Answers to questions...
No, the stretch bracket train order telephone is as the original was when the Dispatchers telephone line was installed on the Narrow gauge line from Alamosa to Durango in the late 1930's. The Western Union linegang was sent in there and two of the original Morse telegraph wires No. 3 and No. 9 (later 109) on the line were taken out of telegraph service and cleaned up, splices renewed or jumpered to reduce line resistance, and this pair of wires which were on the same side of the pole were transposed with "J" drop brackets (this exchanged the pin positions of these two wires at regular intervals,
similar to a twisted pair with twists about three per mile) for voice telephone service. Western Union 109 wire was originally the "through" Morse wire from Alamosa W.U. to Durango and this service was replaced by a leased teleprinter wire from Mountain Bell into the Durango W.U. office. The other Morse wire, No. 3, was originally a Railroad message wire from Denver, and was simply discontinued west of Alamosa when the wire was taken for phone service. Of the two remaining Morse wires, No.1 was retained for Railroad Dispatcher's train wire and kept in operation in case when (not if) the phone line went down, as well as other general railroad use, and No. 108 was the Western Union "way wire" cut into all the open RR offices all the way from Alamosa to Silverton for public commerical Western Union service.
Things remained this way until the end in 1969. The wires No. 1 and
No. 108 originally went all the way to Silverton and were in use into the 1950's. Snowslides wrecked so much of the line in about 1952, to the point where it was not repairable, and it was subsequently abandoned. The two telegraph wires terminated in Durango after that, taking battery from the Durango Western Union office.
