Telegraphers tap into curiosity

Museum visitors send text messages the old-fashioned way

Monday, June 25, 2007

By JANE CARLSON

The Register-Mail

For Doc Watson, tapping out Morse code on a telegraph is like riding a bicycle.

"It's always there. You don't forget. Except you might not do it as fast," he said.

Watson, 75, of Galesburg, started working as a telegraph operator on the railroad in 1950, relaying administrative messages and reporting car numbers and the content of trains.

By 1961, he was working for Burlington Northern in Galesburg and communication via telegraph already was being replaced by teletype, which later would be replaced by computers.

"I've seen about all of the changes down the line," Watson said.

Watson has been retired from the railroad for 13 years, but just about every summer, he sets up shop in the Galesburg Railroad Museum during Railroad Days to demonstrate the lost art of telegraphing. He said few people under the age of 60 have ever seen such a thing in person.

"They think it's amazing," Watson said.

Sunday afternoon at the museum, visitors handwrote messages they wanted to be sent via telegraph and handed them to Watson or to Bill Dunbar, 82, of Bloomington, who was stationed a hundred feet away on the other side of the museum. Dunbar got his start in telegraphing in the service, then continued it during a long railroad career.

Throughout the 30th annual Railroad Days weekend, the men sent messages back and forth - messages like "Hi, Mom" or "You're a good friend" requested by visitors, most of them children, who wanted to try out a form of communication that significantly predates e-mail or instant messaging.

The white-haired men then took turns expertly tapping out the messages with fingers gnarled by age but still swift enough to communicate in Morse code, then transcribing them by hand.

On the railroad, the men would have typed the messages as they came in, but Watson and Dunbar handwrote the messages for Railroad Days visitors, then gave away the telegrams as free souvenirs.

"They see it and they see how we did it and their eyes just light up," Dunbar said.

Watson said children often are amazed he and Dunbar can make sense of the clacking and tapping.

"It's just another language," Dunbar said.

Watson has missed some years at Railroad Days because Dunbar was busy and he couldn't find another person with the skills to demonstrate telegraphing. He said he intends to keep coming out during the annual festival as long as he's able.

"Once I get out here, I have a good time," Watson said.

It was a good weekend overall for the museum, according to curator Karen Godsil Patrick. Over Railroad Days weekend, about half of the visitors were from the Galesburg area and half were from out of town, she said.

Museum attendant Tawny Patrick said around 700 people visited the museum on Saturday and 300 people had visited on Sunday by 2 p.m.

She said she thought cooler temperatures helped with attendance at Railroad Days.

"The last two years it's been so hot," she said.

Dennis Clark, chair of the Railroad Days Council, agreed that lower temperatures may have helped with attendance for many events this year. Clark said the railyard bus tour attracted 1,700 visitors just on Saturday this year. Figures for the entire weekend were not available at press time.

"On Saturday they did as much as they did the whole weekend last year," Clark said.

Gena Alcorn, director of the Carl Sandburg College Foundation, said attendance at the Model Train and Railroadiana Show at the college was slightly down from last year but comparable at around 2,500.

"We were real pleased with the crowd on Saturday," Alcorn said.