What's on a Locomotive Cab Roof?

[ladn]

What’s on a locomotive cab roof? - Trains

What's on a locomotive cab roof? There are often more than a dozen antennas atop the newest locomotives built today.

www.trains.com

Thought this might be of interest to everyone.

"What’s on a locomotive cab roof? A cluttered battle for available space. But that wasn’t always the case. Decades ago, the roof of a locomotive cab was pretty bare. A majority of them had little more than an air horn and a single radio antenna mounted on it. The antenna was connected to the voice radio inside the cab, allowing the employees inside to talk to dispatchers, operators, crewmembers in the caboose or employees along the right of way. From the introduction of voice radios in the railroad industry to today, railroads have slowly added more antennas for the increasing amount of data being exchanged. The explosion of wireless technology has transformed the industry even more, with locomotives going from a single antenna on its roof more than a half-century ago to more than a dozen antennas atop the newest locomotives built today..."

 

[dave3825]

The two antennas on the outsides are very similar to antennas on school buses near me. That little one could even be a gps.

 

[wa8pyr]

The two antennas on the outsides are very similar to antennas on school buses near me. That little one could even be a gps.

It most likely is. The two on the outside are probably VHF and UHF, VHF for the voice radio and UHF for the EOT and DPU radios.

The big white thing in the middle doesn't appear to be an air conditioner, so it probably has something to do with PTC.

 

[ladn]

The big white thing in the middle doesn't appear to be an air conditioner, so it probably has something to do with PTC.

The article says it's a radome housing other antennas.
At first glance, I thought it was a skylight.

 

[chrismol1]

I used to see locos with all kinds antennas on the roof for their systems and makes sense they'd be covering them with all tree branches and stuff that could damage, especially in winter when the ice has branches bending and hanging over the tracks

 

[madrabbitt]

i miss the old iron sinclair antennas, but those were single purpose. Those radomes probably have multiple things stuffed in each one.
The smaller hat shaped one at the rear is a mobile mark multiband. Probably has an active GPS line + MIMO wifi or LTE antennas in it.

The elongated white radomes are maxrad/pctel VHF antennas.

 

[crayon]

 

[crayon]

 

[crayon]

 

[theoleman]

Here is a cab top view of a couple of UP motors. Interesting arrangement as compared to the Stico radome.

 

[dave3825]

Good amount of antennas.

 

[madrabbitt]

i see a mag mount which is probably connected to a cell booster that one of the crew members probably takes to work, a 800-900 which is probably on the telemetry radio and probably not active anymore, the AAR antenna, the data can antenna, the sat antenna which is for data, and what is probably a second cell mag mount which is either faded or painted to match the cab.

The railroad style fins are probably the 220 PTC, and the phantom by the AAR is most likely a 600-900/2100-2500

 

[OpSec]

View attachment 156884

Hell, give me two of those with VHF/UHF/700/800 antennas inside and I'll them on my work truck to cut down on the clutter.

 

[hazrat8990]

View attachment 156882

Anybody else remember the game Simon?? As I scrolled past this post, I started having flashbacks of my childhood, and now the tones are playing in my head