[CW] Morse Code bug in Sacramento Railroad Museum

[D. Chester]

> Just returned from a trip to wine country with a side trip to Sacramento.
> In the Railroad museum there (great place - Sacramento was where the West 
> to
> East Transcontinental Railroad construction began), there are two nice
> looking bugs supposedly used for RR communication.
>
> Maybe not really for telegraph but for some type of inter rail
> communication.
>
> I saved a photo of one of them (one was too grainy - shot
> through glass), at the URL below.
>
> I was wondering if anyone has seen these and if they were, authentically,
> used in RR communication
> Art K5FNQ

That bug looks identical to my Vibroplex Original, which according to the 
serial number, was made in 1929.

It is velvet smooth and has negligible contact bounce, something I can't say 
about my 1947 vintage Original, which has a very stiff feel and the contact 
bounce is horrendous.

I acquired it as a basket case at Dayton, and restored it by repairing the 
bent parts, replacing the broken finger pieces and giving it a good 
cleaning.  It works so well that all my other keys, including my iambic 
keyer, have been gathering dust on the shelf for the past 8 years or so.

Don k4kyv