Star 2012
Go forward, go backward, and stop. In actual practice, forward and backwards are lantern signals used at night and dependent on engine direction when switching in the yard.
In daylight hours, the hand signals we use are come to me and go away from me. Those are not dependent on engine direction.
When using radio for shoving moves, the engr must have the movement stopped within half the distance of the last radio instructions received, unless further instructions are given.
And some give good car counts and some don’t. At times, I’ll ask how we are doing when we are getting close to the time I need to be stopping. Sometimes just slowing down gets the condr’s attention.
If you can’t hear the conductor, you stop. I’ve done a few times. I couldn’t hear the portable radio. Sometimes it’s interference from power lines, just a bad radio or antenna, or train length. For a time my home terminal had a repeater channel to help comm when the engine and portable were a couple miles apart.
Lately they’ve issued some better and longer antennas for the portables. That has helped immensely.
Jeff
The only trainmen that don’t have to carry a lantern are Remote Control Operators. They are issued head lamps, like the ones sportsmen use. Some conductors will wear a head lamp to read their paperwork but carry the lantern for signaling.
Engineers get a flashlight. I carry one, not the railroad issued one, and wear a headlamp when needed at night.
The current trainmen’s lantern being used is smaller than the one previously mentioned and uses C or D cell batteries. It also has a magnet to allow it to be stuck on the car when needing both hands for a task, like replacing an air hose.
I have a reverser that has a flashlight built in. It comes in handy when I need a flashlight or a reverser.
Jeff
When using radios - there are dead spots. Spots where a radio can’t transmitt a understandable signal or where a understandable signal can’t be recieved. The dead spots may be for both transmission and reception or it may be for one or the other. Dead spots do become known to the routine users in particular areas.
I am a dinosaur and listen to terrestial radio in my vehicle. I experience dead spots that are even close to the transmitter location. In other occasions on a different channel, I get one station and move 25 feet and get another station (one station is sports talk, the other is country music). Both stations share the same broadcast frequency.
I still have my Northern Pacific switchmans lantern that I had to purchase from the NP in April of 1966. If I needed a new battery, I had to show the yardmaster my old battery in order to receive a new one! It does get very dark in the yard as I had to write down car initials and numbers while checking the yards in Minneapolis. We also had two light bulbs in the lantern itself and two extra bulbs in the cap of the lantern.
Ed Burns
NP BN BNSF from Northtown.
Do all conductors have to carry a lantern at all times or just when it’s expected to get dark?
If only when dark, what’s the threshold where they must start carrying it?
I can’t remember a single time when I’ve seen a conductor carrying a lantern during the day. There aren’t many videos showing working at night.
When I worked the skateman job below the Connellsville, Pa. hump I carried a flashlight at night. I could put it in my pocket when not needed and since I worked alone following the yardmasters instructions issued over a speaker system, I did not need to signal anyone.
Some old heads used to tell the story about a trainmaster who could not understand why the night turn crews used so many more lantern batteries than the daylight and afternoon shifts.
Two questions:
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Does a conductor or other train crew member carry a lantern which is assigned on a semi permanent basis, or does one pickup a lantern when going on duty?
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Same with the radio…assigned or picked up?
Bonus question. Dispatcher or others will at times ask the trainman to call on their phones. Is there a special provision in rule book for such actions?
Ed
I generally have mine with me, even if I’m not going to be working during the night. Sometimes you need the extra light. That said, I’m not generally carrying it - it’s with my grip.
That’s kind of subjective. Generally, when it gets dark enough that one can’t be seen under normal light, or when the light is low enough that one needs it to see what has to be seen.
Lanterns and radios are exclusive to the conductor. Radios are assigned, that is the serial number is recorded (or is supposed to be) when the radio is issued. Lanterns, because they are a lot cheaper, aren’t. They issue one and replace it as needed. We have a yerly $300 voucher at a safety supply company where we can obtain various items; lanterns, headlamps and batteries are among the items.
Cell phones can be used at times as an alternate means of communication, with all restrictions being observed. I’ve only heard our dispatchers ask MOW or signal people in the field to call them on the phone. Usually in areas where there is high radio traffic or poor radio reception.
Once upon a time, portable radios were pooled. that was when they were first being issued and there weren’t enough to go around. I have a set of teain orders from the CNW about 1975, There is an attached message that conductors on their return to Proviso were to return their portable to the yard office due to not enough to be permanently issued. I think at the time the conductors had an assigned portable and the one needing to be returned was a second one to be used by a brakeman.
At one time there was also an arbitrary payment made for having to carry a radio. That’s been gone a long time.
Jeff
There was a post that stated that hand signal might sometimes be preferred because they wouldn’t cause a problem with another close crew (on the radio). Are all crews locked to one frequency or do they have a range of frequencies that they can use (a bit like the different channels on a CB radio)?
I believe that they are all on the same frequency on a yard or road channel. Consequently, anybody on the radio has to identify who they are and who they are calling.
In ‘most’ cases, there is a Road radio channel, there is a Dispatchers radio channel, there is a MofW radio channel and in the vicinity of ‘signifcant’ yards there is a Yard radio channel.
The Road, Dispatcher and MofW channels will exist for the entirety of the subdivision. At one time, CSX in Baltimore utilized four Yard channels, Bayview Yard, Locust Point Yard, Curtis Bay Yard and Mt.Clare Yard. With Yardmaster consolitation that has been reduced to two - Bayviw and Curtis Bay. There is only one channel per yard and all working yard crews will be using it, therefore, if the yard has multiple yard crews working care has to be taken to prevent one crew responding to another crews transmissions.
On line of road, radio transmitters are located about every 10 to 15 miles along a subdivision. When a train or someone else ‘tones in’ the Train Dispatcher the transmitter nearest to individual doing the toning will flash on the Train Dispatchers communications screen; in some cases two transmitter locations will flash.
In ALL radio communications the parties involved have to properly identify who they are to prevent ‘mistaken’ communications from being acted upon.
In the 1960’s & 70’s it was not uncommon for crews to us personal CB radios for end to end communications on trains, even though the use of them was no specifically ‘legal’ in a
Good place to find the Frequencies that they are using.
We have a road frequency and a yard frequency, and switch at designated points (after a “job briefing”). Oftimes, especially when a train is headed out of the yard, they’ll switch over to the road frequency so as not to bother the yard operations.
There are some 200 AAR “channels,” half are the legacy channels currently most in use, the other half are the result of narrowbanding, with the new channels placed between the legacy channels. Each railroad is assigned however many frequencies/channels they need/want.
The frequencies are often referred to by their AAR designators. F’rinstance, the frequency once used by Conrail over most of their system, 160.800 MHz, is AAR channel 46. Thus you’ll sometimes see a channel referred to as “4646,” which means both transmit and receive are on channel 46 - 160.800 MHz.
Some locales may use a repeater (we do). The repeater extends the range of locomotives and handhelds, and often includes a phone patch the crews can use to contact the dispatcher (or order pizza, which no doubt happens). In that case, you’ll see something like “1825”, which indicates that the system uses one frequency for the repeater input, and another for the output (very often the road channel).
[quote user=“tree68”]
Perry Babin
There was a post that stated that hand signal might sometimes be preferred because they wouldn’t cause a problem with another close crew (on the radio). Are all crews locked to one frequency or do they have a range of frequencies that they can use (a bit like the different channels on a CB radio)?
We have a road frequency and a yard frequency, and switch at designated points (after a “job briefing”). Oftimes, especially when a train is headed out of the yard, they’ll switch over to the road frequency so as not to bother the yard operations.
There are some 200 AAR “channels,” half are the legacy channels currently most in use, the other half are the result of narrowbanding, with the new channels placed between the legacy channels. Each railroad is assigned however many frequencies/channels they need/want.
The frequencies are often referred to by their AAR designators. F’rinstance, the frequency once used by Conrail over most of their system, 160.800 MHz, is AAR channel 46. Thus you’ll sometimes see a channel referred to as “4646,” which means both transmit and receive are on channel 46 - 160.800 MHz.
Some locales may use a repeater (we do). The repeater extends the range of locomotives and handhelds, and often includes a phone patch the crews can use to contact the dispatcher (or order pizza, which no doubt happens). In that case, you’ll see something like &qu
Per RadioReference, CSX has 29 frequencies assigned in Maryland. NS has nine, Amtrak has 15.
Five frequencies are assigned to tourist railroads, and 12 to shortlines (Canton, Maryland Midland, Maryland & Delaware, Tradepoint).
There is some overlap. WM Scenic is listed under both tourist and shortline, and 160.800 is assigned to Amtrak, NS, and CSX.
https://www.radioreference.com/db/aid/2159
VHF will occasionally skip, but not as bad as HF. But propagation can still be an issue, sometimes resulting in signals fading off or carrying further than usual.
At least there is a cohesive band plan, and someone to manage it.
I can only imagine radio frequency assignments around Chicago.
In our Council Bluffs yard complex, we have multiple channels that are in use.
There’s the main road channel, 042-042. There is a catch-all yard channel 038-038, that main line trains passing through yard limits (about 2-1/2 miles long) must change to. This channel is usually used by trains working in the yard and to get instructions from the yard master. Road trains just passing through need to inquire about employee initiated track breach protection that might be in effect.
Car men are on 052-052, the diesel ramp is on 032-032. The YOS (yard office supervisor, the yard van dispatcher) is on 044-044.
The yard job at the North (old CNW) yard, when there is one working, is 062-062. At the South (original UP) yards, the West lead job is on 016-016, the South lead is on 096-096. Local industrial jobs there also have there own channel, which I don’t know because I don’t need to talk to them.
Jeff
There are a few…