Northern Berkshire County Railroad Operations

Northern Berkshire Rail Ops feed monitoring Berkshire & Eastern (formerly Pan Am Southern) and Berkshire Scenic Railway radio chatter in the North Adams, MA area.

This feed currently uses a DPD Productions TrainTenna with a USB software defined radio module, broadcasting from a Raspberry Pi 4B using RTLSDR-Airband. Antenna elevation: 1103 ft ASL / 13 ft AGL.

Monitored frequencies

Receiver 1:

• Berkshire & Eastern Patriot Corridor Railroad Operations – 161.25 MHz
• Berkshire & Eastern Patriot Corridor Dispatcher – 160.98 MHz
• Berkshire & Eastern Maintenance of Way – 161.235 MHz
• Berkshire Scenic Railway / Zylonite Operations/Dispatcher – 161.40 MHz
  On certain days, this channel picks up switching comms at the Holland plant ("Zylonite") and Specialty Minerals in Adams, MA, usually corresponding with AD-1 or an Extra taking chemicals and lime between Adams and East Deerfield.

Most chatter occurs between operators and the Berkshire & Eastern (B&E) dispatcher when trains are being held on the siding at North Adams for other rail traffic heading to or coming from the Hoosac Tunnel. Other transmissions occur during switching in the Adams yards or between the Adams Spur and the main line. Trains passing through the defect detector will often sanity-check the detector on the road channel. Detector transmissions are clearer from late fall to spring when the leaves are off, although this may improve with a tuned antenna. Transmissions are sparse but usually occur multiple times per day.

These feeds are still in development, so it will take some time to fine-tune the gain and squelch values. Some transmissions may be garbled in the meantime.

Defect detectors heard

• PAR detector milepost 424.4 (161.25 MHz) – reports defects, train length, and speed. Initial transmission when triggered by the lead axle is weaker than the final transmission at the end after the last axle, and may be garbled especially during daytime.

Commonly heard terms

• "B&E" or "B&E dispatch" – the dispatcher
• "CPF [number]" or "milepost [number]" – Reference point near or at the milepost number specified. CPF locations are usually used to refer to places along the B&E line where double track is used to hold trains for passing traffic. For example, North Adams has a ~2 mile long double track section with two CPFs: CPF 421 near the Hoosac Tunnel west portal, and CPF 423 near the center of the town of North Adams. Other frequently referenced locations include CPF 415 (double track near the Hoosac Tunnel East Portal), milepost 424.4 (North Adams defect detector), milepost 429 (near the Steinerfilm campus in Williamstown, MA), and CPF 445 (double track siding in Hoosick Junction, NY). For reference, see the FRA milepost map.
• "Form DG" – Required paperwork for the transport of dangerous goods
• "B100" / "B101" – Daily train between Mechanicville, NY and Ayer, MA yards
• "EDMO" / "MOED" – Daily westbound/eastbound trains between the East Deerfield, MA and Mechanicville, NY yards
• "EDRJ" / "RJED" – Daily westbound/eastbound trains between East Deerfield and Rotterdam Junction, NY
• "AD-1" – Weekly industrial transport bringing chemical cars and empties to Adams and hauling lime or chemicals from Adams to the East Deerfield yard
• "Deerfield Extra" – Occasional additional transport of either lime or chemical products from Adams to East Deerfield
• "dispatcher" – The person responsible for coordinating and communicating instructions to the train crew. Named when communicating Form DG instructions to foremen ("dispatcher is [last name]").
• "foreman" – The person responsible for supervising either road or maintenance operations. Usually named in Form DG communications ("foreman is [last name]").
• "track car" — Road-rail vehicle operated by a track maintenance foreman