WX5812
Member
Just curious if anyone has any rail road radios that were auctioned off or just sold off? is there a market for those?
You're with Metro North?Unfortunately our agency destroys all our old equipment. Thousands of portables and mobiles hundreds of bases last time.
I have quite a few gems in my collection, ranging from an SBD MT500, to a Conrail MP500, to a complete MILW Railroad Micor including the control head. All of them are fully operational, and I fire them up every once in a while just for fun. I regret not picking up some N&W and Conrail stamped Maxtracs I saw a few years ago at a ham radio swap meet.
They're really only of interest because of their railroad use, as far as I'm concerned. I saw an actual NYC radio on eBay a while back that I would have loved to own, but the price was too steep for my means.
None of those radios are compliant with today's standards, and as such are completely useless. As mentioned above, it's only because someone took them home, or stuck them in a storage shed and forgot about them, that they weren't destroyed. Which is always amusing when someone plays the "OMG STOLEN PROPERTY!!!1!" card.
I USED to have a real railroad radio, for a short time anyway.
Many years ago I was railfanning the old L&N in southern Indiana someplace and came across an MT500 labeled as L&N alongside the tracks in the ditch. The battery still had charge and the radio was on so I suspected the crew of the local that I was chasing had dropped it when they lined the siding switch nearby. I caught up with the job 20 or 30 miles down the line, walked up to the rear-end and waved the conductor down. Looking perturbed to be bothered by a railfan he was ready to chew me out but then I explained I found the HT and then he was all smiles. He had been having a bad day and had lost his portable radio and did not want to have to explain that.
Needless to say I had a great caboose ride for the rest of the afternoon and then the crew van drove me back to my truck and I went home with a bunch of timetables, a hat and other paraphernalia.
Needless to say I had a great caboose ride for the rest of the afternoon and then the crew van drove me back to my truck and I went home with a bunch of timetables, a hat and other paraphernalia.
Getting rides on rail equipment these days are long over, too much oversight with camera's, FRA rules etc. I cannot even as an employee ride in the cab anymore. You have to be part of the train crew.