B&O block station at Gainesville

My friend has the following question:

I have made drawings of a block station on the B&O at
Gainesville, NY. What exactly was a block station? There was a signal
outside. I can almost guess but that in the past has proven to be a
dangerous thing to do.

Can anybody help with details?

-otto-

The only time I have heard the term was in a ICC accident report from the 1960s on the Cincinnati Northern,which was a New York Central Line the wreck was at Lewisburg,Ohio.The wreck was between two trains I believe one with superior athority south bound,and a local that was entering a siding to clear for the south bound.The report went into detail about how the line had been block signal station till just a few weeks before the wreck.They explaind that trains were given permission over the line and where to stop at lit block signal stations and recieve instructions from the agent or over the telephone and not to proceed till this was completed,the signal gave no indication of trains ahead only to stop for instruction.The line was changed to train order opperation shortly before the wreck.The report faulted the crew of the local for backing into the siding from the north end and not the pulling into the south end upon their arrival as the rule book said .It also faulted managment for not making sure crews were tested on the rules for train order opperation.

[quote][/quote]Many thanks for the information. I will modify its title to Block Signal Station.

Sincerely,

Harold Russell

The Block Station was a squarish shanty like structure painted yellow with black trim on the window frames with a pole holding the semaphore train order signal blades at top, which were controlled from the inside by a pair of levers. Nearby was an outhouse for the agent-operator to use. There was a desk,chair, telephone inside along with a train bulletin board on which scheduled times for trains stopping or passing that station were posted by chalk markings. In later years, it doubled as the depot after the REAL depot was either torn down or burned down. It had a stove that could be lit to heat the inside. Both structures are now long gone.

Caseyjim,

Actually, the "yellow" color you describe was more of a color like that of a typical office manila file folder. The black trim color was a standard up until about the mid- to late-60's when the black color was changed to a shade of brown. These colors were a B&O standard for building structures.