Railroad Forums 

  • Buzzer Component on Passenger Rail Cars

  • Discussion related to railroad radio frequencies, railroad communication practices, equipment, and more.
Discussion related to railroad radio frequencies, railroad communication practices, equipment, and more.

Moderator: Aa3rt

 #1039009  by X4401
 
This might be an off the wall question, but here goes. Does anyone know the manufacturer, brand, or model number of the communication buzzers used for passenger rail cars? I have seen the buttons (normally open, push button closed) and have even seen the "alerter" buzzers for the cab signals, but never the actual signal buzzer used by train crew to signal the Engineer.

I'm specifically thinking of the New Jersey Transit comets, arrows, and newer multi-level coaches. They all seem to have the same buzzer. This is for a non-railroad application, but interestingly enough, there is a need for a non radio communication between driver and tail end worker for basic "forward" "reverse" "stop" and "STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!" in a high noise environment. Why re-invent the wheel?

The power supply and push button I can easily handle. The buzzer is the tough part, all google searches have come up with buzzer codes which I already know by heart, or very very vague manufacturers brochures. Total quantity needed is less than 5, and there's no way I'd buy anything that was stolen from a railroad.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
 #1039079  by DutchRailnut
 
believe the buzzers are made by vapor-clark
they are 74 volt DC or 32 volt DC
 #1039655  by X4401
 
WOW! Thanks! Long story but I typed in vapor-clark and it brought up wabtec (who doesn't love wabtec, except 19th century brakemen?) Wabtec didn't have it but they were mentioned in a Bombardier spec sheet which specifies a "Conductor's Buzzer 4.50KHZ." Then another Google search turned up such a buzzer in 8-32v made by Soberton Inc, which was listed as "Obsolete Circuitry." Long story short, thanks to your help Dutchrailnut, there are a few "PB-2211 BUZZER 4.50KHZ 3-28VDC 85DB"s on order.

If anyone cares the other buzzers on the ABB Multi-levels are as follows:
* Loco-Alarm (sonalert) - 2.9 Khz intermittent fast pulse tone
* Wheel-Slip / Brake Warning (Sonalert) - 1.9 Khz continuous tone
* Conductor's Buzzer - 4.50 Khz continuous tone

This is probably one of the strangest searches in rr.net history lol. Thanks again!