(Paiging all experts)What was a defect detector?

[Anonymous]

I have heard some talk relating to trian watching(in the recent forum about How do you Know a Train is Coming), and these show up in Train Simulator. But What is a defect detector.

[CopCarSS]

Not an expert...but...

It's a piece of equipment that sits railside and moitors trains that go past it. It's looking for things liek hotboxes. After the train passes, an automated voice relays information to the crew such as train speed, axle count, number of defects, etc. When one goes off (you can hear them on your scanner) you know there is a train in your vicinity.

[Anonymous]

Where can you get a scanner do you just need a raio reciver.
James[C):-)]

[Anonymous]

You need more than just an AM/FM (or even shortwave) receiver. For example, commercial FM radio runs up to about 105 Megahertz, but most train communications in the US and Canada are in the 159-161 MHz range, and there are literally hundreds of channels available in that narrow range! Another important frequency is up in the 400s, where most RR's channel their robot-loco communications.

I paid about eighty bucks for an entry-level scanner from Radio Shack. All scanners bring in pretty much the same frequency (a long slide of Megahertzes, except cell-phone channels are forbidden). However, not all scanners are equally easy to use. My Radio Shack I am prograrmming in very, very slowly because the standard scanning in that range skips over frequencies between about 150 to 200 MHz. They're there, but they have to be programmed in; the radio never stops on those signals however strong. It's a pain in the butt!

You could spend several hundred dollars on a weather-resistant Motorola, or pick one up at a yard sale for cheap. There is even a sales website with a name scanners dot com or something very similar. I recommend a handheld model, and most experts advise that you'll probably want to equip the unit with a better and longer antenna than the one that came standard.

There's nothing at all occult or illegal about owning and using a scanner. Now, if you equipped a walkie-talkie to listen AND BROADCAST in the railroad bands, that would be illegal -- and very dumb in today's security-conscious climate.

Let us know how things proceed, will ya?

allen

[Anonymous]

Oh, and by the way, [#oops] you can impress your friends by telling them that the chief reason freight trains no longer need cabooses is because the defect detectors do the job that the end-of-train crew used to.

[nanaimo73]

In the 1980's they had a 3 digit sign on a post that would light up if there was a defect and show the axle number for the guys in the caboose. When cabeese disappeared it was easier to convert these to radios rather than teach Fred to read.

James-Most of these are to detect hot boxes, but many detect dragging equipment.

[DPD1]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Lotus098

Where can you get a scanner do you just need a raio reciver.
James[C):-)]

Look up BC92XLT on Amazon or someplace... That's a good starter radio that will do the RR band.

Dave
-DPD Productions - Featuring the NEW TrainTenna LP Gain RR Scanner Antenna-
http://eje.railfan.net/dpdp/

[Anonymous]

Hey, who knows more than railfans? DPD1, I took your advice and just ordered a Bearcat 9 2XLT from scanners-r-us dot com.

Looking forward to significantly less frustration!

Your friend,
Al Smalling

a/k/a smalling_60626

[mudchicken]

The defect detectors include:
(1) Dragging equipment/ :Draggers" paddles the length of the ties
(2) Thermal/ InfraRed Scanners: Hot wheels/ Hot boxes/hot axles
(3) Passive Wheel scanners (box along the rail): looks for heat and electrical differential
(4) Shifted load
(5)High/Wide/Clearance (electronic version of a tell-tale)
(6) High Water
(7) Rockslide/ slide fence
(8) wheel impact

....all talk to you, some you rarely hear tell you speed, location and ambient temperature as well...I do a double take every time I hear and odd number axle count.

[joegreen]

I've had a scanner for 3 years and very few trains on the BNSF have defects.The detector near me only say "No defects ,repeat No defects" other than that only a few times has it sayed integrity failure.Once in awhile an eastbound train will be moving on a siding to let the train behind pass and the train behind will hit a few red signals before the line is clear.The train will be moving slow enough that the detector can't count the axles and the detector says "train too slow".Some train crews must miss what the detector says and they dial a number and the detector repeat the ax;e count.

[morseman]

Will defect detectors indicate strapping wire that has come loose
from a load of lumber or similar load & is flapping in the wind?

[dehusman]

Not unless its a wide load detector or the material is hanging under the car and its a dragging equipment detector.

Dave H.

[DPD1]

QUOTE: Originally posted by smalling_60626

Hey, who knows more than railfans? DPD1, I took your advice and just ordered a Bearcat 9 2XLT from scanners-r-us dot com.

I'm sure you'll like it. The nice thing about that one is that it has the preprogrammed RR band search. Unidens also have a nice fast scan rate.

Dave
-DPD Productions - Featuring the NEW TrainTenna LP Gain RR Scanner Antenna-
http://eje.railfan.net/dpdp/

[Anonymous]

Thanks again for the thumbs-up!

Al