Lancaster County Rail

Listen	Feed	Genre	Listeners	Player Selection	Links	Status
	Lancaster County Rail Includes Strasburg Railroad/Amtrak Keystone Service/Norfolk Southern/Shortlines.	Rail	3			Online

Feed Notes

"First Sound" 6/10/2012 --- Thankx, RR.C!

Pennsylvania Counties served - Lancaster, with some Lebanon Co.(Norfolk Southern), Berks(Reading & Northern), York & Chester Co.(SEPTA). Some Harrisburg action, as well(Enola Yard, etc.), which I will cut if it infringes on the Harrisburg feed(Just tell me - no sense in duplication.). "Midway" between Harrisburg and Philadelphia, the plan is that this "Dutch Country" feed will compliment/extend feeds from these cities.

Future - May try to interest a local ham club in putting this at a high elevation repeater site(If we can deal with the high "local" RFI.)..?

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A selection of the 30 or so freqs. that are "in there" at the moment. I have locked-out all "rail police" freqs. If something big happens, will try to "unlock" them for the duration of an event.

161.235 - Strasburg Railroad - SRC("The Road to Paradise"), every day at about 10AM. The 'cue' is" "SRC 90 radio check"(Or whatever # engine/s are on duty today - you'll often hear the bell ringing on the big steam engine!). If you hear SRC 10 check-in(Often on low tourist days in the off-season.) that's the most historic piece of gear on the SRC roster! This gorgeous, wood-sided, "gas powered car", was built by/for the Lancaster Oxford and Southern, long ago. Recently restored BY the SRC, #10 is a great treat to ride when you get the chance. Thomas the Tank Engine lives here(And was built here!). Check the SRC website for dates of operation.

160.635 - Cork Tower, is the Lancaster Amtrak tower, directing all operations on the line in the area(Including Keystone Service Amtrak.) - right next to the "being restored" Lancaster city station. The "Lititz Local"(My favorite!) will be heard here, as will the "New Holland" local, and the Kellogg's Corn Flake Plant switcher(Last I knew, a "ham" drove it! We have chatted on 2 mtrs., while he was waiting for clearence.), as it operates up near Salunga...

160.980 - The "on the move"(Literally, being moved down the road a piece.) Lancaster Yard Ops.(Plus other area uses) are here. You gotta' think - Moving the tracks will be almost easy compared to carrying all those cars and engines down to the new yard, ey? When it happens, this I gotta' see!

160.935 - East Penn Railroad Ops. - Lancaster Northern(Runs between Ephrata & Sinking Spring.). Manheim(I live very near Manheim and I have no idea where it runs..? Maybe between NS and the gas company?), Octoraro(Inhabits part of the former "Little, Old & Slow".). Wilmington & Northern(Maybe?) and York Industrial Track(Maybe?) are other EP RR's that may be heard here(Or not.).

160.485 - Landisville Railroad(Maybe?) - It's name is longer than it's track - but we'll listen for it just the same.

160.335/160.695/160.500/151.370/160.935(Hard to say? Ghosts?) - The Maryland & Pennsylvania is no more, but some of the tracks(And several Ma & Pa boxcars!) are still in use around York/Hanover, by... York Rail/East Penn(?). Freqs. are still "listed" in places, so they are "in there"(Hate to giveup a RR!).

160.800/161.235, Gettysburg Railway(? Shared with others)... A York or Adams Co. feed would get these, fine! We'll never hear GR from my place...

160.470/160.770/161.310 - Reading & Northern(Berks Co. & "up" into the coal country), Port Clinton area, Dispatch/Headquarters is coming in strong!

160.605 - West Chester Railroad - A great little tourist line, that uses Septa trackage that Septa is not currently using. Lots of "weird/unusual/seldom seen" engines on the property. Great place for a "Rail Fan/Family Expedition"! The Bar-B-Q place, just down from the beautiful Glen Mills Station, is g-o-o-d!

161.070 and alot of other frequencies - Norfolk Southern - In 2012 celebrating 30 years of combined Norfolk & Western and Southern Railway operations. I've twice ridden fan trips behind Juniata Terminal's restored Pennsy E8's over the NS. S-m-o-o-t-h trackwork! Smooth, Tuscan Red, 5-striper, EMD's, too! Most of the v-e-r-y heavy freight traffic, you'll hear on this freq.), is on the Harrisburg to Allentown "Main Line", just north of our scanner, in Lebanon Co.

Septa - Will post once reliable frequencies are set. Should hear some of Septa's(Western side - Downingtown/Thorn) R5 operations(Listen Thursday afternoons to hear if they still throw the Amtrak Paycheck bag off the train at Thorn Tower..?), as well as SEPTA MOW frequencies, which may impact Amtraks' Keystone Service on the ol' Pennsy Main Line, at times?

???.??? Wilmington & Western(Tourist Railroad) - Anyone know if they have a radio frequency? I have an email in to them but no response, yet.

Other frequencies/antennas/receivers/locations may be tried - be warned, but not afraid...

Gear of the moment - Kenwood 271A, 2 meter rig. After several years of hard mobile service, the finals "kicked", but the receive side still works fine. A "rescued"(From a ham friends back yard weeds.) Cushcraft collinear, sort've restored(Base at 24', + 12 or so more ' to the top.) is serving as the first antenna(Likely of many to come.). The rig runs through a big old gel cell, fed with a small charger at all times, so it gets "clean DC", at least... This and a battery-powered laptop will give us "instant" UPS! Software is running on an old custom-built(Built to be cheap as possible and still work!), Celeron/XP Home desktop. Yes, AVG is "disabled"..!

Fling me an email(Nothing else!) with any questions/suggestions/comments/additions - and especially --- corrections...

Teddy G., KA3BHQ

PS 1 - Getting a bad, intermittent, "noise" on some freq's, at some times of the day(Mostly v-e-r-y early AM.). Have squelch at 9 to combat it. Without the noise I can run squelch at 1. Any ideas? I will continue to try to trace it down.

PS 2 - Anyone with thoughts on running this feed through a "mild "comp/limiter..? ...I'm listening...