Mail Bag, 10/05/1996

>From: INT:MNK@mass.es.hac.com
>
>Oh, well have a GREAT trip back!  Don't know if you watch the show
>Ellen, but she decided to give her parents a cross country trip
>on the Sunset Limited.  She went on to describe the train as having
>a smoking car, an observation deck, and other erroneous facts like
>how it stops in Las Vegas.
>
>Also, there was a TV movie Tuesday night on channel 4 which had
>a number of Amtrak trains shown in the beginning.

Mike,

I was watching a re-run of "Oh God, Book 2" with my kids the other day
and noticed a few minute seen of the George Burns and the child star in
the show walking through L.A. Union Station.  I wasn't into trains when
I saw the movie the first time a few years ago and did not recognize the
scene as being L.A. Union Station.

Also, in the second Steven Segal "Under Siege" movie, the entire movie
takes place on a train.  Even though the movie implies this is a regularly
scheduled cross-country train, of which Amtrak is the ONLY provider, this
is definitely not an Amtrak train.  I once read about the train that they
did use.  It is owned by one of the Hollywood movie studios and has been
used in many train movies.  It has also been rented out many times and
used in actual excursions.  I don't know if it would be good free publicity
for Amtrak if they made movie trains look more like Amtrak or not.  Most
recent movies with trains have featured either train crashes, kidnapping,
hi-jacking, or robberies.  I can't see how much good that would do to put
Amtrak's name on those trains!

I was thinking of running a contest and have people submit the names of
movies in which actual Amtrak trains appear.  I could then rent or buy
these tapes from a local video store and check our their claim.  I could
give out some sort of little prizes to those that contribute to this
trivia.  Maybe as a secondary contest, have people submit a list of
errors in either the depiction or statements about Amtrak made in the
movie, like what you noted above.

Steve Grande / steveg@sc.liberty.com / http://www.aho.com/amtrak.html

From: INT:rehvince@together.net                                 Msg#: 1075848

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the note. You might be interested to know that many business
travellers carry scanners to monitor the airline companies for the same
reasons you monitor the railroads.  They get the jump on everyone when
flights will be delayed, cancelled, whatever.  They use the scanner
strictly as a business tool, just like an electronic planner or cellphone.
You probably travel by air (when you have absolutely no other choice, of
course) and perhaps are already doing this.

Good luck,
Vince Reh

Vince,

That is interesting.  In the late 1970's, I actually took flying lessons.
I soloed a few times.  My instructor got hired by a freight airline and
I didn't get along too well with my new instructor (plus was running pretty
low on cash).  At that time I used to listen in to flight communications
quite often.  However, I found trying to listen to the side of the
communication from air-traffic control or from ground-control was almost
impossible unless I was right near the airport.  Listening to the pilots
was no problem at all.  I guess that was because the transmission antena
on the plane was a few thousand feet of the ground while the antena for
the transmissions from the ground was only about a foot high! I'll have
to remember your suggestion next time a take a flight, which is as seldom
as necessary.

I need to look over your book again.  I looked it over in detail when I
first purchased it and it gave me a great start in figuring out where to
find the channels that interested me.  There is some information that I,
as well as other rail travelers, would find extremely useful.  I don't
think it is in your book, but I might not have looked in the right way.
That is, I would really like a list of each Amtrak route and the frequencies
that are used milepost to milepost.  Tell me if I'm wrong, but I think the
frequency used is the same as that of the automatic reporting devices. At
least, that is how I find what frequency to tune to while I'm travelling.
I scan till I hit that "No Defects" announcement and then lock my scanner
there.  All communication between the Conductor, Engineer and Dispatchers
seem to occur on that same channel.  If there was a list of those channels
for each of the Amtrak routes, then Amtrak travellers would not have to
hunt them down on each trip.  Is it possible to derive this information
from your book?  If I could find it, I'd write it write on my train
schedule whenever I travelled so that I would know when to change channels.
The train operating staff seem to change channels seemlessly without ever
announcing that they are switching to another channel.  They obviously know
what channel to use for each segment of track and don't need to announce
the change.  The only clue I have that the frequency has changed is that
I haven't heard anything in a while.  I have to then start hunting around
again.

I've tried to publish on my "route" web pages the channels used along
each segment of an Amtrak route when I can figure it out, but my information
is far from complete.  Is it possible to derive this information, or does
it constantly change?  Also, is that the only frequency used on the train?
Usually when a Conductor goes walking through the train, I can hear that
his radio is on the same channel as mine.  But, when I'm not listening to
my radio and overhear the Conductors, it seems like their is talking
coming out of his radio almost non-stop.  When I'm listening on mine, the
communication between Conductor, Engineer and Dispatchers is far and few
between.  Is the Conductor listening to more than one channel at the same
time?  Are there other channels in use on the train or by other staff on
an Amtrak train other then the one channel that I'm used to hunting down?
If you have answers to any of this, it would sure go a long way to
satisfying my curiosity!

Thanks again for your info!

Steve Grande / steveg@sc.liberty.com / http://www.aho.com/amtrak.html