[Scan-DC] Rail Frequencies: Derailment in Bowie Shuts Down Traffic

[b_thom at juno.com]

The local TV stations are showing footage of a freight train derailment
in Bowie, Maryland, on their pre-dawn "news" shows. A few hoppers of a
114-car train derailed and knocked down some of the supports that hold up
the overhead wiring, aka catenary. There were no injuries. 

The train involved is surely the Morgantown coal train, which takes unit
coal trains to and hauls away the empties from the power plant at
Morgantown, Maryland. I believe it originates at Benning Yard in DC. That
line diverges from the old Conrail main line, now owned by CSX, at Bowie.
This line is used by MARC for its Penn Line service, and it is part of
Amtrak's northeast corridor as well.

With all the maintenance crews in place, there should be some radio
traffic. I think the predominant frequency for freight traffic is the old
Conrail frequency of 160.800 MHz but maintenance and other crews will
probably be using additional frequencies.

Try these to see if anything is happening; the two-digit numbers are the
AAR channel numbers.

     46	160.800	Conrail road 1 (AAR channel 46)
     58	160.980	CSX PBX
     68	161.130	Conrail PBX, maintenance
     77	161.265	CSX PBX, Baltimore-Martinsburg

If you search between AAR channel 7, 160.215 MHz, and AAR channel 97,
161.565 MHz, you'll hear everything; those are the lower and highest
frequencies in general use.