Steve...Not
unexpectedly you get the prize for the right answer even though I'm sure John
knows also.
My
first experience was that there was one at Craig Missouri on the Omaha Kansas
City line...I used to listen in on the DS phone at the Langdon depot while with
my dad waiting on No.s 21 and 26. This one had a unique feature, which
may have been present on others as well...Before you could hear the train
approaching there was a dog that would start to bark before the mike picked up
the sound of the train...Kind of like an "annunciator" or live
"on the bell" warning.
I don't
know whether this thing was used on other railroads but suspect that it
was...Also I wonder if the name was the same all over the Q system...Very
interesting how railroaders came up with unique names for places and
"devices" used on the RR.
A few
years ago I asked the late Robert Brown if he knew about the Whang... He
sure did and related an experience he had...I don't recall what station he was
at, but there the Mike was located in the depot. The agent would turn off
the mike when he came to work and turn it on again when he left.
Well,
one morning Brown forgot to turn off the whanger and was trying,
unsuccessfully, to get a fire started in his coal stove and was using
some "choice" words...The DS called him on the phone and told
him that he should either use some improved language or turn off the
whangdoodle.
Also,
Steve, speaking of Briar Bluff...back in the early forties there was a bad head
on collision just south of Briar Bluff. The Rock
Island train (southbound out of Silvis, bound for Peoria) had a meet with a Q train at Brar
Bluff. The RI crew was not familiar with the stations on the Q and
got by Briar Bluff before they knew where they were. The engineer had not
been over the line in some time and IIRC the fireman and head brakeman were new
men..It was bad..I think some fatalities...This one is on the ICC Accident
Investigation List.