7X5013.00 Edge Hill to Healey Mills Tuesday 19th November 1968 AJAX BLOX BLOCSID WALNUT REDE ACK. I looked down at the paper on which I had written this message and thought it looked important.
The clerk in the Leeds telegraph office had been less than patient as he dictated the words to this new railway entrant, learning booking office work at Mirfield, who had never before encountered such a strange language.
The station master came back from his signalbox visits and took one look at what I had scribbled before phoning to ensure he had the correct information to pass on to the signalmen who would be on duty the following day. He then reached into a drawer full of old London Midland & Scottish expired publicity leaflets, pulled out a small grey book entitled Standard Codes for Telegrams and turned the pages from one strange word to another.
The July 1958 edition of British Railways’ Standard Codes for Telegrams.