Reading Co.–Telegraph Codes

 

In the days of railroad telegraphy, important locations on the railroads were usually abbreviated with brief codes or symbols. The tables below lists some Reading codes from September 26, 1948.

 

Main Line, Philadelphia Division
GS Reading Terminal HS Lynn
DI Diamond GV Grove
JU 16th Street Junction WM Warminster
WS Wayne NK Ayres
WI Wind JG Neshaminy
NX Newtown Junction WO Wood
BO Tabor Junction CN Trent
KI Jenkin MN Cheltenham Junction
YM Carmel FA Fox Chase
MA Dale MI Spring Mill
LD Land CK Conshohocken
LK Link DK DeKalb Street, Norristown
FR Forest EL Elm Street, Norristown
DY Doylestown    
Main Line, Reading Division
DK DeKalb Street, Norristown DK DeKalb Street, Norristown
NS Norristown Junction NS Norristown Junction
PW PW Tower PW PW Tower
PK Perkiomen Junction PK Perkiomen Junction
U U Tower U U Tower
RF Royersford RF Royersford
CG Colebrookdale Junction CG Colebrookdale Junction
DG DG Tower DG DG Tower
Perkiomen Division
OB Oaks PS Pennsburg
CV Collegeville GV East Greenville
GX Graters Ford PJ Palm
SC Schwenksville Z Zionsville
SD Salford RK Dillinger
GR Green Lane JA Emmaus Junction
HI Red Hill    

 

Notes:
Although some telegraph codes are intuitive, others are not. There are sometimes amusing stories about the origins of various codes. For example: “YM” (Carmel) allegedly stands for “Yocum’s Mistake”. Apparently Mr. Yocum misread the plans and built YM tower on the inboard side of the curve (outbound from Phila) at Carmel, instead of on the outboard side (inbound to Phila)...visibility, therefore, was diminished.  

*(thanks to Bob Boguski and Drew Marshall, who compiled this information with assistance from Jerry Dsop)

 

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