Road-Rail vehicles on CN tracks

[mciupa]

During a bike ride up to Indian Line and Albion in the Claireville area, the ride takes me over the CN Halton Subdivision at Humber. Looking over the bridge onto the railway tracks I saw two white CN pick-up trucks cruising westbound (Bramalea direction) on the rails. I don't always bring my 325P2 with me, today I should have.

I was wondering if anyone knows or can make an educated guess of how they might communicate with one another or the CN system? I was also thinking about the Rail Police thread that was posted last Wednesday but I feel these would be more Maintenance guys over CN Police.

Anyways, this is what we have listed for Halton Sub, they may have been using these but I also know they are licensed to use UHF.

Halton Subdivision

Frequency	Input	License	Type	Tone	Alpha Tag	Description	Mode	Tag
160.66500			BM	CSQ	CN004	CN 4 RTC Call In - Mile 0-15	FM	Railroad
161.02500			BM	CSQ	CN008	CN 8 RTC Call In - Mile 15-49	FM	Railroad
160.45500			BM	CSQ	CN081	CN 81 RTC Call In - Mile 39-49	FM	Railroad
160.21500			BM	CSQ	CN082	CN 82 MOW - Mile 0-39	FM	Railroad

 

[ATCTech]

Are they not on the regular subdivision or road channels? I always assumed when I heard "Permission to...." calls back and forth from RTC to and from foremen at specific mile posts that was those guys, or wayside crews, but on the normal channels for that section of rail.

I would speculate that if the UHF is alive it would be truck to truck or to portables locally only. I never thought to scope out anything more than VHF while construction was going on at elevated track level for weeks and weeks barely a kilometer east of me out here last fall. I definitely heard them talking to RTC on the sub channel for the mile range they were occupying and on a second regular CN VHF rail channel for less time-sensitive calls.

 

[mciupa]

So, most likely CN 4 and CN 82 judging by the 4.3 Mile location.

 

[ATCTech]

Out here during overpass rehab it was definitely on CN8 161.025 (Mile 15-49) and CN20 (Engineering) 160.785 that I was hearing multiple times per day so using mile segments of the sub or the main road channel would be my best guess. The overpass is around mile 35 IIRC, but the online rail atlas site is down at the moment so I can't be any more specific.

 

[homerjay]

They will most definitely be on the CN CH 1 161.415 for all mainline operations in Ontario, this way any approaching train on the adjacent track can call them, which is a rail requirement in Canada. The only time they would be on CH 4 is to communicate with RTC directly.

The only time they would use CH 20 is to communicate with the repair gang crews. Most track foreman have 2 radios this way once stays on the CH1 to communicate with trains and the other to call the work gang and warn them of oncoming trains.