RAILWAY TIME SAVER.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 69, 22 March 1928, Page 11

RAILWAY TIME SAVER.

TELEGRAPH CODE BOOK.

An enormous number of words passes over the telegraph service of the New Zealand Railways daily, covering as the service does all the exigencies of train running and unexpected situations as well as the more formal management of freight and passengers, and stationmrsters and their assistants will welcome the innovation just introduced of a code book which will cut down necessarily long and exhaustive messages between stations to one word. Instead of "heavy demand for wagons. Do utmost to get all wagons standing or loading at stations released immediately. Advise me number available," the operator will wire "Jovial," and the number, and proceed with other duties. There are 1000 such code words in the book, which are calculated to deal fully with any eventuality. To message's dealing with bookings for the interisland steamers now done by the Railway Department, in connection with which there are a number of possible requests and situations, according to the composition and numbers of the travelling party, there are allotted 145 code words. "Two-berth cabin for man and wife. If not available reserve two berths together in first-class. Will not accept berths in separate cabins," is condensed into "Briar." The innovation will save a great deal of time and considerable muscular effort in writing. The system of indexing facilitates decoding.