• CSX radio towers

  • Discussion of the operations of CSX Transportation, from 1980 to the present. Official site can be found here: CSXT.COM.
Discussion of the operations of CSX Transportation, from 1980 to the present. Official site can be found here: CSXT.COM.

Moderator: MBTA F40PH-2C 1050

  by dummy
 
does anyone know where all the radio towers are at in western ny along the chicago line ? i know there in rochester, batavia and i think in lyons but are there others? i hear the dispachers complaining about bad transmissions alot. just wondered how far apart these towers are.

  by clearblock
 
The NF Dispatcher towers are:

Jordan
Lyons
Palmyra
Rochester
Batavia
Wende

This is about 20 miles apart and should work fine if the Dispatcher selects the closest tower. Palmyra (CP349) was added several years ago to fill in some dead areas between Rochester and Lyons.

I have heard that the Dispatchers are complaining about getting "stepped on" by trains calling signals and by the Dispatchers in adjacent territories. It is rumored that CSX is considering a "2 frequency" system for this area where train to dispatcher transmissions would be on a separate channel so the Dispatcher does not have to contend with all the Road channel radio traffic.

  by cifn2
 
in the IL subdivision it is the same way, they will ring up the dispatcher right over the top of maintenance crews talking on what should be simplex instead of talking on repeater frequencies. The system is perhaps outdated and needs redesigned.

  by shacnuf62089
 
aren't there like three or four rochester bases? i thought i read somewhere that there is.

  by sd80mac
 
clearblock wrote:The NF Dispatcher towers are:

This is about 20 miles apart and ...
dont u meant 20 miles range? these locations are about 30-35 miles apart. (Except for Palmyra. yeah it's dead spot, I have no connection for my data in that area with T-mobile. So it make sense to have tower in palmyra)

Jordan 306
Lyons 335
Palmyra 350
Rochester 370 (west of yard)
Batavia 406 (west of yard)

Milepost DOES NOT REFER to the tower locations. It's just referring to location of towns/cities

  by clearblock
 
shacnuf62089 wrote:aren't there like three or four rochester bases? i thought i read somewhere that there is.
The Rochester Sub (NF Dispatcher) has the 6 base locations I listed.

sd80mac - Yes, mileage between towers can be greater depending on the terrain. The Rochester - Batavia and Jordan-Lyons gaps are wider than normal for most areas now. The Batavia and Lyons and Rochester bases cover a fairly wide area. Palmyra was added to fill that dead spot when there was more need to communicate with portable radios. FRA regulations for track worker protection led most railroads to add base locations to get more reliable coverage from systems originally designed only to reach locomotive radios.

Back in the early Penn Central days, when the Rochester East End, West
End and Falls Road Dispatchers were in the basement of the Rochester Station, a base on Bristol Mountain with a VHF link to Rochester was the primary coverage for the whole area. The wayside bases were added to replace Bristol as dispatching was consolidated to Buffalo and then Selkirk.

In most areas it is generally now about 20 mile spacing like Lyons-Palmyra-Rochester.

For example, the Mohawk Sub is Amsterdam-Fort Plain-Little Falls-Utica-Oneida-Syracuse which averages out close to every 20 miles. The Lakeshore Sub is Seneca-Angola-Dunkirk-Ripley-Erie.

Like they say "your mileage may vary" .

  by sd80mac
 
clearblock wrote:
sd80mac - Yes, mileage between towers can be greater depending on the terrain.

Like they say "your mileage may vary" .
geez! I wasn't thinking right. I was thinking of TRACK MILEAGE... not the STRAIGHT line between 2 towers which can be easily 20 or so miles apart...

thanks for clarify.

  by dummy
 
well, i know there is a problem with communication in this area.. the dispatcher is always upset over not being able to reach the trains. clearly something needs to be done.