NS frequency changes system wide

iceman977th

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OK, I'll amend my notes.

Consider the Icom F3161DT-RR if you can find one; already has the NXDN feature installed as well as the railroad firmware. I picked one up on eBay for around $200; I've got it all programmed up RX only and it works like a champ, especially after I put a Smiley 5/8-duck for 160 MHz on it.

Tom et al, on the subject of the repeaters.. I'm still not entirely sure what is going on, but 011 is broadcasting well east of Portsmouth.. I heard it yesterday in Williamson, and even further east from there, so there must be multiple transmitters active and linked through the microwave network. Most of it was Portsmouth Yard traffic but I heard other spritzes of traffic mixed in. Bluefield is not included, they're still operating on 076 as best as I can tell. Williamson area still also uses 064 but I don't think there's a yardmaster actually controlling it now.

Also, one of what I assume to be the ARN channels is being used as a repeater as well on 027. I heard MOW talking on the Guyandot River Branch on that channel, and have heard them at other places as well. Not sure if they are using the MOW channel input or something else, will have to dig through licenses.

Mike
 

wa8pyr

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Tom et al, on the subject of the repeaters.. I'm still not entirely sure what is going on, but 011 is broadcasting well east of Portsmouth.. I heard it yesterday in Williamson, and even further east from there, so there must be multiple transmitters active and linked through the microwave network. Most of it was Portsmouth Yard traffic but I heard other spritzes of traffic mixed in. Bluefield is not included, they're still operating on 076 as best as I can tell. Williamson area still also uses 064 but I don't think there's a yardmaster actually controlling it now.

Also, one of what I assume to be the ARN channels is being used as a repeater as well on 027. I heard MOW talking on the Guyandot River Branch on that channel, and have heard them at other places as well. Not sure if they are using the MOW channel input or something else, will have to dig through licenses.

027 would be ARN9. ARN9 has been around Columbus for decades and interesting listening sometimes; in the pre-cellphone days the guys in white hard hats would use it to contact the DS or other white hats to talk about stuff they didn't want to put on the road channel.

1601038228536.png

And dopey me, I just put 2+2 together and realized what we've been listening to at Portsmouth and Williamson was ARN8 (takes me awhile sometimes). I still scan the ARN channels in my scanners and real radios just in case but haven't got them in my Icom RR radio yet, which is why it escaped me.

There are notes in several older ETTs I have around here instructing use of the ARN channels to contact Central Yard Operations (CYO). As of 2008, they were assigned as follows on the Pokey (apparently, crews in Andover, Carbo, Norton and St. Charles had to tone up CYO on the road channel):

Kenova/Portsmouth - ARN9 and ARN8
Williamson - ARN8
Poca District - ARN9 and ARN8
Buchanan Branch - ARN9 and ARN8
Clinch Valley - ARN9 and ARN7
Elmore - ARN9 and ARN7

Seems like having multiple yards doing switching on the same linked repeater would be a serious safety issue. Maybe it's going to be a way for yard crews to contact the lone yardmaster, and use a separate simplex channel for switching moves?

I'm personally hoping the two-channel scheme (road and DS) gets going around here sooner rather than later; 072 is so clogged most days with road trains, defect detectors, switching moves, DS communications, and people calling the PTC desk it's hard for anyone to get a word in edgewise. Why they don't use ARN for contacting the PTC desk is a head-scratcher; when they get going no one can use the channel for a pretty long time.

PS - 194 is going by my office right now in case you're interested. . .
 

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cbehr91

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Apparently so on the Pittsburgh Line. This is from the West Slope radio feed page on railroadradio.net.Untitled.jpg
 

PAGANC412912

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I programmed them in. I railfan the Pittsburgh line when I can. I still hear 161.0700 here in Mill Hall but I'm not sure if they switched anything for the Buffalo Line
 

PAGANC412912

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On the Buffalo line in Lock Haven, PA the dispatcher now goes by River Line on 161.0700. The dispatcher also covers the NBER on their Channel (160.5900)
 

wa8pyr

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Just found out today that NS has realigned divisions as follows:

Northern Region
Keystone Division (former Pittsburgh & Harrisburg Divisions)
Great Lakes Division (Former Dearborn Division & Lake Division east of Ft Wayne)

Central Region
Heartland Division (former Illinois Division and Lake Division west of Ft Wayne)
Blue Ridge Division (former Pocahontas & Piedmont Divisions)

Southern Region
Coastal Division (former Georgia Division)
Gulf Division (former Alabama Division)

Apparently there has been another round of DS desk realignments in Atlanta as a result, so things may change yet again.
 
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cbehr91

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These changes took place in September.

NS Ft. Wayne Line Conway Terminal area CP-Bell* to CP-Enon
Road: 161.445
Channel 2: 160.725

NS Pittsburgh Line McVeytown to Conpit Jct., PA
Road: 160.875
Channel 2: 161.505

PITL from Conpit to downtown Pittsburgh remains on 160.800 as well as the Conemaugh Line. However, 160.380 and 160.635 appear to be Channel 2 for the Pittsburgh and Conemaugh Lines, respectively, between Conpit and downtown Pittsburgh.

The Ft. Wayne Line from Alliance to Crestline, OH appears to now be on 161.055 according to some license searching.

*Someone please confirm what interlocking in downtown Pittsburgh the dispatchers change on the Pittsburgh/Ft. Wayne Line. The western limits of the Conway Terminal desk is CP-Enon near the PA/OH state line, but the eastern limit is unknown. It used to be CP-Penn, but when the Conway Terminal desk got expanded Pittsburgh East got some of its territory.

PS: It's unknown if the listed channel 2 frequencies are used, but it wouldn't hurt to monitor them for activity.
 
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wa8pyr

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These changes took place in September.

NS Ft. Wayne Line Conway Terminal area CP-Bell* to CP-Enon
Road: 161.445
Channel 2: 160.725

Still the "Conway Terminal" dispatcher?

NS Pittsburgh Line McVeytown to Conpit Jct., PA
Road: 160.875
Channel 2: 161.505

Still the "Allegheny" dispatcher, and does this also include No. 2 Secondary and the Port Perry Branch?

*Someone please confirm what interlocking in downtown Pittsburgh the dispatchers change on the Pittsburgh/Ft. Wayne Line. The western limits of the Conway Terminal desk is CP-Enon near the PA/OH state line, but the eastern limit is unknown. It used to be CP-Penn, but when the Conway Terminal desk got expanded Pittsburgh East got some of its territory.

I have the break point between Pittsburgh East and Conway Terminal as EAS West Pitt, but I've got another note here which gives WAS CP Bell as the break point; either one would make sense.
 

wa8pyr

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the last I heard Penn was under Pittsburgh due to the Conemaugh Line but Conway Terminal has the Mon Line but I'm not sure to what point

Not sure why I didn't do this yesterday, but what you said sparked a memory, so I dug out my 2012 Pittsburgh Division timetable.

It shows EAS West Pitt to EAS Penn being under Pittsburgh East, EAS Penn to WAS Rochester as Conway Terminal, and the Mon Line from CP Bell to NAS Liz as Conway Terminal.

It would make sense for Pittsburgh East to have EAS West Pitt to EAS Bell, and the Conway Terminal desk to have EAS Bell to Enon (not sure what the break point would be at Enon).
 

Dispatcher308

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All this is what I have for Norfolk Southern in Baltimore, I have not heard any other frequencies used, even pulled the licenses and put the frequencies listed in the Scanner and I get no hits on them with an outside antenna. NS does not have a large presence in Baltimore like CSX and when they do travel out of the area they use Amtrak NE Corridor to do so and its mostly at night.

Freq​
Description​
160.800​
Possible Road Baltimore​
161.070​
used in and around Port of Baltimore for switching, controlled by Bayview Yard​
160.860​
used in Port of Baltimore possibly in conjunction with Canton Railroad​
161.325​
Baltimore - Bayview Yard Repeater​
161.130​
Baltimore MOW Repeater​
 

wa8pyr

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Anybody in Central/Southern Ohio found anything new for the Columbus District between Rickenbacker and Portsmouth?

For the last week, I've heard basically nothing except the Sandusky District from Rickenbacker west on 161.190 (AAR 072), including the detector at Ritts which is only about 2.5 miles from my office and usually bangs in like gangbusters.

I'm thinking the Kenova Desk territory (Rickenbacker to Portsmouth) may have moved to another channel; 161.250 (AAR 076) would make sense since that's the channel already used by the Kenova District from Williamson to Portsmouth and would have required nothing more than reprogramming two dispatcher bases and five defect detectors; a couple of radio techs could have done that in a day or less.

Unfortunately, I've been monitoring 076 and haven't heard anything other than the light side at Watkins Yard in Columbus, where it's already been used for years. Haven't found anything new from searching, either.

Pretty frustrating; trains rambling by my office all day long and not a peep on the radio, but I know they have to be talking!
 

iceman977th

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Anybody in Central/Southern Ohio found anything new for the Columbus District between Rickenbacker and Portsmouth?

For the last week, I've heard basically nothing except the Sandusky District from Rickenbacker west on 161.190 (AAR 072), including the detector at Ritts which is only about 2.5 miles from my office and usually bangs in like gangbusters.

I'm thinking the Kenova Desk territory (Rickenbacker to Portsmouth) may have moved to another channel; 161.250 (AAR 076) would make sense since that's the channel already used by the Kenova District from Williamson to Portsmouth and would have required nothing more than reprogramming two dispatcher bases and five defect detectors; a couple of radio techs could have done that in a day or less.

Unfortunately, I've been monitoring 076 and haven't heard anything other than the light side at Watkins Yard in Columbus, where it's already been used for years. Haven't found anything new from searching, either.

Pretty frustrating; trains rambling by my office all day long and not a peep on the radio, but I know they have to be talking!
Tom, I’ll check the South Portsmouth license and start scanning, I should be able to hear it from the house. I hadn’t been near the radio much to notice.
Funny enough, I just left Portsmouth and didn’t hear anything either, nor did I notice. Kenova east of Portsmouth is still 076 but have not heard any talk for west of there.

Mike
 

wa8pyr

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Tom, I’ll check the South Portsmouth license and start scanning, I should be able to hear it from the house. I hadn’t been near the radio much to notice.
Funny enough, I just left Portsmouth and didn’t hear anything either, nor did I notice. Kenova east of Portsmouth is still 076 but have not heard any talk for west of there.

Well, wherever they were they’re back on 072 around here now. I heard L55 talking to Kenova on the truck radio on the way to work this morning, and the radio in the office has trains chattering madly away in the Kenova desk territory. I'm listening to L55 switch Sofidel right now.

The truck radio and the radio in the office were silent of Kenova territory traffic for the last week or so; either they were temporarily testing another channel, or radio signals were getting sucked straight up into the air by aliens or something.
 

NYAirOne

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Anybody in Central/Southern Ohio found anything new for the Columbus District between Rickenbacker and Portsmouth?

For the last week, I've heard basically nothing except the Sandusky District from Rickenbacker west on 161.190 (AAR 072), including the detector at Ritts which is only about 2.5 miles from my office and usually bangs in like gangbusters.

I'm thinking the Kenova Desk territory (Rickenbacker to Portsmouth) may have moved to another channel; 161.250 (AAR 076) would make sense since that's the channel already used by the Kenova District from Williamson to Portsmouth and would have required nothing more than reprogramming two dispatcher bases and five defect detectors; a couple of radio techs could have done that in a day or less.

Unfortunately, I've been monitoring 076 and haven't heard anything other than the light side at Watkins Yard in Columbus, where it's already been used for years. Haven't found anything new from searching, either.

Pretty frustrating; trains rambling by my office all day long and not a peep on the radio, but I know they have to be talking!

Try running a search with your radio. I did that for a few weeks and found a couple of new freqs in my area.
 

wa8pyr

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Try running a search with your radio. I did that for a few weeks and found a couple of new freqs in my area.

Thanks, but I've already been doing that. It's a moot point anyway as they magically reappeared yesterday.
 

fyrefyter2008

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i wonder if that could be why i havent heard much on my scanner, im in elmira, ny and the ones i have in my scanner is just 160.800 and 161.070

might be time for new add in to my handheld :)
 
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