Dad's railway watch

This railway watch is possibly 70 or 80 years old and belonged to my father. Everyone working on the railway had to carry a pocket watch certified for railway use. Each day they had to check and adjust their watch to the time on the railway station clock. That clock was kept accurate to within a few seconds by the station agent who would receive a time signal each day by telegraph. The station clock was a pendulum clock and, like this watch, had smaller numbers indicating the time from 13:00 to 24:00. When the mainspring in the clock was wound the clock would need re-winding only after one week.

You can see engraving inside and printing on the dial showing this watch came from Pilot Mound, Manitoba. I believe the watch would have been engraved with the jewellers name and location but manufactured elsewhere. Pilot Mound is a small Manitoba town named for a large earthen mound near the town. In pioneer days this mound was used by travellers to determine where they were. It can be seen at some distance on the flat prairie.

Younger people may not know what the pointer between the "F" and "S" markings was used for. Railway watches had to be taken to a certified watchmaker each year to be cleaned and adjusted. If, after observing the watch over a period of hours, it proved to be gaining or losing a few seconds this could be corrected by slightly moving the pointer towards the "F" for fast or "S" for slow marking.

Well into the digital age digital watches were not allowed for railway use. The railway pocket watched had proven so reliable that railways were reluctant to adopt a new, unproven technology. I do not know what type of watches are now in use on the railways.