Scioto Div. station info needed- TELEGRAPH CALLS

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

Some of the mystery/confusion about Telegraph Calls can be removed if one remembers what they were used for.

The Telegraph Call (a.k.a the "Office Call") was the caller's way of raising the attention of the telegrapher in the office being called.  Telegraph Calls had to be short, so as to be snappy and catch attention as the clicking telegraph sounder competed with the din of other noises in the depot.  Thus, instead of the Despatcher (note the old spelling of that word ! ) having to hammer out in dots and dashes the whole word E-L-L-I-S-T-O-N, all he had to do was send "BS."  If the telegrapher at "BS" Elliston didn't answer immediately, he sent "BS   BS   BS," until BS answered.

Actually, the protocol was just a bit more complex.  Rather than writing out the informal rule for calling and answering, I'll give an example.  In this example, the Train Despatcher at "R" Office Roanoke wants to raise the telegraph operator at "AG" Shawsville.  Here would be the sequence.

"AG  R      AG AG  AG  R"

When Shawsville answers, he sends:

"I AG"

And then the Train Dispatcher goes ahead with his business, for instance telling AG to get ready to copy train orders, "19 E CY 3"

The foregoing tells why telegraph offices had office calls.

Now, let's move to the question of duplicated  Office Calls.

Every office had to have a unique call.  There could not be two offices with the same Telegraph Call.  To have duplicate calls would be like everyone on the wire being named Bill.

Calls were generally changed only when train dispatching districts were merged.  If two dispatching territories were combined (as has happened frequently over the years, for a number of reasons, one of which was improved communications,) and each of the former districts had an office called "BX," one of them had to be changed to preserve uniqueness.

Telegraph Calls are fascinating.  I've been collecting lists of them for more than thirty years.  And there were a lot of Telegraph Calls that never made it into any timetable (e.g. "MW" for Machine Works, Roanoke Shops, and "R" the Radford Division Train Despatcher in Roanoke.)

-- abram burnett
        (sending from "SW" Telegraph Office in the basement...)
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