Antennas on metal crossing box / buildings

[Nasby]

I've noticed on the local Wheeling and Lake Erie shortline that all of the crossings shantys have 1/4 antennas on them.

I'm guessing this may be some way for the engine to transmit a signal to activate the gates as the rail is lightly used and often rusty.

Is this the case and how does it work? What freq might they be using?

 

[mwjones]

It is possible that the signals are activated from DTMF transmitted over the road channel, which is used in some areas where there are infrequent train movements, and the railroad doesn't want to invest in (or the track arrangement doesn't allow) the predictor/approach circuits.

 

[AK9R]

Antennas on signal boxes at crossings may be for PTC which uses channels in the 220-222 MHz band to communicate to and from the PTC-equipped locomotives.

 

[wa8pyr]

Antennas on signal boxes at crossings may be for PTC which uses channels in the 220-222 MHz band to communicate to and from the PTC-equipped locomotives.

W&LE is a Class II regional with relatively low traffic density and speeds; IIRC they weren't required to install any lineside PTC stuff, although they did install it on their locomotives so they would be interoperable with NS and CSX.

My guess would be a maintainer radio in the shanty. If it were an NS line I'd say that it's for the NXDN data system they use to monitor the health of the crossing hardware.

 

[INDY72]

W&LE is a Class II regional with relatively low traffic density and speeds; IIRC they weren't required to install any lineside PTC stuff, although they did install it on their locomotives so they would be interoperable with NS and CSX.

My guess would be a maintainer radio in the shanty. If it were an NS line I'd say that it's for the NXDN data system they use to monitor the health of the crossing hardware.

WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER! CSXT has been doing some of those installs locally here as they upgrade things in Indy.

 

[Nasby]

The track has one local that uses it 2-3 times a week at best. The local that uses the track has less than 5 cars at a time.

Doubt it is PTC and the maintainers all have radios in their trucks. I'll have to try to sneak a peek one day.

 

[wa8pyr]

The track has one local that uses it 2-3 times a week at best. The local that uses the track has less than 5 cars at a time.

Which line is it?

 

[Nasby]

Which line is it?

Former EL line between Kent and Ravenna.
Serviced by ABC / WLE RR.

 

[wa8pyr]

Former EL line between Kent and Ravenna.
Serviced by ABC / WLE RR.

Gotcha. Yep, low density to say the least...

 

[RRR]

Unless there was a serious FRA approved agreement to not add a track circuit, there should be one. Public roads that cross Railroad tracks shall be installed with fail-safe technology. Currently, the track circuit (Motion, Predictor, AC/DC) is the only approved -primary- activation allowed for at grade crossings on public roadways.
Sure, a DTMF controller can be added. And sometimes are. Very helpful for MOW personnel.
Either it is DTMF, or health monitoring for the crossing detection unit.

 

[mwjones]

Unless there was a serious FRA approved agreement to not add a track circuit, there should be one. Public roads that cross Railroad tracks shall be installed with fail-safe technology. Currently, the track circuit (Motion, Predictor, AC/DC) is the only approved -primary- activation allowed for at grade crossings on public roadways.
Sure, a DTMF controller can be added. And sometimes are. Very helpful for MOW personnel.
Either it is DTMF, or health monitoring for the crossing detection unit.

In my previous comment I wasn't saying there wasn't a track circuit, but likely only an island circuit, ending a few yards either side of the roadway. Typically, with an island circuit, the train has to approach the crossing to a stop board, which will put the first sets of wheels into the island circuit, thus causing the grade crossing warning devices to activate. Once the signals have activated, the train can proceed. Once the train clears the island circuit the warning devices will deactivate. There is no predictor or approach circuits, typically due to low usage or complex switching within what would normally be the approach zone.

I have seen, particularly with passenger operations, that a passenger train will stop short of the island circuit to align with the station platform, and the engineer can use DTMF to re-activate the warning devices (since they will time out and deactivate when the train stops) when they are ready to proceed, so they don't have to move a short distance and stop again to wait for the warning devices to activate when they enter the island circuit. But passenger operations are not the only place DTMF remote activation is used (I don't recall where I've seen it in the past, so I can't cite a specific example).

Here's a video of a (now retired) UP signal maintainer talking about an island-only circuit on an industrial spur (I've queued it up to the start of that segment at 20:50)

Likewise, here's a former FEC conductor showing an industrial spur with a manually activated grade crossing with no track circuit:

 

[icom1020]

We use one on a short line in Oregon. The island and predictor circuit worked fine except at odd hours the gates would come down on their own. If the police calls frequently to wake the owner up at 2am then the solution is to activate by DTMF *# which has solved the problem.

 

[RRR]

Solving the problem would involve a competent signal maintainer, and the materials needed to correct the issue.