About a year ago I found my scanner, plugged it in, and entered the frequencies. I live in Valparaiso, Indiana and there are three lines thru town…the NS Chicago to Fort Wayne mainline, the CFWE line from Gary, In to Ft. Wayne, and the CN main from Chicago to Detroit and Ontario.
I started listening for the first time in years and soon became hooked. I then began writing down train symbols and times. The scanner (soon became 2 scanners) were on all the time. Obviously the volume was reduced at night, unless I was restless. My girlfriend didnt seem to mind, in fact, she found it interesting that I could carry on a conversation with her and also casually mention that NS 262 was being held at the crossing from a fleet of CN trains. “How do you know that” she asked. BTW…she is a keeper!
So, after a year, here is a thumbnail sketch of operations on the NS line. My scanner picks up from roughly Hobart (10 miles west) and South Wanatah (10 miles east). Some days I can hear further.
NS makes it easy to identify trains, as their crewmen call out the signals. I have heard quite a bit in the last year…from the terror of a train crew that described a man whom they had run over and severed his legs was crawling back toward the locomotive, to the joy of crewmen (and women) sharing their personal victories in life. But, everyday the trains run and they seem to run on a certain schedule that is much tighter than the CN’s.
Here is what I hear in a typical day:
NS runs the following manifest trains:
177 - Chicago to Ft.Wayne then to Cincinnati
306 - Chicago to Bellevue, Ohio
307 - Bellevue to Chicago
175 - Chicago to ?
I must add here that I have no contacts with the NS. I am not on the inside, nor do I have access. I have used this forum and others to gather a little info. I have listened to dispatchers and crew members. I have read Scott Lindsey’s excellent book Norfolk Southern, 1995 review and have emai