When did the Santa Fe stop using telegraph? I have a feeling it was somewhere in the early 80's but don't know for sure. Also when did they retire most of the cabooses in favor of FREDs? I think it was a few years earlier than that but could be wrong.
Santa Fe cabooses were gone in 1986. Can only guess the telegraph w/ the advent of radios by '50s-'60s.
As telephones were installed along the Santa Fe ROW dispatching of trains was switched over from the telegraph to telephone. Telephone lines were overlayed on the same telegraph poles, with the telegraph lines still intact and inservice. A railroad agents job was to report the arrival and departure of trains to the dispatcher and hand up train orders, to trains as needed. Although the agents were required to know and use telegraphy the phone and radio eventually replaced the telegraph. There is a picture of Chard Walker at work in his book "Cajon Pass", dated in the early 50's and you can still see the telegraph key present at that time. Things happened quickly as early forms of teletypes and computers begin to assist the work of the agents and dispatchers. Radios, although a new novelty, needed considerable improvement before they could be depended upon. To many dead spots. I remember a Western Union Agent, sometime in the early 60's proclaiming how easy it was to send a telegraph, now that the railroads were no longer using the lines. The exact date, the telegraph dropped off line with the railroads remains a mystery to this TB participant. I did check two history books I have and nothing is noted in either one. I do remember an agent saying that by the 50's the telegraph was used to communicate more between themselves (at night) to keep each other awake by playing around and teasing each other. I think it was one of those things that just faded away as other ways and means of communication's took it's place. I hope this helps.
