What part did railway companies play in first time zones in US?

Question

What part did railway companies play in first time zones in US?

Answer 1

peedlepup is spot on.

Interestingly, the railroads stayed on "Standard" time the year round under the Uniform Time act and didn't starting changing to Daylight Savings time until the late '60s.

In the early days of railroading, lasting into the '80s, time was the fundamental safety device, as operations were quite time dependent for dispatching and safety purposes.

Operating employes were required to have a railroad approved watch, carry a "watch card" that certified the time piece was cleaned and inspected at set intervals, check their watch against a "Standard Clock" at on duty points with no more than 20 seconds variation, record if the watch was set on the on duty register and then compare time with the other members of the crew.

If no standard clock was available, the crew had to contact the train dispatcher to get the correct "Standard Time"  to set and compare watches with.

A very good question.  Thanks for asking.

Answer 2

Time zones were established to provide a consistent, uniform system of tracking time specifically because of the railroads. Prior to time zones, each railroad set up its own time schedule which may or may not have been the same time systems used by any other railroads they met or interlined with.

Answer 3

It was actually invented by a Canadian on Jan 1st 1885 by Sir Sanford Fleming.He worked for Canadian Pacific Railway.(C.P.R) It was to establish  standard time zone for all the railroads around the world.

Answer 4

Before time zones, every city had different times.  One city would be 10 minutes ahead of another.  After all, short of a horseman riding from town to town with a pocket watch, there was no way for towns to be synchronized!  It drove the railroads insane!  

At the time, the railroads were the one industry which connected the country together.  So when they screamed "ENOUGH!", the earth shook.  So as soon as technology allowed, they established the time zone system we have today.  The railroads would run on standard time!  The cities just went with it, because they didn't want to be in the timekeeping business anyway.