Railroad
Sound Files
Years ago I used to record the action on the scanner. Here are some of
the sounds from the old tapes. Most of these were recorded in the late
1980s-early 1990s and with a cheap tape recorder (and even cheaper
tapes) so the audio is not always the best..
Defect Detectors
Most (but not all) of these defect detectors have been replaced by
newer equipment, so you won't be able to hear many of these anymore!
CONRAIL
Arnold, OH detector on
the Scottslawn Secondary. This is when the DD did not list axle count or speed.
Arnold, OH detector on the Scottslawn
Secondary Subdivision (under CSX rule). This was recorded about a year
before the name "Conrail" was scrubbed from the voice announcement.
Brice, OH detector on
the West Virginia Secondary.
Clintonville, OH detector on
the Columbus Line. Here it finds
dragging equipment. I wonder who the lucky person was who recorded all
of these detector messages?
Glade Run, OH detector on the
Cincinnati Line. This detector has since been moved to single track at
157.8.
LaCarne, OH on the Water Level Route just
west of Oak Harbor, OH. Amtrak 44 is the Pennsylvanian which used to
run during across Ohio during daylight hours.
Lewis Center, OH on the Columbus
Line.
Lewis Center, OH on the Columbus Line. DD gives an error through the interference on the frequency.
Slicks, OH on the Indianapolis Line
(now the Mt. Victory Subdivision). Slicks is just east of Marion.
CSX
MP 5.3 on the Columbus
Subdivision. Right after it was installed it
announced a safety message.
MP 5.3 on the Columbus
Subdivision. This clip has the DD finding a hotbox.
MP 5.3 on the Columbus
Subdivision. This clip catches the DD with an axle count malfunction.
MP 5.3 on the Columbus Subdivision. The DD has found a defect but it doesn't know where it is!
MP 5.3 on the Columbus
Subdivision. Either the DD is malfunctioning
big time, or there's a major derailment taking place in front of the DD!
MP 20.3 on the Columbus Subdivision.
MP 20.3 on the Columbus Subdivision, this time with an apparent
defect. This could be an inspection train as sometimes the train
would be set up to purposely trip the detector to see if it was
working properly. The fact that it finds a defect at axle nine on
both sides is a clue that
this might be the case here.
MP 20.3 on the Columbus Subdivision. Here's another recording of it reporting two defects on the same axle.
MP 38.7 on the Columbus
Subdivision.
MP 31.1 on the
CSX Willard Subdivision. Amtrak 41 heads west through the Bascom, OH
detector. I thought the speed limit for passenger trains was
79 mph?
MP 74.0 on the Northern Subdivision.
This is one of a few detectors
which would announce a leading zero for the milepost location.
MP 133.7 detector on the Columbus
Line. This replaced the Clintonville, OH detector listed above.
Norfolk Southern
MP 4.4 main two on the Sandusky
District.
MP 275.4 on the Fostoria District. This is east of Fostoria at the railroad point Ilers.
MP 285.8 on the Fostoria District. This is near Arcadia, OH.
MP 693.0 westbound track on the
Columbus District.
MP 693.0 eastbound track on the
Columbus District.
A
few Conrail split sound files...
During the evening of May 31, 1999 to June 1, 1999 I had the
computer
recording the train activity on the scanner. I was hoping to
capture some "farewell to Conrail" sound bites or
something like that. While I did get a couple similar to this, I
also got some other goodies.
Here's former Conrail train
PICO-1
passing the Clintonville, OH detector on June 1.
I was
lucky to hear COLT pass the East Alton, OH detector on May 31.
A big
surprise was to hear the Circus train on June 1! So, where do you
want them elephants set off?
I doubt if
this was this guy's last "Three step applied.", but he mentioned that
it might be. This
is YSCO-39 switching cars.
Finally, a
good luck message from the Conrail dispatcher on May 31.
Other
misc sounds
Here we hear several things which
no longer exist: CSX Columbus Dispatcher, C&N Local, and a
Conrail reference.
The yardmaster at CSX Parsons Yard
used to be in four story building called "Hi-Tower". This clip has the
yardmaster giving some specific instructions, probably because of a
recent switch run-through or yard derailment.
Here's a friend of mine, former
CSX Parsons Yard yardmaster Jack Mills talking to the airman. Not sure
what he's getting out of the drawer for the airman.
The CSX Parsons Operator used to reside in the "Blue Building" at Parsons Yard in Columbus.
CSX train G261 talking to LM Cabin.
Y222 talking to the IF Dispatcher. In the clear on the Bussssccchhhh lead!