Like riding a bicycle, once learned a Morse man never forgets it- he may get rusty sending, but receiving comes right back. Also, remarkably you never forget the call letters for any station or job you worked at or sent to regularly. If you doze off on a night job it takes only a few repeats to waken you. And you quickly learn to not go to sleep with your head resting on your hands crossed and laying on the desktop, for the best you can hope to do with your paralyzed hands is to knock the key open until you get feeling and control back in them to answer- I I , (dot dot dot dot).
Several factors determined how long it took to become proficent enough to hire out. When operators were plentiful a beginner to get by the employing officer was expected to send good, readable Morse at a minimum of 30 words per minute; to receive and copy the incoming information at a bit higher rate. Receiving must be accomplished without having to open the key and send "BRK" (Break, I'm lost) to which the sender would make code for question (?); in effect "Where have you got to ?" This was especially necessary in receiving train orders, for often the Dispatcher might be sending the same order simultaneously to several offices for all trains to which the order was addressed - the Superior Train first one addressed and often that train was closely approaching the point of delivery. If the dispatcher wanted to deliver the order to an inferior train first and in a hurry, he would tell the operator handling the superior order: "CH X No. 15"; CH would reply "No. 15 X at 1010 AM" and write 1010 AM in the X space on his form. Before he did this he told the dispatcher, "Red ds CH JN (operators wire slang). The order was repeated and given "COM" when the dispatcher said, "CH GA No. 15" (operator could not deliver until COM given).
Between 1929 and about 1936 the Rio Grande (and other roads) hired no new operators but called back laid off ones in order of seniority at time of the lay-off. Definitely beginners were not hired, as there was a reservoir all over the country of experienced Morse men.
A well run Morse telegraph school could turn out an employable operator in five to six months of intense training. Most learned Morse as I did; if not by a parent or some other relative, or as my father did, doing the chores and heavy lifting for a local agent for help in learning and permission to set in at the office to practice. Under these conditions, it could require from a year to two years to be employable under old standards based on the primary requirement that the new operator would in all likelihood hire out as an all around telegrapher whose primary duties would involve train orders.
A student who was an amateur musician or danced as his favorite pastime had the advantage over someone like me. This for the reason their trained ears recognized the musical notes clearly, or when dancing was capable of hearing and adjusting the timing and rhythm of the dance above the din of a dancehall. One with good manual dexterity became excellent senders of clean, consistent Morse. The hands of a farmer, jack-of-all- trades, seaman, miner - those, in other words with muscular, calloused hands found it difficult to make clear sounding Morse because their hands were not sensitive enough to learn (feel) the technique of making "dots", "dashes", or "long-dashes". They had particular difficuly in making: C, 0, R, Y and Z - because of that small almost undetectable "space" for instance the letter C - dot dot space dot.