From the NP Telltale Email Group
Last telegraphed train order
May 6, 2011
On May 6, 1982, the last Morse code train order issued in
the U.S. or Canada was sent to the operator at Whitehall, MT on the Burlington
Northern.
Do you know when Morse telegraph use ended on various lines
around your area?
I know that in the Spokane area the BN [ex-NP] CW Branch had
telegraphy between Cheney and Davenport and maybe Coulee City until the early
1970s. Spokane still has an active Morse telegraph club, led by L. R. Keith and
Del Klakken. I hope they will set up at the IERHS train museum open house at
the Spokane Fairgrounds June 10 and/or 11.
Also on this date in history: May 6, 1910 -- The federal
Accident Report Act requires railroads to file a report of all accidents with
the Interstate Commerce Commission. Compliance was spotty in the early years.
These reports can be helpful when you find old wreck pictures.
[These listings are from Mark Tomlonson's DailyRRhist site.]
Mike Denuty
May 8, 2011
The last use of telegraph I remember on the Tacoma Division
was on the South
Bend branch. Orders were sent by telegraph to Pe Ell to fix
up the Chehalis Western trains running to Millburn.
Jim F.
Mike Denuty & List - It would be nice to nail down some
verification that this indeed was the last Morse train order - it might not
have been. I recall a blurb in BN News at some point about a Morse wire still
being in service between Spokane and Cheney and probably down the P&L
branch. The article cited the quaintness of the system being in existence and
my guess is it was only used for message traffic from & to SF relay office
rather than occasional train order by dispatchers, but you never know.
I do know that there still was a Morse circuit in service on
the Milw Coast Div until 1975. I used it one week to send a message from our BN
office at Maple Valley to Milw Chicago via MA Tacoma relay; the following week
I had a similar message to send and the wire was dead. Finis. One of the
Milwaukee dispatchers, Don Lahr, sensing this was coming told me that one of
those nights very soon when he was not real busy he would send me the various orders
for No 200 via morse and we could tape-record the session, but alas the wire
was discontinued before we could execute our plan. Curses foiled again. // Dave
May 08, 2011 7:52 PM
Dave XXXX and all:
The key to this discussion is "telegraphed train
order" -- not the use of
telegraphy. My experience was that railroad telegraphy still
existed in the
late 1960s/early 1970s, but on the NP Idaho Division train
orders were not
to be telegraphed unless the phone lines were down.
"On May 6, 1982, the last Morse code train order issued
in the U.S. or
Canada was sent to the operator at Whitehall, MT on the
Burlington
Northern." I got this information from Mark Tomlonson's
This Day in Railroad
History Yahoo group site. I will contact him, but it sounds
right from
materials that I have somewhere around here.
I believe both the NP P&L [Palouse & Lewiston] and
CW [Central Washington]
branches had Morse telegraphy into the BN era, but not as
late as 1982. I do
not have the specifics on the P&L, but the following is
what I wrote at
SpokaneRH [Spokane Railroad History] in response to a
question about
telegraphy on the CW Branch.
"I was a student operator breaking in at the NP Cheney
depot in the late
1960s. Most communications were by phone, with Western Union
by teletype.
However, telegraph lines were still in place and most of the
regulars
[agent-operator Del Roberts and the "trick"
operators] still used telegraphy
for some complex messages between Cheney, Spokane and
Yardley.
In addition, the agents at Davenport and Coulee City still
preferred
telegraph to the often-interrupted NP "message
phone" open line. Just about
every morning they telegraphed Cheney with their "yard
check" [car report],
anticipated business, weather conditions and whatever
else.Since I did not
have any telegraphy experience, Del Roberts taught me to
send the message,
"Del not here. Use phone."
"About 3-4 years later, we heard that BN was taking
down the telegraph
lines."
Mike Denuty
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