GA Railscanning

[N1XDS]

Anyone in the central GA area Bibb/Peach or surrounding counties listen to Railroad communications? If so what channels/frequencies is popular around this area? I know here where I live in Byron/Peach County there's a couple of frequencies supposely that are used for Norfolk Southern Railway which runs right down the road for me which is 160.455 (Fort Valley and Powersville) and 161.115 and the other frequencies used in the area are 160.83, 160.95, 161.565. I do pick up the CSX Brosnan Yard in Macon which is 160.23.

All these frequencies are in analog.

What are other frequencies in the area that are used by CSX and Norfolk Southern? Is Analog used here more than digital? Yes, I do have the frequencies programmed from the R/R database and digital frequency search page for my area and surroundings.

- Jamie

 

[KF4LMT]

Anyone in the central GA area Bibb/Peach or surrounding counties listen to Railroad communications? If so what channels/frequencies is popular around this area? I know here where I live in Byron/Peach County there's a couple of frequencies supposely that are used for Norfolk Southern Railway which runs right down the road for me which is 160.455 (Fort Valley and Powersville) and 161.115 and the other frequencies used in the area are 160.83, 160.95, 161.565. I do pick up the CSX Brosnan Yard in Macon which is 160.23.

All these frequencies are in analog.

What are other frequencies in the area that are used by CSX and Norfolk Southern? Is Analog used here more than digital? Yes, I do have the frequencies programmed from the R/R database and digital frequency search page for my area and surroundings.

- Jamie

I always seem to hear a lot on 160.6950 - AAR 39 from Norfolk Southern when I visit Warner Robins.

 

[N1XDS]

I always seem to hear a lot on 160.6950 - AAR 39 from Norfolk Southern when I visit Warner Robins.

Thats the frequency I pick up as well when I'm near the base

 

[EngineerATL]

Thats the frequency I pick up as well when I'm near the base

Late to the party but, if you're not hearing a lot of traffic its most likely because of how the locomotive antennas are setup. If you're not using a commercial radio its gonna be hard to hear them from far away. My WS1040 could hear barely anything compared for my XTS 5000. If you want I can pull up the NS & CSX timetables that will have the radio freqs for each sub in that area. And currently every railroad I know of is still on analog in georgia.
TL;DR - scanners are bad at hearing locomotives (also make sure you have a really good VHF antenna)

 

[RRR]

Not every Railroad in Georgia is solely on analog. NS and CSX are analog on road channels, and many CSX channels have PL on them, but there are NXDN channels in your radio that can and have been used as well. Several shortlines and regional RR's in Georgia have a mix of analog & digital. Several are on Mototrbo.

Being stuck to a single road channel with no scan option doesn't allow you to scan the entire AAR range to know how much NXDN or DMR is out there, on other AAR channels.

MOW and B&B love itinerant freqs., and some are using NXDN as I type this. Now some yard's local traffic is being used on NXDN Digital. It kind of goes back and forth.

The current class 1's radio towers are NXDN ready. I remember when testing was going on, on the mainline towers, it sure sounded good.
With the improved vocoders and audio profiles available now, they actually sound great.

And it's there when the powers that be want to implement it.