A facet of the hobby that I enjoy very much is running trains on my New River Subdivision by Timetable & Train Order (TT&TO) as it was done in the late 1940s on the C&O.
With so much time spent on researching and modeling my favorite road, it made sense to me to use TT&TO when I move trains.
This can be weird because I operate by myself. That means I have to wear “different hats” at the same time!
To kick up the fun, when I (the Dispatcher me) give out a train order/clearance form to a Station Operator (me again! [swg]), I broadcast pre-recorded Morse Code to hear the dialog between Dispatcher and Station Operator.
For example, to issue a TO to Thurmond (Telegraph code: DU). The Dispatcher would call DU.
He would then tell the Station Operator:
“19 Red West Copy 3” (Translate: I will issue a Form 19 Train Order for a specific Westward train (to be specified in the TO), set the train order signal to Red, and make 3 copies of the TO).
The Operator would answer by saying “SD Red West”. Translate: Signal Displayed Red in the Westward direction.
The Operator would then carefully write down the specifics of the TO word for word (there is a protocol that I won’t get into here).
Here is the back-and-forth by Morse Code.
Dispatcher: “DU. 19 Red West Copy 3.”
Morse Code: -… …- .-.-.- / .---- ----. / .-. . -… / .-- . … - / -.-. — .–. -.-- / …-- .-.-.-
Operator reply: “SD Red West.”
Morse Code: … -… / .-. . -… / .-- . … - .-.-.-
Really neat. Too bad I could not figure out how to upload the .wav files. I now have the cue to operate my train order signal at Thurmond (and other block stations along the line).
My wife thinks I’m nuts, but hey the true fun is always i