In reading a book about WII fighter pilots learning Morse code, the comment was made that the railroad whistle signal for a grade crossing is Morse code for the letter “Q” - two longs, a short and a long. The writer said this meant the engineer was announcing “Here comes the Queen (train)” This was a new legend to me. Anyone else ever hear of this? The only other explanation I have heard was " Pay Day Today".
But, before two longs, a short, and a long was adopted, the signal was two longs and two shorts–and some sixty years ago I saw, on a line of the Southern, a whistle post which had two stripes and two dots on it–long after the last blast had been changed to a long blast.
I think that the comment in the book was the author’s idea, or else he was quoting someone who did not know whereof he spoke or wrote.
To poster bedell, dash dash dot dash is Q in International Morse code, used in the Armed Forces and airplanes.
Railroads and Western Union used American Morse, not International Morse. International uses more dashes than American which makes American a bit faster.
In American, the letter Q is two dots, one dash, and another dot. The question mark was learned as ‘TQ’ and sent as: dash dot dot dash dot.
So I agree with Johnny, somebody was way off base. A good dictionary or encyclopedia will have the two codes in them, and there are more codes than just these two.
I had learned the International code because I had listened to the Tom Mix radio show in grade school, and one of the premiums offered was two battery operated Morse key and buzzer boxes along with the International code. When I wanted to be a telegrapher, I discovered I had to learn American Morse. Actually, a railroad telegraph sounder doesn’t create dots and dashes. It sorta goes clickclack for a dot, and click-clack for a dash. There are 3 dashes, short for a T and for use in other characters, medium for L, and long for 0 (zero). The letter i sounded like clickclackclickclack (two closely spaced dots), and the letter O sounded like clickclack clickclack (two dots with a bit of space between’em).
Thanks for the replies. Guess it proves that we can’t believe everything we read in books!
Boy, isn’t that TRUE!
Speaking of Morse, when I returned from 'Nam in 1969, I bought a bunch of LP’s to catch up. One was Pearls Before Swines (titled the same) LP which had a tune “Little Miss Morse”. It had a refrain that went: “dit-dit- dah-dit, dit-dit-dah, dah-dit-dah-dit, dah-dit-dah”. Pretty melodic, eh? Now this was supposed to spell the f-word beginning with f and ending with uck and sorry Soupy Sales but it wasn’t (another urban legend) firetruck!!!
That was in my post-Army (why was I never invited to re-up?) hippie days. 'Nam- GN Western Star,-Honda 350CB-Benelli 5-gal roadracer tank-clip-on bars-venturi’s ,TT seat, RAF jacket -Woodstock Festival-Kent State-back toschool and semi-respectability,
Back to Morse. In the Boy Scouts there was, I believe a merit badge connected with it, I tried to learn it but fell in wiht our patrol’s (The Slidesliders) modus operandi, camping on Neversink mountain and watching the Reading Railroad at work.
RIX
That would be the Radio Merit Badge. Quite fun! - / - / -.-- / .-…
Wow, does that sound confusing!! That’s as bad as having different time zones for each city (before the advent of “International (GM) Time”).
Interesting that the American “Q” code is exactly opposite the international. …-. vs --.-
Zardoz, that oddness of Q was one of first things that I noticed while learning American Morse. No other letter has that distinction, which in itself is not too strange because of so many letters consisting of dots only.
Is there any need to bother with American Morse anymore? Only the American railroads ever used it, right? Everything else is done in International, right?
Any need for the American Morse any more? Probably not.
But in Poughkeepsie, NY, at the Morse Estate which I’be been to, it’s still in vogue. Once the telegraphers of the railroads and Western Union are gone, there will probably be no more demonstrations of the invention , and - like unused dialects and languages - fade away.