Railroaders' Nostalgia > "Somebody is in the basement"

A train conductor friend of mine got a worried call from his wife, while he was a few houses away visiting a neighbor.

"There are people in the basement" she said in a very worried voice.

He hurried home, and listened at the door to the basement. Sure enough, a muffled conversation was taking place.

With trepidation, he crept down the basement steps. He recognized the voice!

Soon the mystery was solved.

Recently, the railroad had issued small walkie-talkie radios to replace the lunch box size portable radios. Train crew took these new radios home to recharge between trips.

Earlier in the day when my friend returned home, he placed his work clothes and radio in the basement and forgot to turn off the radio.

Later in the day, his wife returned to the kitchen and heard a conversation between a yardmaster and a train crew on the radio.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/06/17 10:43 by eminence_grise.

Witnessed this many times when trainman/switchman left their assigned radio turned on and locked safely away in their locker. All throughout their off duty hours all within earshot are pleased to listen to the 'aheads ' and 'back-ups'
of every crew using the same frequency.

Charlie

Posted from iPhone

Mine was in my grip in the back seat of my truck last week and in my exhausted state from an unusually difficult shift I had forgotten to turn it off. I only live 8 miles from the terminal and about half-way home someone started talking on that channel. It scared the daylights out of me for an instant. Glad I wasn't startled enough to crash, but it did make me jump for a second. I always double-check it now before I toss my grip in the truck.

Similiar...

In CR (ex-CNJ territory)days, we had an agreement to work with Conductor + Brakeman when extra list exhausted for only extra jobs but needed to have a radio. Crew would each get extra 1/2 days pay plus any overtime at same rate if no additional brakeman...and this was at 5-day yard rate including deadhead mileage and any arbitraries.

One job in particular, the Sand Train from E'port, NJ to Lakewood, NJ was a 1 day down/12 hours+ and then same hours back after train was loaded at sand pit. We always had a taxi waiting for us to take crew to motel for rest. Everybody got their own room...including the radio!
He was registered by motel clerk as R.Adio.

rrcaboose

not a railroader but my old cordless base used the same frequency as commercial towing in the neighborhood. freaked the FFFF out of me one night when from the corner of the apartment some fat-sounding gentlemen were debating the merits of Taco Bell's latest offering in sharp detail. Just like the lady who heard things in the basement, this was a scary incident.

Off topic, but my old Uniden BC100XLT scanner would pick-up all the neighborhood's cordless phone conversations about 25-30 years ago before the cordless phone manufacturers added security features. WOW. That sure was revealing, shocking, etc.!!

Every pimp in the city calling their bitches

actually, yes. about the pimps. worked at a radio shack and was encouraged to use the doohickeys to familiarize myself with the latest tech. every other woman had a man on the side, many men had several women at once being juggled, and a lot of guys with good jobs led secret double lives apart from their families by dating men. they all met at tanning booths. also, you could call pizza places and change orders around after you heard the whole thing on cordless. you could cause a lot of fun confusion, but it was mean and highly illegal. so yes, about your comments, cordless phones were unsafe back then your pimp comment is not far off the mark, given the amount of bad behavior around at that time. someone at the shop even set a cheater straight, he called his wife and told him he was gay and carrying on. they ended up having this weird understanding because the wife knew something was up anyway. i think railroad radios sound much safer.

mdogg Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Off topic, but my old Uniden BC100XLT scanner
> would pick-up all the neighborhood's cordless
> phone conversations about 25-30 years ago before
> the cordless phone manufacturers added security
> features. WOW. That sure was revealing,
> shocking, etc.!!

I had a four channel scanner from radio shack that would pick up cordless phone conversations when I was a kid. Heard one heck of a conversation between a husband and wife detailing their passion the night before.

I was Firing out of Emporia, but drove it for about a year, because I still lived south of Topeka. So if it looked like I was going to get out soon, I'd call the crew clerk, tell him I was on my way, and I'd call him when I got to town. (No cell phones or pagers yet) It was around midnight or later, so I stopped at a "Sambo's" resturant on W.6th street, checked in to see if I was called yet, ordered breakfast, and read the paper. I kept hearing a quiet muffled voice, and a packset radio in one of the booths. On the way to the restroom and back, I finally figured out it was a Carman in there drinking coffee, and giving the St. Joe local a "remote" air test.