Santa Fe Station call signs - Pauls Valley OK

[BobfinleyFN]

I will be conducting tours of the Pauls Valley OK depot in the coming months and I would like to put on a telegraph demo along with the tou. It would be nice to know the call sign for Pauls Valley for this demo. I worked for the Illinois Central RR in the late 50's as Agent Operator on the Louisiana and Mississippi divn's.

Thanks for any leads. Bob Finley (FN)

[Aa3rt]

Hello Bob, Welcome to the forums!

While I can't personally help you with the Pauls Valley call sign, you might check out the link I've provided to the Morse Telegraph Club. Possibly someone there could answer your query.

http://www.morsetelegraphclub.org/

I became involved with a similar project here in my adopted hometown of La Plata, MD. I discovered that the call sign was "PA". The local Charles County Amateur Radio Club meets monthly in the La Plata Train Station Museum. As recompense for utilizing the station as the meeting room, one of the members put together a Morse sounder. However, he felt that the simple "PA" was just too short so the sounder spells out "La Plata" for the entertainment of visitors. However "Pauls Valley" would most likely be too long to spell out in Morse Code.

Here's a link to a long dormant thread in the "Railroad Radio and Communications" forum regarding the use of American (Or "Railroad") Morse Code:

http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopi ... =43&t=4317

[BobfinleyFN]

Thanks for the lead. I have pretty established that the call sign for Pauls valley was "PV". I have joined the Morse club and today visited the museum in the old Rock Island depot in El Reno OK. They have a world of telegraphy stuff and do have regular meetings of the telegraphers who are still around. We are becomming a lost bunch as the older guys pass on. The lead that you gave me had a discussion of when telegraphy disappeared from the many railroads. I remember the Illinois Central had telephones and with exception of several locations, the telegraph was the back up. In Jackson MS at the "JD" location which was the central distribution point, the protocol was that the operator there would call on the telephone to give a message and then within the next couple of hours, send the same message by telegraph. From the McComb MS yard to Mays Yard in New Orleans, the consists were sent only by telegraph up until when I left the railroad in 1961. That section of the IC as considered to be the main line. The other parallel line that went from Vicksburg MS down through Baton Rouge to New Orleans (Mays Yard) during that time frame was sending the consists directly to the Mays Yard Yardmaster by teletype.

All train orders were handled by telephone and I never remember there being a situation where a train order was transmitted by telegraph during the time frame from 1956 through 1961.

One other interesting thing that i have discovered is that the "F" in Samuel F.B. Morse's was Finley which is my family name. We are now attempting to search through files to determine if there is any relationship.

Bob (FN)