Thought you guys might enjoy hearing these and posting which one you liked best. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATramrq3gb0&feature=related My favorite is the last. Enjoy!
Very cool - thanks for sharing. I think I'd agree with you on favoring the last whistle. Bob, Lenexa, KS
I remember sitting outside of my Grandfathers house in the summer evenings back in the mid 1960's. We could hear the MOP trains coming in from the North. My Grandpa who had spent his entire career on the MOP as a Boilermaker would say," Well there is old (insert Engineer's name). He would then tell me how he knew who it was by the way he blew the road crossings. This was well into the Diesel era. Then he would talk about his beloved steam locomotives. Sometimes we would get into his old Ford and go down to he railroad so that he could visit his railroad buddies. I am not sure if they had a phrase or name for this way of telling who the fellow was blowing the whistle or horn. In Amatuer Radio using Morse Code it is called Fist. I am not real experienced using Morse Code but when I was active I used to listen to a few local fellows on the air and I was able to tell who it was just by listening to him send before he even gave his call sign. Bob Wintle Parsons Ks.
Here is an extract from an interview of Bob Black, Operator at the Bentonville ,AR depot from 1968 to 1982: "While working relief at the Foreman, OK agency (on the Arkinda subdivision) he was the victim of the Hugo, OK operator. The Hugo operator knew that Bob was a new operator and decided to test him. The Hugo operator removed the weights from his Vibroplex bug. Removing the weights meant that the Hugo operator could send at a very high speed. The Hugo operator contacted Foreman and began to send at a very high rate of speed. Before everything crashed into a pile meaningless dots and dahs, Bob Black recognized the words “Pillsbury” and “Dallas, Texas”. Bob reached across the desk and found a letter from Pillsbury in Dallas, Texas concerning upcoming car requirements. Bob let the Hugo operator complete the transmission and acknowledged receipt. A few minutes later the operator called on the phone to see if Bob had received the transmission. Bob Black read the letter back word for word to the stunned amazement of the Hugo operator."
