Welcome to 2025.

 Hello everyone and welcome to 2025.

The Calgary chapter of the Morse Telegraph Club says goodbye to the old year and hello to the new on a high note indeed.

Membership continues to climb with the addition of several new members including one young girl who is a junior high school student and is the youngest member in all of the MTC. She joined the CG chapter after attending a telegraphy camp at Calgary’s Heritage Park.

The Calgary chapter initiated a junior telegrapher program at Heritage Park in the fall of 2023. The program now has ten young lightning slingers learning the trade through that program, with more to come I’m sure. My thanks to chapter secretary-treasurer and MTC Board member Marilyn Maguire, and Janice Povey, for their stewardship and mentoring of the next generation.

On a sad note we had to say goodbye to two members last year with the passing of Bill Atkinson in February and Nick Bobrownik in August. We also noted the passing of Edmonton chapter member Jim Crone in May who assisted Calgary chapter members at Heritage Park’s Railway Days in 2023. May they rest in peace.

The Calgary chapter will be holding our annual general meeting in late March. While the date has not yet been determined, I expect it will be held once again at the Nichols public library.

Chapter members will again be attending Supertrain, Calgary’s annual and Canada’s largest model railway show. The show will go on Saturday April 5 and Sunday April 6, in the Olympic oval at the University of Calgary. Our booth will feature information on the art and science that is Morse and we will host a working, multi-station landline Morse network as we did last year. It’s our expectation that we will connect it to the Alberta MTC line as well. Please visit: https://www.supertrain.ca/ for more information on the show.

And speaking of the Alberta MTC Line, as of the end of 2024 we had 5 active stations on the line. A sixth site, in BC, will be connected later this month. Kevin Jepson, the project’s Wire Chief and network administrator, tells me that he has more than two dozen museums wanting to join or wanting more info. The concept of connecting museums with landline Morse telegraph equipment to a working network is proving to be popular. My thanks to Kevin, and Tim Taylor, for moving the project along so well. If you would like more information on the line project please visit: https://alberta-mtc.blogspot.com/.

Lastly I want to mention that members of the Calgary chapter, and members of the Heritage Park Morse Telegraph Club, will again be demonstrating landline Morse at Heritage Park on Tuesdays and Saturdays from May to September. For more information on the park please visit: https://heritagepark.ca/.

That’s all I have for now. Until next time stay well.

73

Ken Ashmead, President
Morse Telegraph Club, Calgary “CG" Chapter

From the Chief Dispatcher

 Hello everyone. I see pumpkins and witches are showing up in the stores and on people's lawns so it must be time for my fall update. Much has happened since my last one in June so here goes.

Weekly telegraph sessions continued at Calgary’s Heritage Park on Tuesdays and Saturdays with members staffing Midnapore and Laggan stations. The normal course of things had us demonstrating Morse code and sending “name grams” down the wire. We also hooped up train orders to each passing train.

On Sep 14 and 15 members from MTC Calgary, and two from MTC Edmonton, manned three of Heritage Park's four former Canadian Pacific Railway stations for the parks Railway Days event. We did the usual agent operator sorts of things. Members of the junior telegraph club helped at the stations and hosted the telegraphy component of the children’s railway challenge at Shepard station. MTC Calgary members also staffed the millers cabin on the promenade which was set up as a commercial telegraph office. Information on the Alberta line project was prominently displayed.

We closed out our weekly sessions on Thanksgiving weekend. Saturday practices will likely continue
in Midnapore station until it gets too cold.

A most exciting possibility for the telegraph club will be handling telegrams during Heritage Park’s annual Christmas days, this year occupying the three weekends in December prior to Christmas Day. Telegrams to Santa, called Santagrams by Western Union, were once a popular and lucrative undertaking for telegraph companies.

To my knowledge Christmastime telegrams have not previously been offered at Heritage Park and we are looking forward to bringing something new to the park.

MTC Calgary finally received its chapter charter from the international office of the MTC. Having this will allow us to more easily incorporate under the Alberta Societies Act. This is an important step if we want to seek financial help from any level of government in covering some of the costs of the line project, which could be substantial.

And speaking of the line project a brief update is in order. Both the Days of Yore and Railway Days events provided great opportunities to showcase the project with seven and six active stations online respectively. Interest in the line project is growing. Currently the project has five active stations; two at Heritage Park, the museum in Didsbury, AB, our MTC agent in Cardston, AB, and the Dispatcher's station in the Wire Chief's office. Very soon the SS Sicamous in Penticton BC will join the circuit as well. At last count we have more than two dozen other museums wanting to join the fun. This is truly amazing and our wire chief, Kevin Jepson, is to be commended on a job well done! Kevin will be offering a more substantial project update very soon.

That’s all I have for now. I wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.

73
Ken Ashmead, President
Morse Telegraph Club, Calgary "CG" Chapter

 

 

From the Chief Dispatcher

 

It’s summer solstice as I write this and an update on Calgary chapter goings on is long overdue.

First and foremost I must mention the ongoing effort to move along the Alberta line project. This is being spearheaded by Kevin Jepson. This springs Supertrain 2024 event provided our last opportunity to do realtime testing of the proof of concept for the project. It went well and gives us solid experience to build on. Kevin is currently working on some of the more technical aspects of the hardware interface of the system. A more detailed explanation and update will be forthcoming from Kevin very soon. Watch for it!

And speaking of Supertrain, MTC Calgary attended and hosted a booth at this years show on April 20 & 21. While attendance was down a bit from last years show, the enthusiasm was not. A number of first time vendors were there and the show once again occupied the entire venue. The Calgary chapters booth was on so-called Heritage Alley, a busy interconnecting thoroughfare between 3 of the 4 show fields. The location provided much opportunity to dazzle visitors with lightning slinging and story telling. A rough head count had several hundred stop by our booth over the two days. Several guests expressed an interest in joining our group or donating items to our cause. We also had a former CPR operator/RTC offer his services as an advisor and mentor. Several others representing museums expressed interest in the line project. Good news all around.

Calgary’s Heritage Park opened for the season on May 17 and it’s at Heritage Park that members of MTC Calgary hone their skills while sharing their passion for Morse telegraphy and the “day in the life history” of railway station operators and agents across Canada for 100 years. Activities include Morse code demonstrations, public telegram sending and hooping train orders. We’ll be doing this on Tuesday’s and Saturday’s, as we did last year. In addition children attending summer camps will get an introduction to Morse code as part of their activities. Our Marilyn Maguire started a junior telegraph club last season and its popularity is growing. In fact members of the junior club will be helping out MTC members on a regular basis during the season, a first for MTC Calgary and the park.

Heritage Park’s annual railway event, Railway Days, is set to run this year on Sep 14 and 15.

MTC Calgary will once again attend and host a booth, separate from our usual occupation of one or two of the parks former CPR stations. New this year will be assistance from the junior telegraph club with the event.

Last year MTC Calgary demonstrated Morse telegraphy at a number of open houses at Champion Park, near Aldersyde, Alberta. This represented a restart of a tradition that goes back to the 1980’s at the park and we’re hopeful that we will soon be hearing about plans for summertime 2024.

That’s all I have for now. Watch for a fall time update in this space and Kevin’s update on the line project.

In the mean time keep your keys clean and your breaks sharp.

73
Ken Ashmead, President

Morse Telegraph Club Calgary Chapter

From the Chief Dispatcher

Supertrain 2024

The Calgary chapter of the MTC will once again be attending Supertrain, Calgary’s annual model railway show.

The show will go on Saturday April 20 and Sunday April 21 and is open to the public from 9 AM to 5 PM MT.

The Calgary chapter will have a booth featuring the art and science that is Morse and we will be talking about the Alberta Line Project. MTC Calgary is spearheading the project with plans to bring live Morse traffic to every museum in the province of Alberta that has telegraph equipment sitting silently collecting dust. At Supertrain we will again have numerous “stations” connected to a local Morse circuit as a proof of concept for the project.

So, if you’re in the Calgary area in April we encourage you to come to Supertrain. It’s Canada’s largest model railway show attracting exhibitors and guests from Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest.

For more information on Supertrain, please visit:

 https://www.supertrain.ca/. 

For more information on the MTC in Alberta, and the line project, please visit the Alberta MTC Line tab on this page.

A report on last year's Supertrain telegraph setup is here.

——

Thank you

73

Ken Ashmead, President

Morse Telegraph Club, Calgary “CG" Chapter

From the Chief Dispatcher Fall 2023

 MTC Calgary Fall 2023 Update

The Calgary “CG” Chapter of the Morse Telegraph Club has had a very busy summer!

Since May we have been slinging lightning and interpreting a day in the life of an agent operator twice a week, on Tuesday’s and Saturday’s, at Calgary’s Heritage Park. The park is fortunate to have four former Canadian Pacific Railway stations on the property, three of which are connected to the parks telegraph network. MTC Calgary has regularly occupied two of them, Laggan and Midnapore, practicing and perfecting our American Morse code skills and hooping up train orders to passing trains. We have also sent the names of countless guests up and down the wire and have put them in writing in telegrams. We have also shared stories about the local operator and his or her station as the centre of many towns across the prairies in days gone by.

Soon we will kick our efforts up a notch when Heritage Park’s annual Railway Days extravaganza happens once again. This year the event goes on Saturday, Sep 9 and Sunday, Sep 10 so mark your calendars! Not only will MTC Calgary be in Laggan and Midnapore stations, we will add Shepard station into the mix. MTC Calgary will also host a separate information booth which we will be sharing with members of the Victorian Society of Alberta. New this year will be a connection from this booth to the rest of the parks telegraph line, giving us a four station network. Once again members of Edmontons “MO” Chapter, all former railway telegraphers, will be joining us. It’s always a joy to stand back and watch the pros work the wires. 

 MTC Calgary also participated in two open houses at Champion Park this summer. The park is jointly owned by the Town of Okotoks and Foothills County. It has the former Canadian Pacific Railway station from Champion, Alberta (thus the name) on the property, along with a number of pieces of former CPR rolling stock. Chapter members staffed the station, slinging lightning and telling stories, as they do at Heritage Park. Two additional open houses are scheduled in September. The open houses provided a “proof of concept” opportunity for the Alberta Line Project. Using MorseKOB and the internet, Champion park was connected to the telegraph network at Heritage Park, and live Morse wire traffic was successfully exchanged between the stations at both places. It was a first for MTC Calgary and an exciting step for the larger line project.

This year has also seen the addition of three new members to the ranks of MTC Calgary, an encouraging sign for sure. To all those reading this who are not yet members of the Morse Telegraph Club, I encourage you to consider joining. Learning Morse code and sharing the science, art and history with folks is a lot of fun!

So, what does the fall and the New Year hold for us?

MTC Calgary will continue to be at Heritage Park demonstrating Morse telegraphy until Oct 7. While the park closes to the public that weekend, chapter members will meet on occasion to continue practicing until it gets too cold to do that. After that practice will continue online using MorseKOB and Zoom.

Having proven that the Alberta Line Project concept is viable, a formal rollout plan will be developed for 2024. If it goes well, every museum in southern Alberta that now has telegraph equipment sitting quietly collecting dust and rust, will be alive with the sounds of Morse code emitting from the sounder. I can see many road trips in our future!

I expect we will continue to occupy the stations at Heritage Park and may expand our efforts to more than 2 days per week. Feedback on the Champion Park open houses has been positive and hopefully the park will offer more public events throughout the year. MTC Calgary will be there too.

That’s all I have for now.

73

Ken Ashmead, President

MTC Calgary “CG” Chapter