If a crew is switching, will they talk on the radio using the same frequency as the dispatcher for that region, or do they switch to some other frequency so as not to clog up the dispatcher frequency?
switch crews use a yard channel then use road channel to talk to the dispatcher
stay safe
joe
It all depends where you are and how busy it is around the switching operation. Being off on a seperate channel may or may not be a good thing.
Yes.
If the switching radio traffic would interfere with other operations (and vice versa), I believe you’ll usually see someone go to a different channel. CSX does this in my area if they are off the mainline and there is other traffic on the main.
We usually use one channel for “yard” work and other on the road - but since we’re the only users of those channels in this area, we may go to the road channel if we have work to do that won’t physically interfere with the other crew.
One problem we ran into while running on the shortline whose tracks we often “borrow” was doing some “local” switching (a runaround move) on their sole channel while out of handheld range from some work they were doing in their yard. The handhelds were out of range, but the locomotives radios weren’t, and we walked on them at some inopportune times. Fortunately nothing untoward happened, but it was definitely a lesson learned.
Depending where we are at, the road crews making pick ups or set outs will usually stay on the road channel. One yard gets upset when road crews use “their” yard channel doing work. Another place would rather have you on the yard channel.
At some of our yards, we can dial up the dispatcher on the yard channel and talk to him/her.
Some yards have more than one channel assigned. The largest yard that I visit has the yardmaster on one general channel, a few different yard engines operating on their own channels, the diesel ramp on their channel and the car men on their channel. In addition to the road channel. Once in a while you may have to talk to a couple different people on different channels before making any moves.
Jeff
My carrier has designated ROAD, YARD, MofW and Dispatcher Channels on each territory.
Crew to Crew switching communications would take place on the YARD channel. The calling of signals or initial Train to Dispatcher or Dispatcher to Train communications would take place on the ROAD channel…after contact is established the communications would be conducted in detail on the Dispatcher Channel. MofW employee to employee communications take place on the MofW channel. If MofW desires to contact the Dispatcher, the communication is initiated on the ROAD channel and after contact is established the conversation is conducted on the Dispatcher channel. Defect Detectors announce their presence and inspection results on the ROAD channel. If there are multiple yards in close proximity to each other, each yard will be given it’s own YARD channel so as not to disrupt operations at another nearby yard.
We have many different radio channels.
The yard crews work on the Yard Channel, road trains entering or leaving the yard, also work on the yard channel. This is the channel the Yardmaster monitors.
Between yards, the crews work on the Road Channel, which crews use to talk to each other or flagmen, call signals, or listen to defect detector broadcasts.
Then there is the Dispatcher Channel, which the DS uses to give instructions to crews, and the crews use to “Tone in” the dispatcher, when they need to talk to him.
The specific channel number for each is listed in the Timetable.
Don’t forget any foreign railroad channels you might encounter.
Nick