That makes sense.
Also, the reason I didn't suspect it to be a crew member was that the voice was the same as the one used around here by the defect detectors.
Yeah... I think some places are still using the Cannac boxes, but most others have moved to Cattron or GE systems.
Having the engine shouting over the radio is a safety problem because they don't listen for a man down call. Often times, a locomotive will be talking over another's emergency call. Different remote jobs had to be on separate radio channels which was a nightmare.
But they were fun to torture yardmasters with.
This is what a modern OCU looks like
The knob on the left controls the independent brake and the knob on the right is the throttle.
The metal switches from left to right are:
-Multipurpose acknowledge / alerter button
-Automatic Brakes
-Horn / Bell
-Status Switch (Switches display of various information like BP Pressure, Traction Motor Current, Speed, Locomotive ID, Etc). Older systems would read off the status on the radio.
-Reverser
-Multipurpose acknowledge / alerter button
The black piece in the middle is the 220Mhz antenna.
On the front, there is a Power button, Pitch button, and a Headlight button.