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Thanks Tom
It's nice to know there are some still around to appreciate the old stuff.....One question...Do you know if they were called "Whangdoodle" on the Cotton Belt. I worked for Rock Island for almost 20 years, but don't remember ever hearing about one or knowing about the use of a "whanger"
Pete
-----Original Message----- From: Tom Kline <TKline@airmail.net> To: CBQ <CBQ@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Wed, Dec 19, 2012 10:41 pm Subject: [CBQ] RE: Whangdoodles Pete, et al,
I don’t know if we had them down here on the Ft. Worth & Denver end of the system but I do know they were in use on the Cotton Belt. Several old heads have told me about using them on the mainline between Corsicana, TX and Pine Bluff, AR and referred to them plainly as annunciators. One dispatcher I knew would regularly plug into the ones at remote lineside locations to listen to his trains passing at the prescribed time to see if the train was lagging or to check his arrival calculations. If bad weather was in the forecast another DS would plug in and listen for the sounds of rain falling and track the movement of storms across his territory.
I’m enjoying this thread very much.
Tom Kline
Houston
From: CBQ@yahoogroups.com [mailto:CBQ@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Jpslhedgpeth@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2012 8:07 PM To: CBQ@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [CBQ] Buda-Elmwood Branch Passenger Service Sounds exactly right Archie...they would indeed "tattle" on a crew "fudging" on the delay repot.
Pete
-----Original Message-----
From: archie hayden <klinerarch@charter.net> To: CBQ <CBQ@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Wed, Dec 19, 2012 11:25 am Subject: Re: [CBQ] Buda-Elmwood Branch Passenger Service Pete, I recall the old heads telling about one on the north end of the K Line at either Viele or Ft Madison, they called them Tattle-Tales. Archie
On Dec 19, 2012, at 10:52 AM, Jpslhedgpeth@aol.com wrote:
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.
Pete
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