Telegraph Call Signs

Every telegraph office had a call sign, consisting of one or two letters, usually with some connection to the name of the town where the telegraph office was located. If there were more than one railroad in a community, there could be different call signs on each railroad for their respective offices, and if there was a separate Western Union telegraph office in that community, it too would have its own, distinctive call sign. The Florida Chapter of the Morse Telegraph Club has begun a project to retrieve and record the telegraphic call signs for as many offices on as many railroads as possible, regardless of whether or not the railroad operated in the states which are part of the Florida Chapter territory. These call signs will be added to this site as they become available. We thank those who have contributed to this project and ask that anyone who may have knowledge of any telegraph call signs to please furnish them to the Webmaster of this site, through the "e-mail" button.

These are the call signs for railroad offices on the Ocala (Florida) and Jacksonville (Florida) Districts of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. These call signs were resurrected from the memory of Morse Club members who worked as active telegraphers in those territories. The Jacksonville District was merged into the Ocala and Tampa Districts in the early 1960s and those Districts were then termed Divisions. Even though an office may have been closed, the call signs remained in use on Train Dispatcher's train sheets and by telegraphers in other offices referring to the closed office.

These office calls were in effect prior to the merger with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1967. They are furnished from the memory of telegraphers of that time.

Some railroads published telegraph call signs in their employee time tables or in separate booklets. The Erie Railroad was one of such railroads. These are the call signs as of October 1, 1921.

Telegraph call signs for this subsidiary of the Erie RR, also as of October 1, 1921.

·NOTES ABOUT THE DL&W MORSE WIRES · All wires originated at NY office (Western Union wire chief), 60 Hudson St, NY City · Wire #1 went via Paterson, Boonton, Netcong, Andover Jct, then via the L&H to Warwick · Wire #2 went via Paterson, Boonton, Netcong to Washington and Phillipsburg · Wire #14 went via Newark, Summit, and the Gladstone Branch · Wire #15 went via Newark, Summit, Netcong, and the Sussex Branch · Wire #40 went via Netcong, Washington, Portland, and to Stroudsburg · Wire #100 went only between NY and H (Hoboken) and was used for the time signal, or as a spare. The operator at H patched 100 to all other wires at 11:57am daily. · Wire NH2 was a message interchange wire between railroads serving the NY area, and was a fast and busy wire. At one time, it included all of the following offices: NC Pennsylvania RR, New York JC CNJ RR, Jersey City JR LV RR, Jersey City YA Erie RR, 50 Church St, New York H DL&W RR, Hoboken NH NYNH&H RR, New Haven, CT Q NYC RR, Grand Central Terminal, NY W West Shore RR (NYC), Weehawken,NJ (W also handled messages for the NYO&W RR). These calls are from the 1950s era, prior to the merger with the Erie Railroad, and are from the memory of telegraphers of that time.

This first set of Wabash RR Station Calls is from the November 1898 Official List of Stations and Agents.

This set of Wabash RR station calls is from a later, undetermined date, collected from the memories of Wabash RR telegraphers.