Scioto Div. station info ... - TELEGRAPH CALLS

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Asketh Terry Mefford:


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One question is what would the dispatcher call be for Portsmouth (Scioto div.) I presume P?  ...

Also was train orders sent in full body word text rather than abbreviated.
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Can't help you on the  Office Call for the three Portsmouth Train Despatchers, Terry.  It's probable that each of the three desks had its own individual call, at one time.

Many roads used "DS" and/or "DI."  Not the N&W.

At Crewe, both the East End and the West End Train Despatchers were "K."  There was no confusion, as each had different stations on his telegraph wire.  At Roanoke, the Radford Division despatcher was "R" (probably "CN" in the early days when located at Central Depot, or Radford.)  The Shenandoah Division Train Despatcher was "UD," and he was "UD" in the 1880s when he was the Shenandoah Valley despatcher and located in the "Union Depot" at Hagerstown.  "KD" was the "message office" next door to "R" office in Roanoke, and handled the telegrams and non-train dispatching type messages of the Division.

One question I'll probably never get answered is how things were done when the Radford Division had one despatcher for the "River" (line to Bluefield) and a separate despatcher for the Bristol Line.  One call, or two?  I could never find out.  Apparently the information was never printed anywhere and I never spoke with anyone who remembered.  Perhaps the Bristol Line Despatcher continued to answer to "CN" ... I don't know.

My notes show that Pocahontas Train Despatcher at Bluefield in 1906 was "NM," and "BF" was the message office.  I'd imagine that, given all those branch lines on the Pokie, they had more than one despatching desk in the rip-roaring-times, but did they all answer to "NM" ?  Don't know.

And unfortunately, I have done no research on the Scioto Division.  I had no good source materials and never knew anyone closely connected with the operation.

I do have copious notes on Office Calls of the Radford and Shenandoah Divisions, and lesser notes on Norfolk Division.  They're .DOC files and I'd be happy to send them to anyone who requests them.  Send me a telegram at aburnett at gmail.com

Let me end with a story.  In 1986, Conrail "consolidated" the Train Dispatching office at Harrisburg and installed that awful "CRT" computer monitor garbage. 

 Now, since 1892, the PRR's Train Despatching office at Harrisburg had used the office call "F."  "F" was a short-form for the word "Philadelphia," as the Philadelphia Division was headquartered at Harrisburg.  (Telegraphers sometimes tend to hear words phonetically rather than in orthographically correct ways; hence "F" as the first letter of a word beginning with "Ph.")

So, this huge room is hollowed out and equipped and wired and all the big shots are coming to Harrisburg well ahead of time, scoping out progress.  The acronym they've chosen for the place was "CATD," which stood for "Computer Assisted Train Dispatching."  And everyone is calling the new office the "CATD."

The day the joint opened, a nice sign shows up for the door and was mounted.  The sign says "CATD - F."  Somehow an extra letter has been added to the moniker.  (It actually stood for "Facility," but no one had been told yet about its meaning.)

On the first day the place is opened, I'm at the door and some vice presidents and other plutocrats from system headquarters are in the hall, getting ready to come in and "inspect" their new baby.  One of them looks at the sign on the door and calls the attention of the others to the extra letter at the end.  They ask me, their guide, what the "F" stands for, and I told them (poker faced) that "F" is the Telegraph Call for their new CATD office... that "F" has been the Telegraph Call for the Philadelphia Division Train Dispatcher at Harrisburg since 1892, that we locals didn't like their abstract designation "CATD" and were sticking with "F."  It went right over their heads and they had not the slightest idea what I was talking about, but they didn't want to expose their ignorance by asking any further questions.  They shook their heads and said things like "Ah, yes..."  And I laughed all the way home that night !  A couple days later the Division Superintendent asked me the 
 same q
uestion, and I fed him the same line of bull in response, and he didn't fathom it either !  Hohoho, score one for the Gipper !

-- abram burnett
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