I am a distance railfan, meaning that I have never talked to or gotten close to a yard, locomotive, crew or employee. When I picture an engineer I envision that he or she has little communication or contact with the dispatcher as long as the situation is running as planned. He or she follows what the signals dictate and ask questions only in strange or unsafe conditions. I get the feeling reading the posts that this is not the case. So how much communication exists between a engineer / conductor and the dispatcher? Is it more like a pilot / air traffic controller interaction?
The amount of direct communication between train crews and dispatchers is greatly determined by the operating practices of individual railroads.
Some railroads use DTC, which requires frequent communications, whereas a railroad that runs CTC will operate more like you describe, with very little communication unless a situation develops (like your pilot ATC example).
Other operations will fall in-between the above amounts.
In the days of cabeese, the head end would have to notify, by radio, the crew in the caboose, what the aproaching signal aspect was and its location, and any other thing that would be causing the engineer to deviate from the planned operational routine. Like the Trainmaster throughing fusees, radar guns, etc.
Now there are no cabeese, so none of that chatter.
About the only communication in CTC territory, outside of emergencies, would be if a track gang, work crew or local is requesting track and/or time on the mainline.
You nay also hear the track side detectors going off to inform the engineer or crew if there are any deffects on the train.
Don’t forget crossovers and sidings for CTC as well- especially on lines with passenger trains, as the dispatchers tell trains what routes they’re going to take (straight or diverging) through these switches.
To get a feel for actual communication between crews and dispatchers, go to www.railroadradio.net At that site are live railroad scanner feeds from across the country of actual railroad radio communication. Scroll down the left side of the site, and click onto the location you wi***o listen to, then click onto the media player you use. Dave Williams @ nsdaltoonajohnstown@yahoogroups.com
With some dispatchers, there’s not a lot of chatter on the radio, in traffic control territory, they’re on top of their game, lining trains, making meets, handling the track gangs and the signal maintainers (mostly in the daytime), and keeping things running smooth. Usually, with scanners going off and careful monitoring of the radio, a crew knows pretty much what is going on. But not always and sometimes you have to ask. Like everything else, some are better than others at what they do and some take some prodding just to get a signal.
Some dispatchers are more informative than others, most appreciate the informative ones.