From: 31ochs@gw.wmich.edu
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
Subject: Re: scanner and train questions
Date: 31 Jul 92 14:10:53 EST
Organization: Western Michigan University

In article <1992Jul31.134137.5114@das.harvard.edu>, neal@endor.uucp (Lisa Neal) writes:
> [some text deleted]
> 
> *      Why are there no double deck Amtrak trains in the eastern part of
> the U.S.?  I have heard only two theories about this:  1) The east coast
> lines have low tunnels and underpasses that would be impossible for
> double deck trains to fit through, and  2) The east coast lines are
> generally of shorter length than the western routes, thus it is wiser to
> have only the more comfortable double deckers for the western long
> distance travel.

Well, I've heard this too, at least the part about the tunnels. I never
see them on the Capitol or the Lakeshore Limited, so maybe this is the
case. As far as long distance, this isn't always a consideration. I've
seen Superliners many times, especially on weekends, on the Pere Marquette,
which only runs from Chicago to Grand Rapids. Sometimes, they grab whatever
is available.

> 
> *       On every western train, about two-thirds of AmtrakUs coach cars
> are the modern, comfortable Superliners.  However, the remaining one
> third are the unpleasant, ugly, and very uncomfortable older cars.  Why
> doesn't Amtrak convert its entire fleet to the Superliners?  It seems
> unfair that two passengers that pay the same price could be given two
> very different cars to spend their journey on.

Superliners are very expensive, and also, Budd who made them(I think they made
Superliners) went out of business. I heard that Bomberdier(sp.) is making them
in Canada for Amtrak to replace much of their heritage equipment.

> 
> *      (Probably the most important question)  I am going on a cross-
> country Amtrak trip in two weeks, and I have purchased a scanner,
> primarily so I will be able to listen to the engineer and the rest of
> the crew, such as people have discribed in messages past, so I will be
> able to know "what the hell is going on", a frustrating thing when the
> crew won't give me a straight answer as to why we have been on a siding
> for 3 hours in a row at  night!  I would be indebted to any of you if
> you could give me the best frequencies to hear the crew on each of these
> four routes:
> 
> Northeast Corridor[Night Owl]   (Boston- D.C.)
> Capitol Limited    (D.C.- Chicago)
> Empire Builder     (Chicago - Seattle)
> Coast Starlight    (Seattle - L.A.)

Well, I can give you some of the frequencies for the Capitol Ltd.
On Conrail leaving Chicago, you will want 160.800 and 161.07
160.800 is Conrail's main road channel, and you will hear the crew talking
to the dispatcher, you will hear other trains, hot box and dragging equipment
detectors, and other chatter too. 161.07 I think is the other channel available
for switching and stuff.
When they get on CSX(wherever that is now, since they changed the Capitol's
route) you will want CSX 1 and 2, which are 160.230 and 160.320
160.320 is the road channel, and you will hear the crew announcing the
signal aspects over the radio(required by CSX rules) and you will hear any
kind of talk between the engineer, and conductor. You will also hear hotbox
and dragging equipment detectors. The dispatcher will call the train on this
channel of he/she wants to get ahold of them. The train is supposed to moniter/
use channel 1, and if they need to get ahold of the dispatcher, they go to 
channel 2, and call him, provided that noone else is using it at the time.
> 
> If not, please tell me if there is a railroad
> scanner book I could buy, and where.

There is a book out there that lists frequencies by state, but I can't remember
what it's called.

> 
> *      Aside from the proposed extension of the Sunset Limited to Miami,
> are there any other route changes planned for Amtrak?
> 
> *      I was on the Southwest Chief last summer, and the conductor was
> showing off a hardcover, 200 page, full color book on Amtrak and each of
> its routes.  For some reason, I didn't ask him about it.  Have any of
> you heard of it, and if so, what is it called, and where can I order it?
> 
> *      When I was passing through the Albany station several weeks ago,
> I saw the Turboliner fleet maintenence station.  I was impressed, but a
> fellow passenger told me they were just cosmetically different from the
> other Amtrak trains.  Can it really achieve "turbo" speeds, or is it
> just a sleeker, more modern-looking train with no different performance?

I think it reaches speeds of over 125MPH, but I'm not really sure, I've 
never seen it.
> 
> (Now, on to some railroad trivia)
> *      How is the position of railroad switches changed? Do people have
> to go out and switch them by hand, or are they thrown electrically from
> a central dispatch station?
Most switches on passing sidings/crossovers/interlockings are electrically
operated and most of them time are controlled at the central dispatch
station, or else the local block/tower operator
Grand Trunk still uses manual crossovers, which is a pain when you don't
have a caboose, because the crew either has to leave the crossover in the
position when they used it and let the next train switch it back, or else
a crew member has to switch it back, and walk all the way back to the
head of the train. I've heard that they are now converting all their
manual crossovers to power ones too.,
> 
> *      How does the dispatch station know where the trains are? Is it
> just by the engineer notifying them, or is it done by some computerized
> system in the track?

If the track is CTC or a similar setup, the tracks are broken up into
OS sections, which are the sections of track at the power switches, and
blocks, which are the sections between the OS sections. The dispatcher
can watch a train travel across these OS and block sections, and can
actually time them as they go by OS sections to find out how fast they
are going. If it is a manual block system, or "dark territory"(dark
territory is a system where there is no automatic block system, and trains
are dispatched using track warrants, or train orders) the dispatcher
will frequently ask the trains where their location is. Again, Grand Trunk
has many places that are manual block, and the dispatcher has no idea
where they are at, he askes them and keeps track of them that way.

Hope this helps ya,

Fred Ochs

31OCHS@gw.wmich.edu   (VAX)
ochs@sol.cs.wmich.edu (UNIX)

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