Yesterday I was poking around by the port area in Wilmington NC. I could hear talk on the scanner; it was on an AAR frequency. But I could never hear any sounds of switching. No diesel noise, no sound of coupling. I saw nothing moving, but the majority of the facility is blocked from view by cuts of cars or other things.
I had noticed trackmobiles (if that's the right term for the small vehicles that industries can use to move a car or two) here and there. It made me wonder if non-railroad employees using a trackmobile communicate on the regular RR frequencies. Could that have been what I was hearing?
Still in training.
It's entirely possible.
There are almost 200 AAR channels/frequencies, the number having doubled with narrow-banding. If the plant operates a railroad, they may have requested and been assigned a channel.
Interoperability with their serving railroad would be a plus.
According to RadioReference.com, Wilmington Terminal operates on 160.320 MHz. Perhaps they service the plant.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
I believe that frequency is used by CSX. You may have been hearing radio transmissions that carried farther than the physical sounds of the activity.
Aliens, gotta be aliens
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.