CSX radio towers

does anyone know where all the radio towers are at in western ny along the chicago line ? i know there in rochester, batavia and i think in lyons but are there others? i hear the dispachers complaining about bad transmissions alot. just wondered how far apart these towers are.

The NF Dispatcher towers are:

Jordan
Lyons
Palmyra
Rochester
Batavia
Wende

This is about 20 miles apart and should work fine if the Dispatcher selects the closest tower. Palmyra (CP349) was added several years ago to fill in some dead areas between Rochester and Lyons.

I have heard that the Dispatchers are complaining about getting "stepped on" by trains calling signals and by the Dispatchers in adjacent territories. It is rumored that CSX is considering a "2 frequency" system for this area where train to dispatcher transmissions would be on a separate channel so the Dispatcher does not have to contend with all the Road channel radio traffic.

in the IL subdivision it is the same way, they will ring up the dispatcher right over the top of maintenance crews talking on what should be simplex instead of talking on repeater frequencies. The system is perhaps outdated and needs redesigned.

aren't there like three or four rochester bases? i thought i read somewhere that there is.

clearblock wrote:The NF Dispatcher towers are:

This is about 20 miles apart and ...

dont u meant 20 miles range? these locations are about 30-35 miles apart. (Except for Palmyra. yeah it's dead spot, I have no connection for my data in that area with T-mobile. So it make sense to have tower in palmyra)

Jordan 306
Lyons 335
Palmyra 350
Rochester 370 (west of yard)
Batavia 406 (west of yard)

Milepost DOES NOT REFER to the tower locations. It's just referring to location of towns/cities

shacnuf62089 wrote:aren't there like three or four rochester bases? i thought i read somewhere that there is.

The Rochester Sub (NF Dispatcher) has the 6 base locations I listed.

sd80mac - Yes, mileage between towers can be greater depending on the terrain. The Rochester - Batavia and Jordan-Lyons gaps are wider than normal for most areas now. The Batavia and Lyons and Rochester bases cover a fairly wide area. Palmyra was added to fill that dead spot when there was more need to communicate with portable radios. FRA regulations for track worker protection led most railroads to add base locations to get more reliable coverage from systems originally designed only to reach locomotive radios.

Back in the early Penn Central days, when the Rochester East End, West
End and Falls Road Dispatchers were in the basement of the Rochester Station, a base on Bristol Mountain with a VHF link to Rochester was the primary coverage for the whole area. The wayside bases were added to replace Bristol as dispatching was consolidated to Buffalo and then Selkirk.

In most areas it is generally now about 20 mile spacing like Lyons-Palmyra-Rochester.

For example, the Mohawk Sub is Amsterdam-Fort Plain-Little Falls-Utica-Oneida-Syracuse which averages out close to every 20 miles. The Lakeshore Sub is Seneca-Angola-Dunkirk-Ripley-Erie.

Like they say "your mileage may vary" .

clearblock wrote:
sd80mac - Yes, mileage between towers can be greater depending on the terrain.

Like they say "your mileage may vary" .

geez! I wasn't thinking right. I was thinking of TRACK MILEAGE... not the STRAIGHT line between 2 towers which can be easily 20 or so miles apart...

thanks for clarify.

well, i know there is a problem with communication in this area.. the dispatcher is always upset over not being able to reach the trains. clearly something needs to be done.