HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: bunce@asd2.jsc.nasa.gov
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
Subject: SP radio frequencies
Keywords: Amtrak, Southern Pacific
Date: 17 Dec 92 22:56:24 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Lockheed Engineering and Sciences

Hello net land.

In preparation for my business trip via Amtrak from Houston to San Jose, I have
found that the Sunset Limited from Houston to LA and the Coast Starlight from
LA to San Jose will be on Southern Pacific the whole way. I have a bunch of
frequencies from some railfans in the Houston area, but only 2 of the 12 have
any remarks as to what they are used for. The list follows:

161.550   Road 1
161.310
161.280
160.320
160.950
160.980
160.800
160.890
160.160
161.430   Houston Yard
161.415
161.445

So my questions are; 
 1. What are these freq used for?
 2. What other freq may be used along the way?
 3. If anyone has a timetable for SP, which freq. are used in which areas?

My scanner is only 10 channels and I would like to eliminate channels that are
not used in some areas, or are not really used at all.

One other thing...  I calculated the distance and speed between stops for the
Sunset and Coast Starlight based on the Amtrak timetable and have it in an
Excel Spreadsheet if anyone wants it. If 5 or more ask I'll post it.
A teaser: The avg speed is 47 mph for the 2093 mile trip (excluding stops and
layovers), and the fastest portion is 70.8 mph for the 59 miles between Deming,
NM and Lordsburg, NM.

thanks, 

Tom Bunce, Lockheed Engineering & Sciences Co.    (713) 333-7497 
bunce@l14h13.jsc.nasa.gov -Flames don't bother me,  I'm a firefighter :-)
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
From: roma@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Jon Roma)
Subject: Re: CMStP&P RR
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 07:29:12 GMT

M00209@MBVM.Mitre.Org writes:

>I can't swear that it was truly the "original" name, but the name of the
>road before it decided to build to the Pacific was Chicago, Milwaukee and
>Saint Paul.  What other names may have been used before that, I don't know.
>I seem to recall that they did adopt "Milwaukee Road" as the official name
>sometime fairly recently.  That would make sense as it's been a lot of years
>since they went anywhere near the Pacific.

The CM&StP became the CMStP&P upon leaving receivership in 1928.  The
``Milwaukee Road'' monicker was adopted as part of the road's familiar
diamond logo in the late 1940's.  However, the official corporate name
remained Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific until the Milwaukee was
merged into the Soo Line in 1985.
-- 
Jon Roma
Computing and Communications Services Office,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Internet:  roma@uiuc.edu      	UUCP:      uunet!uiucuxc!uiuc.edu!roma
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
From: rmura@world.std.com (Ron Mura)
Subject: Re: Incident on Boston (MBTA) Commuter Rail
Organization: The World
Date: Sun, 20 Dec 1992 01:30:12 GMT

In article <18660@mindlink.bc.ca> Steve_Hooper@mindlink.bc.ca (Steve Hooper) writes:
> 
> It could have been anything...torpedoes are used in many different situations
> as  a means of flag protection.  Perhaps a foreman had some work to do and
> was unable to get a proper Rule 42 (Form Y2 train order protection), and
> simply placed a Rule 40 manual flag there.  In this case, a train would have
> hit the torpedoes, then stopped at the flagman's position, received
> instructions, and proceeded.  The backing up is a bit strange, but I cannot
> say.

Thanks for the explanation.  

>> The train seemingly had gone through a red signal at a dangerous point.
> 
> Why do you say that?

Well, a couple of things:

- The first time (early '80s) this happened the conductor told me that
  they had gone through a red signal.  (He also said the engineer
  was fearing for his job.  I don't know what happened to him.)

- The fact that we backed up to a position in front of the signal,
  waited a while, then proceeded.

> BTW, you say that you got jolted...well, when you hit torpedoes, it scares
> the living shit out of the engine crew (trust me, I've been over them!).
> When it happens, you are required to proceed at restricted speed, and the
> faster you get the train slowed down, the safer, because at that point you do
> not know why they were placed there.  Thus, I am sure the hog gave a full-set
> brake as soon as he ran over the torps, and thus the big jerk of the train.

Makes sense.  Thanks again.

-- 
- Ron Mura, Boston, Massachusetts              rmura@world.std.com
From: grr@cbmvax.commodore.com (George Robbins)
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
Subject: Re: Incident on Boston (MBTA) Commuter Rail
Date: 20 Dec 92 05:46:26 GMT
Reply-To: grr@cbmvax.commodore.com (George Robbins)
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA

In article <RMURA.92Dec19203012@world.std.com> rmura@world.std.com (Ron Mura) writes:
> In article <18660@mindlink.bc.ca> Steve_Hooper@mindlink.bc.ca (Steve Hooper) writes:
> > 
> > It could have been anything...torpedoes are used in many different situations
> > as  a means of flag protection.  Perhaps a foreman had some work to do and
> > was unable to get a proper Rule 42 (Form Y2 train order protection), and
> > simply placed a Rule 40 manual flag there.  In this case, a train would have
> > hit the torpedoes, then stopped at the flagman's position, received
> > instructions, and proceeded.  The backing up is a bit strange, but I cannot
> > say.
> 
> Thanks for the explanation.  
> 
> >> The train seemingly had gone through a red signal at a dangerous point.
> > 
> > Why do you say that?
> 
> Well, a couple of things:
> 
> - The first time (early '80s) this happened the conductor told me that
>   they had gone through a red signal.  (He also said the engineer
>   was fearing for his job.  I don't know what happened to him.)
> 
> - The fact that we backed up to a position in front of the signal,
>   waited a while, then proceeded.

I wonder if they guys are just playing a little CYA.  I doubt they
are supposed to back up if they run a signal, but doing the right
thing probably goes on some official report.

Seems like a high percentage of transit accidents involve trains
backing into stations they've slid by and similar cases of the
train not being where the signals and other engineers expect it
to be...

-- 
George Robbins - now working for,     work:   to be avoided at all costs...
but no way officially representing:   uucp:   {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!grr
Commodore, Engineering Department     domain: grr@cbmvax.commodore.com
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
From: zephyr@cory.Berkeley.EDU (COIFMAN)
Subject: Re: CMStP&P RR
Organization: University of California, at Berkeley
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 08:37:14 GMT

In article <1992Dec14.222350.841@ryn.mro4.dec.com> pierson@cimcad.enet.dec.com (Dave Pierson) writes:
>In article <1992Dec14.030018.17276@bony1.bony.com>, billg@bony1.bony.com (Bill
>Gripp) writes, in part:
>
>>Wasn't the original name of the Milwaukee Road
>>Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul, and Pacific?
>	The original name escapes me, but Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul, and
>	Pacific was a later name, ca 1910 and the project to extend to the
>	Pacific.  I believe "Milwaukee Road" was never the official name.
>
>thanks
>dave pierson			|the facts, as accurately as i can manage,
>Digital Equipment Corporation	|the opinions, my own.
>40 Old Bolton Rd		|I am the NRA.
>Stow, Mass 01775 USA		pierson@msd26.enet.dec.com
>"He has read everything, and, to his credit, written nothing."  A J Raffles

 Before the Milwaukee made it all the way to Washington, they were the
Chicago Milwaukee and St. Paul. Before being absorbed by the Soo Line,
they went by MILW not CMStP&P, so I think they oficially changed the
name at some point in the late 60's early 70's but I really don't know
for sure. 
 It was nice to see the Hiawatha logo back for those few months before
the railroad diapeared though.



    r++-----------,---,-------------.            Benn Coifman 
   /~____________/ ""||      @      |       zephyr@cory.berkeley.edu
  / o-o  (*) (*)  o :  o-o-o     o-o      zephyr@robotics.berkeley.edu
Organization: CUNY/UCC VM Systems
Date: Wednesday, 16 Dec 1992 15:01:05 EST
From: Robert Chambers <RMCCU@CUNYVM.BITNET>
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
Subject: Re: New York and the Nor'easter
 <BzBAnL.qv@acsu.buffalo.edu>

In article <BzBAnL.qv@acsu.buffalo.edu>, yhshowie@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (Howard
Wharton) says:
>
>Joe,
>    Any news on how the New Haven line of Metro-North fared?

I'm not Joe, but I rode that line on Friday and if you're interested, here
are my comments.

   From 11:00am or so on there were NO trains leaving GCT in any
   direction due to signal power loss from GCT to Mott Haven. (which is
   just the other side of the Hells gate bridge in lower Bronx)
   Aparrently (this I heard from a Metro North supervisor riding the train
   I was in) the Con Ed plant that supplied power to the Subway systems
   signalling also supplied power from GCT to MO.

   We arrived at GCT at about 1:30pm and saw hundreds of people looking
   up at the "big board" and it had 1 entry on it.
   1:40   NEW HAVEN        20

   We went in through the gate for track 24 since it was closer and walked
   to the platform - It was a 7 car train and the doorways were jam packed
   with folks..  (Luckily we chose to go through gate 24 since the police
   had determined the train was full and didn't let anyone through gate 20)

   We jogged down to the head car and found two seats side by side (amazing
   considering how packed the rear end cars were.. I guess people are scared
   that they would close the doors while they went down)

   We left the platform about 1:44 and proceeded down through the middle
   pair of tracks in the Park ave tubes.  There were no meaningful signals
   as they were all red.  We were *manually* switched from one track to
   another by Metro North track workers with a bloody great wrench-on-a-stick
   We continued very slowly up to 125th street and let a few on and off.
   (total time from leaving the platform to leaving the tunnel - 25 min)

   After we passed mott haven we had signal's and went local stops all the
   way to Stamford CT.  The original story was there was damage to the
   catenary between Stamford and New Haven so MN would bus (yuck) everyone
   to points beyond.

   When we got to Stamford the engineer left and one conductor left since they
   were outlawed by that time.  This is when the supervisor got word that
   everything was cool to New Haven and we'd make local stops the rest of
   the way.

   It took about 3 hours to get home, (normally 2 hours)  so we made out
   pretty well.

   There were some rain problems on the Danbury line causing busses to be
   used but they fixed the line in time for the connection with the
   train we were on to be a train.

All in all it was an interesting day.  Looking back on it all, I probably
should have stayed at home.  I have to hand it to Metro North though, they
did one hell of a job all things considered.  Definately made out better
than anyone that drove into New York.. hahaha

Robert
Organization: Penn State University
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 21:16:45 EST
From: <CSS3@psuvm.psu.edu>
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
Subject: battle of the rails

   There is a potentially interesting battle shaping up in Indiana for what
will happen to some track CSX wants to abandon. CSX has indicated it will
soon file -- it if has not already -- to abandon about 24 miles of track
between Bloomington and Bedford (former Monon).

    A group of railroad enthusists has organized the Lawrence County
Railraod Historical Society. Their goal is to buy the track and operate a
tourist railroad operation. Meanwhile in Bloomington the Monroe County parks
officials have held a meeting to discuss buying the property from CSX, removing
the rails and turning it into a rails to trails path.

   It is estimated that the line will cost $1.9 million based on the fact
that CSX has sold other abandoned railway property for about $80,000 a mile.
The railroad group has been in existence for about 6 months. It does not have
any rail equipment, although it is looking for some. The group said it hopes
to become similar to the French Lick West Baden & Southern Railroad Co. which
operates a tourist line out of French Lick, Ind. That line's trains reportedly
pass the boyhood home of Larry Bird -- or so the conductor says.

   Of course, both groups need to raise funds and it is clear that both can't
 get what they want.

    The line in question is quite scenic, cutting through a number of hills
 and forests. The tracks from Bloomington head south parallel to Clear Creek
 to the junction of the creek and the Lake Monroe area to the juncture with
 Salt Creek. The line then runs alongside Salt Creek into Bedford. It makes
 15 creek crossing along the way.

    Between 1975 and 1979, the line was part of the route of the Floridian.
 CSX stopped using it for freight service back in early July. The last
 trains to use the line regularly (R590 and R591 between Chicago and
 Louisville) now travel from Lafayette to Greencastle where CSX earlier this
 year completed work on a connection track to Conrail. From Greencastle, the
 trains go to Terre Haute and then down the ex-C&EI line to Evansville.
 CSX continues to operate between Greencastle and Bloomington as a spur route.
 Between Bedford and Louisville, the CSX line is used by two Soo lines trains
 a day. Soo (ex-Milwaukee) abandoned its track between Bedford and Louisville
 several years ago.
   I would guess CSX wants to abandon this line due to its rugged terrain and
it many grades. Traffic from Chicago south can operate over the much flatter
 line via Evansville.

 craig sanders
 Penn State University (and ex-Hoosier)
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
From: ggg9y@poe.acc.Virginia.EDU (Garth G. Groff)
Subject: Re: Milwaukee Road Line Northwest
Organization: University of Virginia
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 13:07:11 GMT

MILWAUKEE ROAD WEST

I believe that the St. Mary's Railroad (in Idaho?) is part
of the former Milwaukee mainline.  If so not everything 
west is gonzo.  Also, isn't some of the Washington track
operated by shortlines?

~S
--
Garth (Haridas) Groff
"Not yet famous author"
ggg9y@poe.acc.virginia.EDU         Chant "Govinda Bohlo Hare"
From: bill@mathnx.math.byu.edu (Bill Smith)
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
Subject: Re: The value (if any) of B units
Date: 18 Dec 1992 02:23:03 GMT
Organization: Brigham Young University
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: mathnx.math.byu.edu

In article <1992Dec17.151324.9513@ee.ryerson.ca> cal@ee.ryerson.ca (Calvin  
Henry-Cotnam) writes:
> bob@1776.COM (Robert Coe) writes:
> >bill@hpcndaw.CND.HP.COM (Bill Kepner) writes:
> >> It seems every couple years somebody looking at reducing costs revists the
> >> B unit concept.  ....  [other details deleted]
> >
> >How about if a RR ordered some A units with a shell cab (no gauges, no con-
> >trol equipment, no seats, etc.) for MU operation only?  These ersatz B units 
> >would be cheaper and have a higher power-to-weight ratio than normal A  
units.
> >If later on the RR wanted them to live out their declining years as A units, 
> >they could buy the necessary equipment from the factory or (better yet) can-
> >nibalize damaged A units or ones with blown or worn-out engines.
> 
> I recently read somewhere (will post if I can find it) that one railroad
> recently ordered some new units "cabless".  The article mentioned that
> not having a cab cut the cost of the new unit by something like seventy
> thousand dollars!
> 
> I'm searching for the artile to get the who's, why's and how muches.
> 

I too seem to remember a recent article about some railroad boarding up 
or painting over the windows of  A  units and removing the controls,
turning them into   B  units essentially.   I don't remember why
they had decided to do this now.

-Bill
--

       _ _|_______====___H____===_====_====_====_====_===____H___====_______ 
        |_______| [[[[        \###########||###########/         [[[[       |
  _______| [][] |____  """         UNION |  | PACIFIC        """            |
  |o ____|  UP  |__| \___________________|_ |____________________/\_________|| 
|_| /    |__74__|   \_|  |  |  |  |  |  ||  |  |  |  |  |  |  | /  \|   |  |||
|_|=|====|======|===|===\/=================================|=\/=|======|===|_|
|_|  [(o)=(o)=(o)=(o)]|_________________||________________[(o)=(o)=(o)=(o)]|_| 
==============================================================================
]    []    []    []    []    []    []    []    []    []    []    []    []   []
                           5000 H.P. Track Staightener
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
From: M00209@MBVM.Mitre.Org
Subject: Re: CMStP&P RR
Organization: The MITRE Corporation, Bedford MA 01730
Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 15:29:38 GMT

In article <1992Dec14.222350.841@ryn.mro4.dec.com>
pierson@cimcad.enet.dec.com (Dave Pierson) writes:
 
>
>In article <1992Dec14.030018.17276@bony1.bony.com>, billg@bony1.bony.com (Bill
>Gripp) writes, in part:
>
>>Wasn't the original name of the Milwaukee Road
>>Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul, and Pacific?
>        The original name escapes me, but Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul, and
>        Pacific was a later name, ca 1910 and the project to extend to the
>        Pacific.  I believe "Milwaukee Road" was never the official name.
>
I can't swear that it was truly the "original" name, but the name of the
road before it decided to build to the Pacific was Chicago, Milwaukee and
Saint Paul.  What other names may have been used before that, I don't know.
I seem to recall that they did adopt "Milwaukee Road" as the official name
 
        *
        *
    *   *   *
      * * *
* * * * * * * * *     "JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON!"
      * * *
    *   *   *
        *
        *
 
 
Len Bachelder        Archives Committee, Boston and Maine RR Historical Society
MITRE Corp.           Secretary, Massachusetts Bay Railroad Enthusiasts
Bedford MA 01730      Member, 470 Railroad Club
<M00209@mbvm.mitre.org>
 
"Amazing love, how can it be that Thou, my God, should'st die for me!"
                                                 - Charles Wesley
sometime fairly recently.  That would make sense as it's been a lot of years
since they went anywhere near the Pacific.
From: rrw@.cse.nau.edu (Bob Wier)
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
Subject: new D&SNG image
Date: 18 Dec 92 05:49:34 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff AZ
Originator: rrw@sunset.cse.nau.edu

As my Christmas Card to the railfan community, I've 
stuck out a new image of the Durango & SIlverton
Narrow Gauge (Colorado) for ftp.

This is engine 481 crossing the Las Animas trestle
north of Rockwood after a heavy snowstorm.  Notice
the icicles hanging from the side of the varnish
car back of the tender....

This is scanned from a non-copyrighted imaged used
on the D&SNG winter schedule announcement, reduced
down from an original 5.4 Mb file to about 314 K
with Jpeg compression.  It can be found either in
the trains/incoming directory on wuarchive or locally
here (for a *short time* since I've been laid off and
may not be back for the "Spring" semester here - "Sring"
in Flagstaff is when the snow is less than 10' deep :-)
our machine is ftp.cse.nau.edu (134.114.64.70 - also known
as "rainbow") in my directory geo -

Since this is the first JPEG image I've down for 
distribution, kindly drop me a note if you have any
problems.  

ENJOY !

- Bob Wier

  ---------- insert favorite standard disclaimers here ----------
                   College of Engineering
      Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff Arizona
  Internet: rrw@naucse.cse.nau.edu | WB5KXH | fax:602 523 2300
Newsgroups: rec.railroad,alt.fan.warlord
From: cal@ee.ryerson.ca (Calvin Henry-Cotnam)
Subject: Re: The value (if any) of B units
Organization: Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, Toronto
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 15:13:24 GMT

bob@1776.COM (Robert Coe) writes:
>bill@hpcndaw.CND.HP.COM (Bill Kepner) writes:
>> It seems every couple years somebody looking at reducing costs revists the
>> B unit concept.  ....  [other details deleted]
>
>How about if a RR ordered some A units with a shell cab (no gauges, no con-
>trol equipment, no seats, etc.) for MU operation only?  These ersatz B units 
>would be cheaper and have a higher power-to-weight ratio than normal A units.
>If later on the RR wanted them to live out their declining years as A units, 
>they could buy the necessary equipment from the factory or (better yet) can-
>nibalize damaged A units or ones with blown or worn-out engines.

I recently read somewhere (will post if I can find it) that one railroad
recently ordered some new units "cabless".  The article mentioned that
not having a cab cut the cost of the new unit by something like seventy
thousand dollars!

I'm searching for the artile to get the who's, why's and how muches.


Calvin Henry-Cotnam, CATE          | "...My brain IBM"
Ryerson Polytechnical Institute    | "So if you see me, acting stangely..."
Toronto, Ontario, Canada           |                  STYX, Mr. Roboto
From: asgard@plx.com (J.R. Stoner)
Newsgroups: rec.railroad
Subject: Re: NS bridge/Kids Accident
Keywords: n
Date: 15 Dec 92 01:57:47 GMT
Organization: Heironamous Botch's Murk Works

In article <18360@mindlink.bc.ca>
Steve_Hooper@mindlink.bc.ca (Steve Hooper) writes:

_> x92ochs1@gw.wmich.edu writes:

_>  I remember seeing this same story on Rescue 911 a within the last year or
_>  two.  It seemed like there were two little kids playing on the tracks
_>near their home when a train suddenly approached.  For some reason(probably
_>panic) one child stayed on the tracks.  A crew member jumped out and lay
_>over the child.  I think the crew member told the other boy to go home and
_>tell his mother to call 911.  Now I believe(and hope) there is a fence between
_> their backyard and the railroad.

_Well, if it indeed occured, there is no way the crew member lay down ON the
_child.  Perhaps beside him and held him down or something.

_I'd also hazard a guess that the train that went over them was not a
_"standard" engine (ie a mainline unit).

I saw the Rescue 911 film in question.  What happened is this:  The engineer
(of course) and the brakeman was in the cab.  An infant (about 3 or 4 - I
forget which) was playing on the tracks near a house.  Engineer saw the kid
and immediately hit emergency application and started hitting the horn.
The most stupid thing happened then:  the kid just sat down on the track.
The brakeman realized that the train just was not going to stop in time, so he
got out on the walkway while the train was slowing down and was about down
to about 5mph when the guy, practically standing on the pilot (or coupler
knuckle) sticks his foot out and shoves the kid away from the tracks with his foot just as the train gets to the spot.  There was enough ballast slop and hill that the kid is sure to fall away from the train.  Our hero then jumps off the train and holds the kid down until the train stopped.  Only then did mommy show
up to be eternally grateful that the forces of physics and stupidity did not
so conspire to hurt her precious baby that was left unattended right in the
middle of a working railroad.  Mommy was negligent for not noticing the hazard
signalling from the horn right in her back yard and getting baby away from the
train.  I think that the time period involved was almost 30 seconds.  Given
the experience I have had with panic (Loma Prieta earthquake and getting down-
stairs and out in only 20 seconds) there was no reason for mommy to have let
the situation get that bad.
-- 
J.R. Stoner, DWMIT - asgard@plx.com - sun.com!plx!plxsun!asgard
Newsgroups: rec.railroad