I gotta tell ya Pete, I always enjoy your stories!
From: CBQ@groups.io [mailto:CBQ@groups.io]
On Behalf Of jpslhedgpeth via Groups.Io
Sent: Tuesday, December 17, 2019 9:58 AM
To: CBQ@groups.io
Subject: Re: [CBQ] Vertical Bug
Having spent many hours in the depot at Langdon, MO with my dad..back in the 40's and 50's I was able to experience...but, of course could not understand...telegraphy.
As someone said,the "standard" key was just that..a key fixed to a base that just sat..or maybe it was screwed down tot the desk and some of the OP's used that but several of the one's I knew carried their own "bug" in a case that resembled the old "lunch
buckets" we used to take our lunch to school in and which most "working men" carried theirs. I was able to watch those guys take their bug out and kind of slide the connectors in to wire running to the standard key.
I, of course, had no understanding of telegraphy at that time, but I was fascinated by watching those old guys set up and use their bug.
When I was ATM at El Reno OK in the early 60's there was an old and he was truly one.."Boomer OP" His name was Don Watraus. (sp). I was talking to him one day
about telegraphy and that I was interested in the subject but never had learned any of how to do it. He said..well, I'll help you a bit if you are interested'..I told him I was and we did a few "lessons"...I got so I could "send" a bit, but never could "read"
anything sent to me. I left EL Reno shortly after that and never pursued the matter any further.
I did had a "test set"...(both key and sounder) mounted on a board..but it has gotten away from me.
Most of you guys with at least a "smattering" of RR knowledge know that back in the telegraphy days each station had a 2 letter station "telegraph call"...these were
sometimes printed right in the "timecard"..but most of the old agents would just write them in beside the station name.
Even after the end of telegraphy those old ops and DS's would still refer to the stations by their telegraph call name.
At El Reno the telegraph call for El Reno Yard was "FO"....One of the day trick DS's was an old guy whose name was Charlie Forbes...if there are any "OLD" Rock
Islnd guys on here they will remember that Charlie had a voice volume that eliminated the need for a telephone. The floor in the El Reno office building where the DS office was located was not air conditioned and in the summer both windows and doors were
open... When you got up to the second floor I can still remember hearing old Charlie yelling into the DS phone "HELLO FO".....The only other TC I remember is the El Reno passenger station call was FN.
Pete
-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Pavlovic <cbq168a@comcast.net>
To: CBQ <CBQ@groups.io>
Sent: Mon, Dec 16, 2019 10:31 pm
Subject: Re: [CBQ] Vertical Bug
I have a J. Bunnell straight key that is stamped for the Q but it is the type that is mounted by drilling holes on the desktop, the washers and nuts go on the underside
of the desk. I acquired the key but was unable to get the sounder that was from the same station.
Knowing the frugal Q, I'm sure that's probably all that was provided by the company for the telegraph operator to use. A lot of telegraphers would bring their own
keys or bugs to use while at work, individuals have their own way of adjusting the key action to their liking.
Personal keys would have a cord with a "wedge" on the end that could be inserted between the contacts by the shorting bar so you didn't have to move any wires between
keys.
I will admit that I wasn't aware of a vertical bug until this thread.
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