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| The Whistle Post on Prospect Street between South Main Street and School Road about halfway between both road crossings. |
So you grew up in Voorheesville New York. A Railroad town. One that developed around the intersection of two Railroads and the commerce that evolved there as a result. You learned about that in high school. You heard the sound of it when you were a babe. The slow and moaning song through the fog. The romantic nostalgic sound of your memory. The screaming violent sound at the crossing! The movement of the ground that merged with that sound. The sound, of Morse Code.
My good friend JT Trossbach likes to tell a story that he has mythologized from his youth. I could listen to it over and over again because he tells it with such a joy. It is the story of the days when as a young boy he accompanied his grandfather to his grandfather’s job. He worked on the railroad as a conductor on what my father called an RDC or a Rail Diesel Car. It was a commuter. With no visible engine. Also know as a B-liner. He conducted it from Albany to Poughkeepsie it back daily.
As JT tells it: “Sometimes my grandfather let me drive the train AND sound the whistle too! I still remember it to this day. Long, long, short, long. Dash, dash, dot, dash.”
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The Whistle Post Sign in the Black Creek Swamp 1/4 mile before the Meadowdale Grade Level Crossing in between Voorheesville and Meadowdale. |
I find this story particularly amusing because one of my father‘s famous sayings was: “I don’t get to run the train or even ring the bell, but let the train go off the track and guess who catches H, E, double hockey sticks!”
Anyway, here I am listening to him tell the story and I’m like: “What?!!! My Dad worked for AT&T! That second T is for Telegraph. Dad used to tutor me in the cellar on a hand to hand. And I spent many a day sitting in the car with him while we made super 8 movies of trains when they went by because he was a full blown Rail-fan! My son is an Eagle Scout! He knows Semaphore! And he’s a Ham Radio Operator too! I SHOULD KNOW ALL THIS!”
So what exactly is long, long, short, long? What exactly is dash, dash, dot, dash??? Turns out it is Morse Code for “Q.”
Huh??? Why Q? Why not “X” for crossing like we see on the signs and signals? Wouldn’t that make more sense?
“Well,” continues JT “that’s because it was ‘X’ originally and they changed it!”
“What?” “Why?”
“Because in England when the Queen used to go tooling around in the sea on her ship, the Captain used to toot “Q” on his “Steam-trumpet”to get everyone out of the way. ‘Cause: “Here Comes The Queen!”
“Huh?”
“…and when she came here to visit they started to do it for her out of respect and it caught on. I don’t know why, but they still do it today!”
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| The currently abandoned tracks along Prospect Street just before the intersection switch at the Village of Voorheesville, New York. |
…and I’m like: “Wooooow! Something I knew but I didn’t know!”
And now you know! And the next time you hear a train whistle blow I’m sure you’ll be listening in the night…
Whooooo! Whooooo! Whoo! Whooooooooooooo!
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The Whistle goes Whoo.
A Train roars down the track.
Hey! Here comes the Queen!
~
©️Mark W. Ó Brien
17Aug2022
