From: brownp@cs.unc.edu (Peter Brown)
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
Subject: Re: scanner and train questions
Date: 31 Jul 92 15:09:21 GMT
Organization: UNC Department of Computer Science
In-reply-to: neal@endor.uucp's message of 31 Jul 92 13:41:37 GMT

In article <1992Jul31.134137.5114@das.harvard.edu> neal@endor.uucp (Lisa Neal) writes:

   *      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.

The clearance argument is at least part of the reason.  The Northeast
Corridor, for example, has 11kV electrical wires over the tracks,
so the equipment can't be too high.  Other Eastern roads do tend to
have closer clearances (bridges, tunnels) than Western ones, and
expanding clearances is expensive.

   *       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.

This certainly isn't true of _every_ western train; on the trips my
wife and I took last summer and this, it wasn't true of _any_ of the
western trains we rode (a total of six trains, all over the West), nor
did I see other trains with lots of non-Superliner coaches when we
were out there.  A couple of trains had one of the older coaches, and
one at least one of those, that coach was marked as crew space.  How
recently have you experienced this?

   *      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?

I have not heard of _that_ book; I have heard of (and own) a book
called _Rail Ventures_, published by the Wayfinder Press, P.O. Box
1877, Ouray, CO 81427, which gives a reasonably reliable trackside
guide to each of Amtrak's routes (as they existed in 1990, unless
they've updated it).  I bought it in Denver Union Station, from a shop
that no longer carries it, but the book says you can get it directly
from Wayfinder.  (No, I have no connection with Wayfinder - I couldn't
even promise you they still exist.)  My wife and I have used it on
each of our trips, as a supplement to Amtrak's route guides; it's been
very helpful in that role.

   *      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?

There are actually mechanical differences between Turboliners and
other Amtrak trains, the most striking of which is that a Turboliner
is powered by a gas turbine; other Amtrak trains use diesel engines or
electric power.  I don't know what exactly this translates to in terms
of performance.

I'm afraid I don't know about the frequencies.

   (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?

Both types exist.  Which is used in a particular case depends on how
the railroad uses that particular switch: for example, it would be
important to have central control of a switch that is routing mainline
traffic, but a switch which is off on an industrial track somewhere
and is only used when switching the area can be left manual, since the
train doing the switching has to carry a brakeman anyway.

   *      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?

Again, lots of ways exist.  A short line that only runs one train at a
time may have no way of telling where the train is, except maybe a
radio.  A heavily-travelled main line with either automatic or
centrally controlled signals generally has some form of automatic
train detection in the track.

Hope this helps,
--Peter (brownp@cs.unc.edu)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent
his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins." - I John 4:10