re: #117 Blind Frog Belly White

Exactly.

Trains ran on the same track at different speeds in the same direction, or in opposite directions. “Train Orders” told the crews when and where they had to pull off into a siding to allow another train to pass.

Railroad watches, aka ‘standard watches’ had to run within 30 seconds/2 weeks. Each railroad had its own rules, though they largely overlapped, and a list of models they’d accept. Railroaders had to present their watch every week to an Inspector, who’d note the deviation from his standard clock, and they’d have to have them serviced on a regular basis by the same inspectors. And they were expressly forbidden from setting the time themselves!

And accuracy was even more crucial before 1883, when the US (finally) went on a Standard Time system. It’s hard to fathom a system where every town or city set it own “time” by a rough approximation of “high noon”: seasonally adjusted. OK if you don’t have any means of communication faster than a walking pace (or Pony Express for really quick comms): but even 19th-Century railroad speeds (40 mph for the “expresses”) pushed the time system too much for efficiency.