A friend and I spent the weekend railfanning the UP main line from Blair to North Platte Nebraska. We are from out of the area and are used to hearing talking detectors on the scanner for BNSF and CN. It dawned on us the second day that we hadn’t heard any talking detectors on UP, even though we heard dispatchers talking to trains and trains talking to their people on the ground.
Does UP have talking detectors or is it too busy and the detectors would clog up the radio channel?
If not, how are defects communicated to the crews?
Enquiring minds want to know.
By the way, excellent trip. Somewhat lacking in scenery, but nice in its own way. Between Gibbon and North Platte we were seeing a train every 5 to 10 minutes. US 30 is a stone’s throw from the tracks almost all the way.
Signal System & Flashing Lights on the ones that don’t talk. Due to the density of the detectors on the line (every 15 miles or so), many are low wattage radios. Harriman Center folks other than the DS often telling crews where to look.
Most detectors on the original CNW side in that area will announce when a train enters and exits the site. The original UP side are talk on defect only. As MC said, they are also tied into the signal system. Some control points won’t clear up until a train clears the detector site as a back up to the radio announcement. (I’ve been told by the dispatcher about defects or detector integrity failures more often than the radio message.) Anytime the a talk on defect only detector gives a radio message, even if it’s “no defects” we are supposed to let the dispatcher know.
This morning, the train behind me received an integrity failure at one of the detectors, either MP 10 or 20. I didn’t hear the message, just them reporting to the dispatcher and didn’t catch the location.