Eastern Railroad Discussion > NS is soon to become quieter on the radio

I read a topic on a couple of the Facebook Groups that cover the NS.  Seems NS is going to be giving all of their operating people I-Phones to connect to the NS operations computer to get all of their instructions.
With PTC that already connects, crews will be able to receive and confirm instructions with out talking on the radio to the Dispatchers or OSS or whoever.  So listening for track warrant info is going to be a bygone. 
I think some of this is already beginning to take charge.  I haven't seen any info on here about it, so maybe it's still a secret that no one is supposed to know.
It used to be nice to listen to what was going on.  But now a guess progress is going up another notch to the future or railroading.  Oh well.  I guess we'll just have to go back and sit by the tracks and wait.
(Unless you happen to know someone) haha

CSX operating crews now have I-pads.  Everythhing is on their i-pad (rules, slow orders, instructions, consists, etc.)   Paper is gone.  

On the Valdosta District the GS&F Dispatchers no longer read the track warrant.  The dispatchers tells the train crew he is sending the warrant and the conductor reads back only the warrant number from the computer.

I don't know if it is related or not, but this is what I have recently (this year) noticed.  When westbound NS trains would make their approach from the Conrail Shared Assets Lehigh Line to the NS Lehigh Line, my scanner would pick up communication from the NS dispatcher talking to the NS train.  They would confirm their engine numbers and fuel levels, but for the railfan perspective, we would get an idea if the westbound would meet any eastbound trains.  Now, we sometimes get some PTC chatter, but that's about it.  I haven't heard the usual (and railfan helpful) info on any eastbound trains the westbound would meet. NS 21M is a solid candidate to meet at least one eastbound train (212, 22V for example) before they reach Phillipsburg, NJ. 

MEKoch Wrote:
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> CSX operating crews now have I-pads.  Everythhing
> is on their i-pad (rules, slow orders,
> instructions, consists, etc.)   Paper is
> gone.  

SOME crews have them, not all.

Welcome to the 21st century, gentlemen  ×   

This isn’t all that new - there has always been a PTC option for this, but made more available in the last update. UP is doing the same on the mobile devices for track warrants. Work order updates are done this way, but still plenty of radio traffic in general

Posted from iPhone

I noticed this last week on BNSF where an employee was talking to engineer on an iPhone on when to stop and pick him up. Weird to see since I thought using phones was a big no no


Gary

Posted from iPhone

Some people have the ability to talk on the radio via their cell phone.

mully Wrote:
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> I noticed this last week on BNSF where an employee
> was talking to engineer on an iPhone on when to
> stop and pick him up. Weird to see since I
> thought using phones was a big no no
>
>
> Gary
>
> Posted from iPhone

Interesting development.  There is plenty of remote RR territory without commercial cell coverage.  Do the lineside PTC towers support an auxiliary digitial comm channel for track warrant text and the like, or have the RR’s simply been beefing up their existing radio link infrastructure for the new digitized information?

Thanks!
Oliver Barrett

swingnose Wrote:
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> Some people have the ability to talk on the radio
> via their cell phone.
>
> mully Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I noticed this last week on BNSF where an
> employee
> > was talking to engineer on an iPhone on when to
> > stop and pick him up. Weird to see since I
> > thought using phones was a big no no
> >
> >
> > Gary
> >
> > Posted from iPhone

The prohibition is for employee owned equipment. It specifically does not apply to company supplied equipment.

RFandPFan Wrote:
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> On the Valdosta District the GS&F Dispatchers no
> longer read the track warrant.  The dispatchers
> tells the train crew he is sending the warrant and
> the conductor reads back only the warrant number
> from the computer.

This has been happening on all lines in South Carolina for about a month now too. Occasionally you will hear the TA limits, but not often.

It's been forcing me to dust off my railfan intuition and think like a DS.

Being a old rail fan who never had a scanner and don't do social media this in no way affects my sitting by the tracks and waiting, and waiting and.....zzzzz.

RayH Wrote:
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> RFandPFan Wrote:
>
> It's been forcing me to dust off my railfan
> intuition and think like a DS.

True.  Use your knowledge, use signals where available; most importntly,
sit back, relax and enjoy the hobby.

A couple of changes in railfanning related to PTC:  as mentioned, the railroads are going to electronic bulletin / track warrant distribution via the PTC screen.  As noted, dispatchers are now often just asking a train to verify that they received a particular bulletin, not repeat the contents.  This will also occur in non-PTC territory, using the same digital radio network that supports PTC.

One other item that hasn't been noticed much has to do with approach-lit signals.  In PTC territory, the onboard equipment uses the track database to anticipate upcoming signals.  The onboard polls these signals about 5 to 8 miles in advance of the train.  When the signal responds, the onboard then knows the aspect and uses that to determine a train's limits.  The interesting by-product of this is that polling, at least on UP, lights up the aproach-lit signals.  So now, instead of the signal lighting up only once the train enters the block, they often light up 2 or 3 blocks away, depending on territory and radio signal strength.  I've noticed this a lot now when out wayside.

Mobile Train Reporting video.....
https://vimeo.com/norfolksouthernmedia/review/449109906/41920b7e90

Rail Insider-Norfolk Southern aims to arm employees with a host of mobile apps to boost the railroad's agility, efficiency.
Progressive Railroading Magazine
https://www.progressiverailroading.com/norfolk_southern/article/Norfolk-Southern-aims-to-arm-employees-with-a-host-of-mobile-apps-to-boost-the-railroads-agility-efficiency--61202



"...Think of us as a technology company that happens to run trains..."
(( LOL ))
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/10/20 07:21 by nsrlink.

One benefit of having track and time warrants on the open air is everybody hears the same message.

Posted from Android

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> One benefit of having track and time warrants on
> the open air is everybody hears the same message.
>
> Posted from Android

Exactly right. I was an NS dispatcher. The division policy was to give all authorities over the radio and not the phone for this very reason. The phone could be used only when we had bad radio conditions. The idea was if you were setting up a bad, unsafe, or conflicting move others would hear it and hopefully save the day before the bad move happened and prevent a wreck or injury. Funny how things changed in a couple of years since I retired.

Many messages to/from airliners that used to be spoken over VHF AM are now done by data link. Satellite comms are beginning to replace HF SSB transmissions over the oceans. VHF comms for ATC and other purposes won't disappear entirely; among other reasons, the general aviation community wants VHF to be retained. But a lot of the interesting stuff you once could hear on 118-136 is gone. 

41bridge Wrote:
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> Exactly right. I was an NS dispatcher. The
> division policy was to give all authorities over
> the radio and not the phone for this very reason.
> The phone could be used only when we had bad radio
> conditions. The idea was if you were setting up a
> bad, unsafe, or conflicting move others would hear
> it and hopefully save the day before the bad move
> happened and prevent a wreck or injury. Funny how
> things changed in a couple of years since I
> retired.

The most powerful words ever uttered by an operator were Sure you want to do that?

I think it was the Rock the required a single address order (e.g., running order, slow affecting only one train) to the operator at another station so that there would be two checking the repeat.

TAW