Telegraph Callsl

nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Fri May 5 11:52:36 EDT 2006


Abe,

Do you have the telegraph calls for the Norfolk Division? I know two: The
passenger station at Crewe was RG; the operator at the division headquarters
was K.

Bill Mason



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Today's Topics:

1. Re: Open House (nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org)
2. Re: Scioto Div. station info needed- Q for Ken Miller
(nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org)
3. Re: Scioto Div. station info needed- Q for Ken Miller
(nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org)
4. RE: Scioto Div. station info needed- Q for Ken Miller
(nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org)
5. Re: Scioto Div. station info needed- TELEGRAPH CALLS
(nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org)
6. Re: Scioto Div. station info needed- TELEGRAPH CALLS
(nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org)


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Message: 1
Date: Thu, 4 May 2006 08:39:27 -0400
From: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Subject: Re: Open House
To: "NW Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Message-ID: <00f301c66f77$c9fc3be0$6001a8c0 at BobsRetirement>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Was there a telegraph id for this station.

Bob Beckelhimer
Milford, OH.
----- Original Message -----
From: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
To: N&W mailing-list
Sent: Monday, May 01, 2006 8:53 PM
Subject: Open House



The Mt. Orab Women's Club is having an Open House for the Mt. Oreb Station
in Mt. Orab, Ohio on Sunday May 21st from 2:00 to 4:00 PM.
This is a rare opportunity to see inside this well preserved station on
the Cincinnati District. The will be refreshments, door prizes and plenty
of entertainment. The Women's Cliub has spent a great deal of time, money
and effert to help keep this all to often overlooked and disposed of part of
history preserved for future generations to enjoy. You wont be disapointed.
Come out and show your support!


Jeff Wood
twlv18japie at earthlink.net
EarthLink Revolves Around You.




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Message: 2
Date: Thu, 4 May 2006 08:56:06 EDT
From: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Subject: Re: Scioto Div. station info needed- Q for Ken Miller
To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Message-ID: <259.a8114b9.318b53e6 at aol.com>
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In a few instances, a station's call reflected a previous name. Montvale
on the Norfolk Division had originally been named BUford's. The call
for Montvale remained "BU". As far as "VD' for Alnwick, there had
been a tower at the east end of Bluefield yard - "RD" supposedly for
Radford Division. With the consolidation of the Norfolk, Shenandoah,
and Radford divisions into one - the Virginia Division, some thought
was given to renaming that interlocking "VD".

The "call" wasn't for a station, but to raise the dispatcher, some
roads used "DS" and some used "DI". The Chief Dispatcher
was "CQ".
Harry Bundy
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Message: 3
Date: Thu, 4 May 2006 13:04:57 GMT
From: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Subject: Re: Scioto Div. station info needed- Q for Ken Miller
To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Message-ID: <20060504.060530.8420.872565 at webmail39.nyc.untd.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Ken,
Thanks for the reply. I know some calls were from as example named
from a nearby creek or road name on some occasions. Make note that L is
rarely used as it is a long dah and T has a shorter dah at least with the
prefix letter and was very confusing. The letter K was used in place of the
L in most cases, and Q in place of P as another.

Terry
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Message: 4
Date: Thu, 4 May 2006 10:41:50 -0400
From: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Subject: RE: Scioto Div. station info needed- Q for Ken Miller
To: "NW Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Message-ID:
<294183F2D667B247BA14C1EDDA0E8E1D6A8C00 at EXCHANGEVS.senco.com>
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Hopetown was just above Chillicothe maybe a 1/2 mile w/b of the N&W/C&O
Northern overpass. Hopetown was a stop used in the summertime for
revival meetings. Was there a temporary operator there for passenger
trains stops during the revival season? Can't say.

In this area, the revival 'camps' had stops on the Scioto Valley
Traction line nearby. The Hocking Valley/C&O had a similar stop, but
with a permanent station, over by Lancaster Ohio.

Gary Rolih
Cincinnati

-----Original Message-----
From: nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org
[mailto:nw-mailing-list-bounces at nwhs.org] On Behalf Of
nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Sent: Wednesday, May 03, 2006 11:12 PM
To: NW Mailing List
Subject: Re: Scioto Div. station info needed- Q for Ken Miller

Terry

There is no listing at all for Hopetown in the any of my lists, on up
through the 1950s

Telegraphic calls were occasionally repeated on different divisions,
such as W was used for Wytheville on the Bristol Line, and
Willardsville on the Durham District and Hanging Rock, Ohio on the
Scioto Division. Even stranger on the Scioto Division, WI was used at
the same time for both Idlewild on the Cincinnati District, and
Wilsondale on the 12 Pole line.

RS was used for Richlands on the Clinch Valley District.

I don't believe that the name of the location had a specific plan of a
telegraphic call, since stations came and went with time, some of the
earliest stations had single letter calls, such as Lynchburg as X, Q
for Abingdon, etc.

Others like FM for Falls Mills makes sense, but BX for Christiansburg
and any large number of others does not. Wouldn't WS be the expected
call for Winston Salem, NC? Apparently not, as north on the Shenandoah
Division was WS, used at Nace. Probably the most unusual would be
calling the agent at Alnwick with the call VD?

It would be nice to know some of the thoughts about calls, and how they
were assigned, I am sure there is some form of logic. Perhaps some were
made up simply because they would be easier to send and not easily
confused to other operators, I really do not know.

Hope this helps

Ken Miller
On May 3, 2006, at 6:05 PM, nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org wrote:


> Question for Ken Miller on a few more station calls,

>

>

> Was there a call for Hopetown Oh. on the Columbus Dist.?

>

> Also what other calls were used for D and RS in the Scioto Div.? I

> know

> Rarden was D then changed to RA, and RS was Idelwild then changed to

WI

> and assuming when the N&W taken over the CP&V they were changed to

> prevent conflict on the Scioto Valley line station calls of the same.

> Perhaps D was for Dean Wv.? RS for Rowe Siding on the Wolf Creek

branch

> in Wv.?

>

> The other calls I seen were obvious of change like RN for Wichester

as

> Columbus Union depot was RN.

>

> Thanks,

>

> Terry Mefford

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> NW-Mailing-List at nwhs.org

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Message: 5
Date: Thu, 04 May 2006 16:19:29 +0000
From: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Subject: Re: Scioto Div. station info needed- TELEGRAPH CALLS
To: NW Mailing List <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Message-ID:

<050420061619.28248.445A29910001B0DC00006E5822007610640E02900E049C01900E9D9F
@comcast.net>

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

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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Message: 6
Date: Thu, 4 May 2006 15:41:13 -0400
From: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Subject: Re: Scioto Div. station info needed- TELEGRAPH CALLS
To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Cc: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Message-ID: <20060504.154113.2692.1.n8wel at juno.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Abe,
One question is what would the dispatcher call be for
Portsmouth (Scioto div.) I presume P? I know even to the last day before
the move to Ft. Wayne under NS they had 3 desks for the 3 districts which
never changed over the years and was rare if any.

NYC/ CCC&STL used DI , PRR used the division operator call to relay info
to the DI.

Also was train orders sent in full body word text rather than
abbreviated.

Thanks,

Terry Mefford

On Thu, 04 May 2006 16:19:29 +0000 nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org writes:
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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