Railroad Communications

[brendansbiz]

Can anyone point the way to finding information on RR Comms and how they work?

 

[cascaderailroad]

Some shortlines actually use cell phones, most RR's still use 160-161MHz bands

 

[JCitron]

The newer communications is also done digitally using digital trunked lines which avoids cell towers and old telegraph. This is in addition to the FCC-allocated railroad transportation radio channels mentioned above.

In the past railroads used stuff like this:

http://www.wx4.org/to/foam/sp/train_orders/primers/to_primer1.html

And they were signaled with this:

http://www.wx4.org/to/foam/sp/train_orders/primers/dtc_primer.html

 

[Vern]

In the UK GSM-R has pretty much replaced all the older systems such as NRN and CSR though signals are still equipped with telephones that connect direct to the controlling signaller.

In terms of procedures voice comm discipline is fairly strict here including correct use of the phonetic alphabet and numbers (don't say "O" when you should be saying "zero"), the concept of lead communication, correct use of "over" or "out" (there's no such thing as "over and out" as over indicates you are expecting a response) repetition of messages to confirm a clear understanding and "casual" chat is discouraged.