Southern Tier - West of Binghamton

Is NS using ATCS west of Binghamton?

SteelRail wrote:Is NS using ATCS west of Binghamton?

If you mean CTC, then the answer is yes.

Matt Langworthy wrote:

SteelRail wrote:Is NS using ATCS west of Binghamton?

If you mean CTC, then the answer is yes.

Any idea what frequencies NS is using for ATCS? I'm monitoring 897.9375 and 936.9375, but not receiving any data.

When you say ATCS, do you mean "automatic train control?" If so, then I do not believe it is being used yet. Others could fill you in better than me.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone on the board here!

Charlie

To my knowledge, NS is not using ATCS on the Tier. It was talked about on the ATCS email group.

Yes it is. I have seen it in use, but I don't have the numbers on hand.

By ATCS he's referring to data off of CTC systems which can be decoded:

http://www.atcsmon.com/

cr9615 wrote:By ATCS he's referring to data off of CTC systems which can be decoded:

http://www.atcsmon.com/

Correct. Noting that the old codeline is not connected to the new signals and switches, data has to be getting to them somehow. I was just hoping it was in a way that can be monitored and decoded. I'm not seeing any antennas on the new equipment, however. Just how is the signal getting to the new installations?

Well there will be 30 natural gas rigs plus support materials shipping by rail in January and there is virtually no room "at the inn." This is going to get logistically interesting.

Interesting. Where are they headed -- Towanda or Wellsboro? And are they all coming at the same time or over the course of the month? With the end of drags to Dresden isn't the Baker Street siding available to help out?

Poppyl

Here's NS train 13T approaching Fuller Road just west of Silver Springs--12:15 PM today (12/27/10)

9750 leading with ex-Conrail 8457 in tow.

Charlie

And 35-40 minutes later, 23K rounds the curve headed toward Buffalo at the same location! 9810 is the leader here.....

Charlie

Heads up Corning!
EMD leaser sitting at the Dresden Powerplant, Corning secondary, 1-1-11.





GMTX 9053
EMD SD60
Dresden NY
January 1, 2011
Scot Lawrence

Her companion is NS 6664, also a standard cab SD60!
Looks like they were laid up for the night..
the EMD unit is facing south, so she will be in the lead when they head back down to Corning..probably Sunday or Monday..

Scot

In the late nineties, just prior to the Conrail Split, I got a chance to ride Conrail's OCS from Binghamton to Hornell and back. On that trip were two signal maintainers based out of Hornell. They both commented on the semaphores as we passed them between Binghamton and Waverly, acknowledging that they had provided nearly ninety years of continuous service to that piece of railroad. Once we reached Waverly, and the start of single track, one of the maintainers mentioned that the new (7 or 8 years old then) signal system west of Waverly was far less complicated from an infrastructure standpoint than the system east of Waverly. He stated that all the code to drive the signals was carried by two wires (I assume buried along the ROW). East of Waverly still required a pole line carrying multiple wires required to power the lineside cabinets full of mechanical relays that controlled the signals aspects.

The way the maintainer described the modern signal system sounded a lot like the way DCC works in model railroading. Every data packet for any given signal and its aspect is broadcast down the entire length of the code line (those two wires) on the ROW. Each data packet starts with the address of the signal it is meant for. The signals only pay attention to data packets matching their own individual addresses (like decoders in DCC equipped model locomotives). I do not know if the code line also provides the power for the signals or that is fed in locally.

If any portion of the Southern Tier is using ATCS*, it's probably only the newest system on the now single track portion between Waverly and Binghamton. I don't imagine it would be worth the expenditure to upgrade a relatively new (in railroad terms) system west of Waverly.

*Edit to original post:
The above was written based on the assumption that the ATCS being asked about was code being broadcast over radio that can be monitored with a scanner and ATCSmon. A little research revealed that the system west of Waverly could very well be driven by ATCS code, just not via radio broadcast. The earliest versions of AAR's ATCS Specification look to have been developed in the late '80s/early '90s.

JDFCLK96 wrote:.....I do not know if the code line also provides the power for the signals or that is fed in locally.

Near all the signals I have seen on the new stretch have their own poles for utilities. I don't think it is a stretch to say they rely on the grid for primary power.