Rail Listening in My Backyard

[TailGator911]

I am in Fairborn, Ohio, about 1/2 mile away from the tracks here, and trains come thru here about 4-5 times a day. I thought I would try monitoring them, so I went to Greene County OH FCC License grants and saw a list of frequencies for Norfolk Southern Railway, put them in the banks of a couple of scanners and I am hearing nothing. Using a new Whistler TRX-1 and a Pro-2006. Just curious, are these NXDN or DMR or some special format I need to know in order to monitor them? There is also a whole bunch of rail frequencies in the RR database and I am wondering if I would have any luck with those?

Is it just the NSR that runs on these tracks, or do other companies run them as well? Noobie to rail monitoring so be gentle, please hah

Thanks!

 

[Nasby]

Rail scanning can be a lot of fun.

All of the main lines in Ohio are analog conventional. No NXDN or DMR for the mainline action.

The two major RR's in Ohio are NS and CSX. You will likely hear both in your area.

You may have to do some online searching to determine the exact terminolgy of the tracks that pass by you (Cincy Line, Indianapolis Line, etc.).

Once you find out, enter the road and dispatch channels found here: https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?aid=1165

Enter the mainline / dispatcher frequencies in conventional FM or NFM mode.

The PRO-2006 would make a better unit for rail scanning as it is well known for it's sensitivity.

 

[TailGator911]

Hey thanks very much for that info! Much appreciated. Noted and filed, I will see what I can dig up. I have quite a few banks left in the 2006 so I might just dedicate those channels to railroads

 

[lucky43113]

I am in central Ohio Pickaway County,and I have a BCD996p2 and I used freescan and tried to program in railroads but i hear nothing what am i doing wrong

 

[Nasby]

I am in central Ohio Pickaway County,and I have a BCD996p2 and I used freescan and tried to program in railroads but i hear nothing what am i doing wrong

Make sure you assign quick keys. Other than that its pretty straightforward.

No fancy talkgroups, threshold settings, etc.

Be sure you have the correct frequencies for the lines that pass through your area.

There is always plenty of chatter with talking defect detectors, dispatchers, yardmasters, etc.

 

[Nasby]

Hey thanks very much for that info! Much appreciated. Noted and filed, I will see what I can dig up. I have quite a few banks left in the 2006 so I might just dedicate those channels to railroads

You should only need to spare about 10-20 channel spaces.

Even the busiest rail spots in Ohio don't require much more than that.

 

[lucky43113]

Make sure you assign quick keys. Other than that its pretty straightforward.

No fancy talkgroups, threshold settings, etc.

Be sure you have the correct frequencies for the lines that pass through your area.

There is always plenty of chatter with talking defect detectors, dispatchers, yardmasters, etc.

I went ahead and just added all of the frequencies and now it works before I only had central Ohio ones added now I can hear them. I am curious as to why so many like monitoring railroads so I thought I would listen for a while

 

[phask]

I show 216 in Ohio, from RR Ohio listing. Easy enough to load all and see what works, or load all the ARR channels.

 

[lucky43113]

I show 216 in Ohio, from RR Ohio listing. Easy enough to load all and see what works, or load all the ARR channels.

i loaded all 2016 in ohio seems to work

 

[Nasby]

i loaded all 2016 in ohio seems to work

That's one way to do it. The only trade off is a slower scan rate due to having all the extra frequencies that are not in use.

But if you're only scanning a few groups of channels at once you may not even notice.

 

[lucky43113]

That's one way to do it. The only trade off is a slower scan rate due to having all the extra frequencies that are not in use.

But if you're only scanning a few groups of channels at once you may not even notice.

it only takes my scanner about 3 seconds to scan them all anyway

 

[phask]

it only takes my scanner about 3 seconds to scan them all anyway

If you can - use Freescan virtual control, turn on logging. That way you will see what is active.

 

[lucky43113]

If you can - use Freescan virtual control, turn on logging. That way you will see what is active.

so far I have picked up AAR 072 and RJC Canton

 

[TailGator911]

I searched via Google and went to a few train forums, chat rooms etc, that had not seen activity since 2013. Not much help there, and not finding anything pertaining to the actual Lines that pass thru here, I have all of the NSR freqs from RR so I just loaded them and then I heard that lonesome whistle blow and the scanner lit up on 160.980 with some guy giving a mile marker ( he said mile mode) number and I believe he said 'no defects'...it was quick., Now a female voice and conversation on that freq. I believe I am in business!.

So far, I have Norfolk Southern and CSX passing thru here, can anyone help me out with the names of any other Lines that pass thru Fairborn, Ohio? I would be eternally grateful - thanks!

And thanks to Nasby for your help!

73s

 

[lucky43113]

I searched via Google and went to a few train forums, chat rooms etc, that had not seen activity since 2013. Not much help there, and not finding anything pertaining to the actual Lines that pass thru here, I have all of the NSR freqs from RR so I just loaded them and then I heard that lonesome whistle blow and the scanner lit up on 160.980 with some guy giving a mile marker ( he said mile mode) number and I believe he said 'no defects'...it was quick., Now a female voice and conversation on that freq. I believe I am in business!.

So far, I have Norfolk Southern and CSX passing thru here, can anyone help me out with the names of any other Lines that pass thru Fairborn, Ohio? I would be eternally grateful - thanks!

And thanks to Nasby for your help!

73s

mile mode) number and I believe he said 'no defects' yea i have been hearing that a lot too

 

[Swipesy]

You only need the road channels which amounts to about 3-5 each for NS & CSX. Sometimes the smaller railroads using the Class 1 tracks will use the same frequencies. Here is a link to the State of Ohio Rail map.

https://www.dot.state.oh.us/maps/Pages/OhioRailMapRail.aspx

 

[lucky43113]

You only need the road channels which amounts to about 3-5 each for NS & CSX. Sometimes the smaller railroads using the Class 1 tracks will use the same frequencies. Here is a link to the State of Ohio Rail map.

https://www.dot.state.oh.us/maps/Pages/OhioRailMapRail.aspx

in the pic, I attached is all the options I get with free scan what ones do I really need I am in Pickaway County

 

[TailGator911]

Thanks for that, Swipesy!

I noticed in one list of frequencies that the rail inspectors were using NXDN, just them,

ok, going to figure out which channels are what and where to put them - thanks guys!

 

[Swipesy]

I would Google " railfanning frequencies Central Ohio". To repeat myself, you only need about 4 NS and 4 CSX road frequencies. You could also Google "NS road frequencies central Ohio".

 

[ratboy]

I learned a long time ago to put all the VHF freqs into my scanners. I've heard some pretty interesting things on supposedly "unused" channels. Some of the comments I've heard about a local 111 year old bridge being cranky in it's old age were hilarious. I think the problems coming when it's being replaced will be even funnier than those were.