Pete
You can beleive me when I tell OS is on sheet. I
wouldn't lie to you, buddy. I learned it 45 years ago
from real railroaders who had learned it at the turn
of the century. This is not unknown, it is certain. I
even remember old time dispatchers telling the
operator that they were "on sheet"!
Along the same lines, it has always interested me that
both the callsign and mechanical symbol for Galesburg
was "GT". I assume that the "T" is for terminal, but
does anyone know for sure. So is it "Galesburg
Terminal" or something else?
John D. Mitchell, Jr.
--- PSHedgpeth@a... wrote:
> RE: DRAle Reev's note re telegraph
>
> I'm not one, although I once tried to learn from an
> old OP on the RI...I got
> so I could send a little, but never could receive.
>
> Couple of things I know from contact with
> telegraphers and reading the old
> stories in Railroad Magazine...Especially Harry
> Bedwell. If some of you
> young guys who don't know about dispatching want to
> read some real life stuff
> from those days read some of Bedwell's tales.
>
> Each op had is own "sine". This was his personal
> ID. For instance Harry
> Bedwell's fictional character Eddie Sand used DY.
> This designation
> identified the person of the operator and saved
> using his full name. Brevity
> was the key. Each railroad had a Telegraph Brevity
> Key Code book. Words I
> recall are Surf, Ruffian Wrench etc. These would
> mean things like...Car has
> been forwarded, or Car received etc. This saved
> time and effort and offered
> a unique language between those in the know. I used
> to have one of these
> books but it seems to have gotten away from me.
> Perhaps Dale could elaborate.
>
> In addition to a telegrapher's personal sign each
> station had it's own Call
> Sign. Such as FO This was the call sign for the El
> Reno Yard on the Rock
> Island. The El Reno passenger depot was RN. In the
> old employees timetables
> the station telegraph call letters were printed next
> to the station name. In
> later years this practice was discontinued, but I
> have some old operating
> TT's with the station call signs inked in...done by
> the old telegraphers who
> were becoming few and far between by the 1950's.
>
> The good telegrapher didn't spell out complete
> words. tnx was thanks. OS
> was train passing report. Some have tried to say
> this came from On
> Sheet...I'm not too sure from everything I've read
> the origin of OS is
> unknown. Numbers were used as code also. 30 meant
> "thats all"...This was
> also used by newswriters for papers.
>
> Pete HEdgpeth
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been
> removed]
>
>
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