by codeguy
So after a bit of research into what I could find on the state of rail traffic and monitoring in the greater Binghamton area, I’ve come up with the following. I’d appreciate if someone would let me know if any of this is in the ballpark:
- There are two main freight railroads, the Norfolk Southern (NS) and New York Susquehanna & Western (NYSW).
- Google Maps shows a few yards: Bevier St., north of the main junction, East Binghamton (the big one along Conklin Ave to the east), an NYSW yard on the west side of the junction (looks like it has a diesel shop), and a small yard on Court St. I haven’t spent much time checking (partly because I recall hearing the local RR guys are very strict about people poking around), but I rarely have seen much traffic at Bevier St., and I assume the E. Binghamton yard is pretty much dead.
- I’m guessing that rail traffic is very light in the area, as in almost non-existent. Though suprisingly I have seen some stack trains in the Bevier St yard and also some grain trains when passing by on the highway. Passenger-wise, there’s nothing. The closest Amtrak station is in Syracuse.
- As far as ATCS Monitor (my real interest), there are no layouts or MCP data or servers available for monitoring. And apparently the laws in NY are very strict about not allowing anyone to have radios that might be able to monitor police (which includes ATCS signals), so even if somone wanted to put together the data it’s very risky (assuming NS and NYSW even use those frequencies and technology). And also even the TrackBuilder software that used to exist for making ATCSMonitor layouts is no longer available. Which is unfortunate, since I was even considering getting some Maxtrac radios and doing the whole thing from scratch (I did similar out west years ago).
- And there aren’t even any webcams that might show rail traffic in the area.
So bottom line, it seems there’s pretty much no hope for getting any ATCSMonitor joy in the Southern Tier, or even for just sitting somewhere and watching? Is it really that bad? Thanks much for any insight.
- There are two main freight railroads, the Norfolk Southern (NS) and New York Susquehanna & Western (NYSW).
- Google Maps shows a few yards: Bevier St., north of the main junction, East Binghamton (the big one along Conklin Ave to the east), an NYSW yard on the west side of the junction (looks like it has a diesel shop), and a small yard on Court St. I haven’t spent much time checking (partly because I recall hearing the local RR guys are very strict about people poking around), but I rarely have seen much traffic at Bevier St., and I assume the E. Binghamton yard is pretty much dead.
- I’m guessing that rail traffic is very light in the area, as in almost non-existent. Though suprisingly I have seen some stack trains in the Bevier St yard and also some grain trains when passing by on the highway. Passenger-wise, there’s nothing. The closest Amtrak station is in Syracuse.
- As far as ATCS Monitor (my real interest), there are no layouts or MCP data or servers available for monitoring. And apparently the laws in NY are very strict about not allowing anyone to have radios that might be able to monitor police (which includes ATCS signals), so even if somone wanted to put together the data it’s very risky (assuming NS and NYSW even use those frequencies and technology). And also even the TrackBuilder software that used to exist for making ATCSMonitor layouts is no longer available. Which is unfortunate, since I was even considering getting some Maxtrac radios and doing the whole thing from scratch (I did similar out west years ago).
- And there aren’t even any webcams that might show rail traffic in the area.
So bottom line, it seems there’s pretty much no hope for getting any ATCSMonitor joy in the Southern Tier, or even for just sitting somewhere and watching? Is it really that bad? Thanks much for any insight.