Hello all!

In the past couple of days, I've been hearing something new on the
scanner - a talking switch. I've heard detectors before, but this was
new to me.

At least one of the switches in the next town east on the Kansas City
Southern has been radio-operated for a while. The engineer or conductor
could key in some numbers on their radio, which were transmitted as DTMF
on the air. Once the switch actually moved, it would transmit a short single-tone beep as an acknowledgement.

Now, the DTMF still tells the switch to move, but the switch then keys
up and says something like

KCS We(beep) Grain Valley switch milepost four sixty four.
Switch is lined normal.
Switch is lined normal.
KCS West Grain Valley switch out.

The other phrases I have heard are "Switch is lined in reverse" and
"Switch is returned to auto". So far, it repeats the phrase twice. It
also still transmits the previous acknowledgement beep, on top of the
voice recording, near the start of the recording. It has a male voice
that sounds like a recording - not synthesized.

Matt Roberds

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From: [email protected]

On 1/26/15 4:04 AM, [email protected] wrote:

At least one of the switches in the next town east on the Kansas City Southern has been radio-operated for a while. The engineer or conductor could key in some numbers on their radio, which were transmitted as DTMF
on the air. Once the switch actually moved, it would transmit a short single-tone beep as an acknowledgement.

Looks like the railroads have finally realized the potential of "power-operated, remote-control" switches that could be thrown by other
than train dispatchers (at CTC consoles).

It's certainly cheaper than paying a brakeman or conductor to "walk 'n'
throw" them!

In another vein...
Are any railroads using digitally-transmitted technology to "monitor"
the positions of hand-operated switches in dark territory?

I'm thinking of a small transmitter connected to each hand-operated
switch "in the field" that could transmit whether a switch was in
"locked and lined for the main" position, or not so.

To avoid laying "physical wire" to each location, perhaps some kind of wireless/satellite technology could be used to convey the state of each
switch back to the dispatcher's office...

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From: [email protected]

On 1/26/2015 10:53 PM, John Albert wrote:

On 1/26/15 4:04 AM, [email protected] wrote:

At least one of the switches in the next town east on the Kansas City
Southern has been radio-operated for a while. The engineer or conductor
could key in some numbers on their radio, which were transmitted as DTMF
on the air. Once the switch actually moved, it would transmit a short
single-tone beep as an acknowledgement.

Looks like the railroads have finally realized the potential of "power-operated, remote-control" switches that could be thrown by other
than train dispatchers (at CTC consoles).

It's certainly cheaper than paying a brakeman or conductor to "walk 'n' throw" them!

The Alaska Railroad has been doing this for some time. It's a lot safer
for the crew member who doesn't have to go outside when it's 60 below to wrestle with a switch.

Michael Finfer
Bridgewater, NJ

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From: [email protected]

On 1/27/2015 8:25 PM, Michael Finfer wrote:

On 1/26/2015 10:53 PM, John Albert wrote:

On 1/26/15 4:04 AM, [email protected] wrote:

At least one of the switches in the next town east on the Kansas City
Southern has been radio-operated for a while. The engineer or conductor >>> could key in some numbers on their radio, which were transmitted as DTMF >>> on the air. Once the switch actually moved, it would transmit a short
single-tone beep as an acknowledgement.

Looks like the railroads have finally realized the potential of
"power-operated, remote-control" switches that could be thrown by other
than train dispatchers (at CTC consoles).

It's certainly cheaper than paying a brakeman or conductor to "walk 'n'
throw" them!

The Alaska Railroad has been doing this for some time. It's a lot safer
for the crew member who doesn't have to go outside when it's 60 below to wrestle with a switch.

Michael Finfer
Bridgewater, NJ

As long as the switch heater is working properly. ARR has a remarkable
crew who patrol tracks on highrailers in the same -60 weather checking
for broken rails and proper switch operations.

There was a TV series on ARR on Destination America. Turns out that the
guys I met on the ARR Winter Aurora train were all on that show, and I
did the trip after seeing them on the show. Specially the Conductor, and
the guy who is popularly called "Animal" (yes there is a story behind
it). It was a wonderful experience.

If you get a chance watch the series. They do reruns from time to time.

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John Albert <[email protected]> wrote:

It's certainly cheaper than paying a brakeman or conductor to "walk
'n' throw" them!

I think one reason for the remote control switch at this spot is that
they set up a lot of meets here. It is at the west end of a siding that
is roughly 7,300 feet long (measured on Google). There are about 3,300
feet between this switch and the first grade crossing, which is enough
for a lot of the trains that come through. It seems to be popular to
hold trains coming west (into Kansas City) there, either to wait for a eastbound, or to wait for a path through town to open up. Sometimes
eastbound trains are held there as well, to let a westbound come into
town without stopping.

To avoid laying "physical wire" to each location, perhaps some kind of wireless/satellite technology could be used to convey the state of
each switch back to the dispatcher's office...

It wouldn't be hard to give the switch a cell phone and let it call or
text the office. The safety case for using the public telephone network
might be interesting, though.

It also wouldn't be hard to give the switch a VHF radio and let it
transmit on one of the AAR channels. The railroad would have to add
receivers for that channel at existing repeater sites. Having dedicated bandwidth would help the safety case a little.

Matt Roberds

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