Driving train while on a mobile - is this allowed?

[Grantham]

Ahhh...found a pic of the phone mounted (badly) in an older engine, an 80 class ALCo, 8050. Photo taken in Kandos yard, about 120 mountainous rail miles from Sydney, and about 60 miles from the nearest mobile reception. Hence the satphone function!

There are other radios and things too. There are two handhelds on different frequencies, a WB (open channel VHF), a variable channel VHF with different yard frequencies, and a "Countrynet" a discrete channel for talking to train control.

No, I never use more than any two at a time!

Hope this of interest.

 

[TDK]

And here is a cab of a 168

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rpmarks/2851378601/

 

[Grantham]

And here is a cab of a 168

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rpmarks/2851378601/

Ta, always interesting to look at another bloke's office.

GSM phone: operates like a mobile telephone in the cab?

Mick

P.S.: The 80 class is an older cab, not the usual office.

 

[DownSouth]

GSM-R is a purpose-designed railway communication standard that is part of ERTMS, of which voice communication is only the start. It has very little to do with a GSM mobile phone outside some of the core technology behind how signals are transmitted/received.

You might learn about it at some point in the not too distant future, RailCorp has contracted UGL Infrastructure to implement it.

 

[LCC106]

The highlight of one trip on the Circumvesuviana railway in Italy for me one year was when the driver allowed my Dad and I to stand at the door and watch him driving on our trip to (Herculaneum? Could have been Pompeii).

Off duty railway staff were in and out of the cab for the duration of their own journeys, plenty of coffee was being drunk, there were passionate debates, flailing arms and so on. Just added to the enjoyment of learning about driving on the Circumvesuviana. I'm sure UK H&S / HMRI would be having kittens!

@TDK Thanks for the insight in to the cab of a 168. Really interesting.

 

[Grantham]

GSM-R is a purpose-designed railway communication standard that is part of ERTMS, of which voice communication is only the start. It has very little to do with a GSM mobile phone outside some of the core technology behind how signals are transmitted/received.

You might learn about it at some point in the not too distant future, RailCorp has contracted UGL Infrastructure to implement it.

The ICE radio? It still works as a mobile phone! I might as well add to my dislike of acronyms...

I don't know what ICE stands for, nor ERTMS, so I can hardly comment. I imagine that they are both part of the machine that stops a locomotive from being a machine that hauls a train and turns it into a software bunny to simplify safeworking by reducing staff and making it even more complicated than the current radio systems, hence the reason we use the mobile phone to talk to sinalboxes and train control!

Mick

(Software, bah humbug!)

For the replies to the above post that went on to discuss TPWS see http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=57741

 

[O L Leigh]

GSM-R works on mobile phone technology but it is NOT a mobile phone. It is a cab-to-shore radio system that allows certain additional functionality, including cab-to-cab (useful for some assistance scenarios) and calling other railway numbers. It will eventually replace the National Radio Network (NRN) and Cab Secure Radio (CSR) systems. ALL calls are recorded, as is the standard with railway communication by phone and radio, and the only party who is even likely to be calling in to the cab would be the signaller.

We already use this system on Cl379s and it's impact and use is exactly the same as the CSR system it replaces. It is nothing like having a mobile phone on in the cab.

ERTMS is the European Rail Traffic Management System that is intended to standardise signalling and communication systems across Europe which will ease cross-border rail operations. It has a number of different levels from simply providing an automatic train protection function in conjunction with existing lineside signalling all the way up to being a full-blown in-cab signalling system of the type used by the French and German high-speed rail networks.

O L Leigh

 

[michael769]

And here is a cab of a 168

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rpmarks/2851378601/

Foot warmer??????

 

[RPM]

Foot warmer??????

Apparently so, but I've never known one that actually works. I'm not convinced the button is actually connected to anything!