This spectacular diagram from the February 28, 1903 edition of the Street Railway Journal looks for all the world like a modern schematic diagram of the International Railway Company’s lines, but there’s a bit of a twist in the tale.

It’s actually a diagram of a telephonic dispatching system that the company was planning to install on its city and interurban lines, replacing a mixed telegraph/phone system. As telegraphs needed a skilled operator at every location, the benefits of a telephone – which almost any member of staff could readily use – were very apparent.

So instead of traditional stations along each line, the diagram instead shows the locations of these new-fangled telephones, spaced roughly a mile-and-a-half apart. Sometimes these were stations or car barns – but not always, as locations like “1/4 mile S. of Kenoche Road” attest.

The Buffalo city streetcars are arrayed out at the bottom of the diagram, spreading out from the company’s private telephone exchange in Buffalo and arranged in correct topological order, while the interurban lines pass through the the despatch (sic) board on their way to Niagara Falls, Lockport and other distant destinations. It can be noted that one of the telephones on the Niagara Falls dispatching circuit is located in the Men’s Room of the company’s Niagara Falls offices!

Our final word: A telephonic circuit diagram that almost perfectly mimics the modern transit diagram in form. Fascinating! Read the full article from the Street Railway Journal for full details about the telephone network, including a great passage about how orders were sent, repeated and confirmed to be accurate by all parties over a telephone line.

Source: The Internet Archive