[ARC5] Train Radio Question

[Richard Knoppow]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Eleazer" <releazer at earthlink.net>
To: <arc5 at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2012 4:01 PM
Subject: [ARC5] Train Radio Question


> Here is a question about something I have wondered about 
> for over 20 years.
>
> When I lived near Alexandria, VA (not far from where 
> Gordon used to live on Kings Highway, in fact) every night 
> the phone would give out a couple of ding dings.  It was 
> not a full ring, and it varied a bit as to time, usually 
> within 30 min of 2000 hours.  I gradually realized I could 
> hear a train going by, on the other side of I-95 where the 
> tracks ran, every time the phone did its little ring.
>
> I moved to Florida, hooked up the same phone at the house, 
> and had the same exact thing happen, although at a 
> different time of the day.  I could hear a train going by, 
> way over on the other side of the river.  This continued 
> until I replaced the phone.
>
> I can only conclude that the phone was somehow sensitive 
> to RFI from the radios used by the trains.
>
> Anyone ever have something similar occur?  Is there 
> something strange about train comm radios or do they for 
> some reason roll down the track broadcasting an RF signal?
>
> By the way, if you want to read about a really horrible - 
> and rather stupid - train wreck, look up Graniteville, SC.
>
> Wayne

     You may have been getting leakage from the signaling or 
block system.  Many, if not all, railroads have some form of 
automatic block system where the signals sense the trains by 
means of current going through the track.  When a train 
comes into the block the signals are set to prevent other 
trains from entering it especially from the other end. If 
the ringer on your phone was sensitive enough it might have 
responded to impulses induced into the wires from the 
current in the tracks.

     How long before the train arrived did the bell tinkle?

--
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles
WB6KBL
dickburk at ix.netcom.com