understand that this represents a "poor-man's HTML". Any suggestions on what other mechanisms to use to effect a better WP-to-HTML conversion are readily accepted.i
After OCR, the document was reviewed by me, and many errors were corrected. It was subsequently proofread by 4 volunteers, for whose help I am most grateful. This should bring the document to 100% accuracy vis-à-vis the original. There are several 'philosophical' issues in the conversion to electronic format and proofreading of this Book of Rules with which not everyone will agree. I hope everyone agrees, though, that they are minor and not worth quibbling about too terribly much. I expound on these issues below, and I am happy to entertain opinions contrary to my own.
One of the proofreaders, Steven Haaser, noted:
The railroad apparently changed its accepted spelling [from] time-table to timetable in the 1964 revision. I've checked carefully to distinguish hyphenation at line endings properly from hyphenated spellings.I admit I missed this initially. Also notable is the use of "live stock" in the Index versus "livestock" in the rule; conversely, one finds "yardmasters" in the Index versus "yard masters" in the rule. I have elected to keep the varying forms.
Non-American/non-Canadian readers may find some of the wording perplexing. Some of this is attributable to the grammar, as already mentioned. Some, however, is a style of writing unique to railroad documents. Much of this would not pass a test of standard English (American version) grammar, let me assure you.
In other cases, a smaller font size was used to fit an amount of modified text (on paste-in sheets) into a space that would otherwise not fit that amount of text. I decided not to reproduce this use of smaller fonts, but instead, to use a consistent font size throughout (see also, below).
I am assuming that you wish to reproduce exactly the variation between normal and italic fonts. The original is inconsistent in many places, especially in the Train Orders examples...This issue of retaining the mistakes of the original vs. correcting it to reflect their intent -- intent as perceived by me, anyway -- bothered me for quite a while. I decided, ultimately, to go with the latter. I based this decision partly on the fact that only the appearance, and not the content, of the text would be changed relative to the original. Flames Here Please :-)
Further, I considered an attempt to reproduce the original publisher's kerning, word spacing, and even line spacing (which varied from page to page to allow the text to 'fill' the page vertically) highly impractical. I did insist that headings remain with their following text.
The result is that my version appears as the rulebook would have appeared if the Pennsy had survived 1968 intact, (possibly merged with the N&W,) and the publisher were printing the next version of the rule book (had one ever been printed, which I believe none was). The Table of Contents and Index (will eventually) reflect these new page numbers. (In the HTML version, the ToC and Index are hypertext links; "page numbers" are meaningless and are removed.)
Under the conditions outlined above, this document is correct and complete within human bounds of volunteer proofreading. Again, anyone finding what they believe to be an error in this document is is asked to please contact me with this information.
The text in the HTML version now matches that in the WP version. Several formatting issues need to be resolved, as well as some minor corrections to the images. The Table of Contents/Index is unfinished.
This document is made available in the following versions:
Other versions may be made available upon request (e.g. LaserJet III versions). I will also make the original WordPerfect version available for specific purposes. My original signal drawings (vector images) may also be made available for specific purposes. Please contact me with your request.
Comments, corrections, or suggestions are always welcome. You may email me at bejm@eeg.ccf.org or send standard mail to
Mark D. Bej