(Hx Medical Abbreviation for History )

One of the things I've been thinking about lately is that in the "glory days" railroads, their plant, equipment and people affected and were affected by the times. In short, they didn't exist in isolation. In many cases, they figured it out before everybody else and did what we consider new today with old technology.

In that vein:

Living History Characters IÂ’d like to see at every railroad museum:

The Telegrapher: Wouldn’t it be great to have a properly attired (green eyeshade and half-sleeve clad) telegrapher demonstrating Morse Code, explaining how the telegraph was the first internet and the gateway to the world for many (small) towns; your local Western Union telegrapher with a “bug” was first e-mail provider.

This is plausible, since individuals dedicated to the preservation of telegraphy and its instruments. There are over 700 individuals nationwide who belong to the “Morse Society” and who might want to demonstrate their advocation for another generation and a wider audience, based upon this tagline appearing on their home page: “If we want our descendents to remember and honor us, we need to set an example by honoring those who came before us”.



superheater62@yahoo.com

> (Hx Medical Abbreviation for History )

> One of the things I've been thinking about
> lately is that in the "glory days"
> railroads, their plant, equipment and people
> affected and were affected by the times. In
> short, they didn't exist in isolation. In
> many cases, they figured it out before
> everybody else and did what we consider new
> today with old technology.

> In that vein:

> Living History Characters IÂ’d like to see at
> every railroad museum:

> The Telegrapher: WouldnÂ’t it be great to
> have a properly attired (green eyeshade and
> half-sleeve clad) telegrapher demonstrating
> Morse Code, explaining how the telegraph was
> the first internet and the gateway to the
> world for many (small) towns; your local
> Western Union telegrapher with a “bug” was
> first e-mail provider.

> This is plausible, since individuals
> dedicated to the preservation of telegraphy
> and its instruments. There are over 700
> individuals nationwide who belong to the
> “Morse Society” and who might want to
> demonstrate their advocation for another
> generation and a wider audience, based upon
> this tagline appearing on their home page:
> “If we want our descendents to remember and
> honor us, we need to set an example by
> honoring those who came before us”.

SH:

I concur. We have a operator's bay on our depot building with telegraph equipment, an operable semaphore type train order board and a genuine ticket window. We COULD have a station agent (who knows Morse) sell tickets for riders of our caboose carrying train, throw the order board, send out telegraph messages AND explain to visitors what he (or she) is doing. But we don't! Should we? Of course! Anybody who wants to volunteer gets the job!

Les Beckman (Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum/North Judson, Indiana)

midlandblb@cs.com

Now there's a project. Tie a morse station to the internet in such a way that sending the old railway style preamble would connect to another operator anywhere in the world. If you can make voice calls on the net, a setup similar to the old 43A1 carrier should work for morse. Establishing the connection might be the tough part. I would attempt it myself but I am just an old AT (Ancient Technologist), this new stuff is way beyond my comprehension. Any ideas?

tramways@canada.com

This has always been a goal of the ELDCPS. There are a lot of dinner trains out there but we would like to try to demonstrate how a dining car operated in their heyday - 4 chefs, 4 waiters and a steward.

I like to think of the historic recreation done at Williamsburg as a model for us to follow.

Erie Lackawanna Dining Car Preservation Society
tstuy@nospam-eldcps.org

I enjoyed a demonstration such as you describe at the Minnehaha Depot at the Park of the same name in Minneapolis less than 3 weeks ago. AN elderly gentleman even allow visitors to tap out their name. Also in the park was a Civil War Missionary hospital unit set up at one of the historic buildings. Two weekend Living Hx displays at a public park. Imagine.

> The Telegrapher: WouldnÂ’t it be great to
> have a properly attired (green eyeshade and
> half-sleeve clad) telegrapher demonstrating
> Morse Code, explaining how the telegraph was
> the first internet and the gateway to the
> world for many (small) towns; your local
> Western Union telegrapher with a “bug” was
> first e-mail provider.


wyld@sbcglobal.net

Years ago, I seem to recall the B&O Museum demonstrated a basic telegraph setup from the Museum to a station out on the First Mile during a Civil War encampment.

If you're looking for telegraphers, be advised that ham radio still requires (for now, only for some licenses) a proficiency test in Morse code. If you have the equipment in place, contact your local amateur radio club for willing volunteers to demonstrate while practicing their Morse code, or better yet let them do an exam set at your museum, with the telegraphy being an actual proficiency test.

LNER4472-NOSPAM-@bcpl.net

Years ago, I seem to recall the B&O
> Museum demonstrated a basic telegraph setup
> from the Museum to a station out on the
> First Mile during a Civil War encampment.

> now, only for some licenses) a proficiency
> test in Morse code. If you have the
> equipment in place, contact your local
> amateur radio club for willing volunteers to
> demonstrate while practicing their Morse
> code, or better yet let them do an exam set
> at your museum, with the telegraphy being an
> actual proficiency test.

The land line Morse used by telegraphers has some different characters than the "International Morse" used on radio.
A ham would have to learn about the differences to be historically correct.

john_nansen@yahoo.com

Actually, one of TVRM's senior members (and volunteers) was a railroad telegrapher for the Southern Railway as was his father. Martin Treadway is one of our longtime volunteer ticket agents. Up to the closure of the telegraph office at 1301 Market Street in Chattanooga, he was a telegrapher. After that, he spent the remainder of his career as a freight agent covering the territory between Chattanooga and Emory Gap, Tennessee.

Mr. Treadway has done quite a bit to preserve the history of railroad telegraphy for TVRM, having provided us with much of the equipment on display at our stations. He managed to save a good bit of the telegraph office equipment from 1301 Market Street that would otherwise have ended up in a dumpster, quite literally! Last time he and I talked about the telegraph office downtown, his memory seemed strong enough that I'm certain if we'd gone down there, he could have literally walked around that floor and pointed out where everything used to be and who worked there. He's also still fluent in both American and International Morse.

awalker1829@yahoo.com

> Years ago, I seem to recall the B&O
> Museum demonstrated a basic telegraph setup
> from the Museum to a station out on the
> First Mile during a Civil War encampment.

For a number of years (and possibly to this day), the Monticello Railway Museum included a telegraphy demonstration as part of its "School Days" event. School children boarding the train at one end of the line would give their names to the telegraph operator in the depot there, and when the train got to the other end of the line, the children could visit the operator at that depot and see their name as received via telegraph.

As far as other operator duties are concerned, the ritual of "handing up" train orders via delivery fork is often demonstrated as part of the Musuem's regular weekend train operations.

pnichol6@prodigy.net

Many years ago, when I was in the Navy, I was doing radioman duties. I learned Morse, and was certified for a speed key. When I listen to the "Click Morse" code used by railroad telegraphers, I am just as baffeled as anybody. The sound of dash-dot and click are not compatible as far as my ear goes. I would imagine that would be true for most radiomen.

jim1522@aol.com

I was a small boy in the 1950's as steam was dying out on the Great Northern and Northern Pacific, and was blessed with a grandfather who was a rabid a steamfan as ever existed.

Hence, I spent a great deal of my young life in and around the Great Northern depot in my home town, and remember it more vividly and with greater clarity than the home in which I then lived.

There are days when I ache for the world, long gone, that surrounded that small depot. Its sights and sounds and smells gone forever. The depot itself was small, with a waiting area equipped with oaken benches polished by the clothes of thousands of passengers who passed through there over its 70 year life. I think that it seated perhaps 12 people at most.

And I remember the metronomic ticking of the big clock mounted above the ticket window. As a small boy I always puzzled over the cast iron grill which covered the ticket window, because the door to the ticket office, immediately to its left, was never closed.

And oh, the magic in that office. The depot had a bay window, occupied by the telegrapher's station and I can hear the machine-gun rattle of the telegraph sounders to this day in my mind. The telegrapher was a kind man, and a friend of my grandfather's, and in quiet times he'd put a sounder in "local loop" and work on teaching his seven year old friend "railroad morse". His key was a red-handled Vibroplex bug that he always put into a black case and took home with him at the end of his shift.

I can remember standing on the platform watching the telegrapher as he "hooped up" trainorders to passing, steam hauled freight drags. The rolling, syncopated thunder of double headed steam accelerating hard towards the grade west of town became a part of my life, a part of my soul that is with me still.

I know there were diesels then, but I don't remember them. Even photos we took, showing the beautiful North Coast Limited hauled by A-B-B-A F's have no more resonance for me than the package insert on a bottle of aspirin. My grandfather's attitude toward diesels was "Park 'em all on the siding at the razor blade factory and pray they disappear".

Sorry to have babbled on...my mind is stuck in the past and my body lives in the present.


Steam Locomotive Notes
dougb@sunserver.com

> Many years ago, when I was in the Navy, I
> was doing radioman duties. I learned Morse,
> and was certified for a speed key. When I
> listen to the "Click Morse" code
> used by railroad telegraphers, I am just as
> baffeled as anybody. The sound of dash-dot
> and click are not compatible as far as my
> ear goes. I would imagine that would be true
> for most radiomen.

I think that the difference is that radio Morse, the operator listens the "mark's" length, where in the click style Morse, it's the "space's" length where the dash and dots live.

Ed

ff1044@aol.com

> Sorry to have babbled on...my mind is stuck
> in the past and my body lives in the
> present.

Nice story Doug and no apologies necessary, you're among kindred spirits here at least IMNHO.

superheater62@yahoo.com

> If you're looking for telegraphers, .......

An organization still exists which works to preserve the heritage of Landline Morse Code. I have been a member of the Morse Telegraph Club for many years. I began my career as a railroad telegrapher when I was about 13 years old, and ended up as a Train Dispatcher on the Illinois Central, the White Pass & Yukon, and Burlington Northern.

"American Morse" is the true Morse Code; radio uses International or Continental Code which has many differing characters. The Continental Code was developed because of the time delays and weak signals which occured on the undersea cables. American Morse had spaces within many characters and was hard to read on the cables.

I used both codes for many years as I was also a Ham Radio Operator using code almost exclusively. The tone sounds were interpreted by my brain as Internationa;/Continental Code and the clicking of the sounder was American Morse. Seldom did I have any trouble distinguishing which code to use. It was automatic.

The Morse Telegraph Club has an Internet website. The club puts on demonstrations and has circuit diagrams availbe to use the telephone lines as realistic telegraph lines.

Skip Luke
Engineer, Georgetown Loop RR, Sumpter Valley Ry.
Former Telegrapher, IC RR; Dispatcher, ICRR, WP&YR, BN.



salty_4568@yahoo.com

There are a few sites out there that i have seen while I was looking to set up a key and sounding box in the Ringoes ticket office. I've downloaded some software and seen some demo setups for RRmuseums that guys have made... try google.

At the time I came across this stuff, I was considering making up an automated apparatus to pound out random meaningless form 19s... but ideally it would be a two-way communication device.

Would be ideal for the right kid to take up an interest in DX... or in this case american morse.

Oh, and there are servers out there where fans can send code to each other on the internet.

I am merely a beginner at code... old dog new trick problem... like I said, ideal for a couple kids.

RCW


http://brwrr.com
rcw7585@njit.edu