Common Frequencies?

[K4ZXT]

I know that railroads use about 100 set frequencies and that all the railroads use some of those. Is there any one 'common' frequency that all the railroads use to talk between different companies or some other channel that is used alot?

 

[icom1020]

not really, most of the class 1's have 99 channel or more radios so even if a locomotive is 'pooled' as a leading unit on a foreign line, it's radio channel is switched over. I haven't heard them talking to a different railroad unless it's near a terminal for yard or trackage access. So if they need to talk to another railroad, they just switch to that local freq.

 

[flyingscotsman]

the only common channel that I am aware of is 161.205 used for police mutual aid, but I havn't heard much traffic on that channel in the last 5 or 8 years due to cell phones and nextell.

 

[icom1020]

What I meant to say is the crews stay on the assigned channel, it's pretty much a rule in case they need to be contacted. They change when territories change or they move onto another railroad. Amtrak crews will switch briefly to a on-board or other freqs. to chat with each other then move back to the host railroad channel. The only reason I can see to use another railroads freq when not on their tracks would be to chat, in which they rarely have time to do so.

 

[K4DHR]

You may also hear dispatchers asking crews to switch to other frequencies to relay track warrants, slow orders or other bulletins to avoid tying up the road channel in the area. Larger yards may also have their own frequency used for switching moves again to avoid congesting the road channel.

Most RRs do have a small pool of road channels that they use system wide. So you may be able to monitor most or all of the traffic on one railroad on one or two frequencies.