Ban on Cell Phones

[Guilford Guy]

Following MBTA's most recent ban, White River Southern Corporation has initiated a Ban on Cell Phones. This passed on Saturday, after an engineer sent a load of pulpwood, destined for De Lery Pulpwood Co. of Canaan NH, into the Canaan River.

[mudzuks]

it appears from the safety record of your engineer, it is not the cell phone that is the problem...

[jward]

a cell phone ban by railroaders on duty is going to come back and bite the railroads big time. here's why:

the officially sanctioned radio channels are not always available. especially on branch lines, or when a crew is enroute to their train, they may not be within reach of a radio repeater. if they need to get ahold of the dispatcher, they're just out of luck. especially in an emergency, the lack of radio contact could be fatal.....

when i worked for the railroad. we often got out form d, aka traack occupancy permit, via cell while we were enroute to our train. also, we could call the previous crew and find out just where they left the train, as they were still on duty when we left the yard office.

one afternoon, we were sent out to pick up a set of engines we'd derailed the day before on a dirt packed crossing on a little used passing track at mp 19. another crew had been called an hour ahead of us to take the daily train of empties out of the power plant at about mp35. they still had to put their train together, and we'd have had to sit and wait at least 2 hours for them to go by us, so we could follow them. instead, we called the dispatcher and got our permit before they could get theirs. we got our locomotive and ran light down the branch to mp 0 with them running about an hour behind us the whole way. both trains made it back to the home terminal that night. if we had waited until we got near a rapeater and gotten our form d over the radio, they'd have had to send another crew out to relieve us as we'd have never made it back within our 12 hours. the empty train just barely made it in......

[pdlethbridge]

Cell phone technology could be added to the engine and given limited use. Such to call tower, etc

[Guilford Guy]

Paul!
Way to go and comment on the geeps in the picture?
Doesn't the paint look familiar?

[JerryB]

GG:

Excellent staging, pictures, and posting of a contemporaneous model subject!!

In the 1:1 world, I am personally outraged that any RR employee responsible for the safety of his passengers is not able to understand and observe the rules surrounding his actions and duties. Unfortunately, the guy in the front often dies as a result of his indifferent attention to his duties, thus suffering the ultimate punishment, but escaping the vision of the carnage he was responsible for.

As to 'jward's' response, the point about using cell phones to enhance radio systems is well made. In fact, it would seem that cell phones might supplant dedicated railroad company radio based communications sometime in the future. It is also easy to envision a cell phone system that could 'see' whether the communications are / were to and from an 'approved' source, or to the operator's wife, or, worse yet, to a couple of interested teenaged railfans. The technology also exists to limit the call capability to selected recipients.

Happy RRing,
Jerry

[mudzuks]

On the more serious side here for a little money, a low power cell freq jammer could be installed in the cab. but it gripes me that the actions of the few affect the rights of many, lets just enforce zero tolerance. banning cell phones wont do anything because the people who ignore the rules IGNORE the rules and will sneak one on to use, they will just break two rules instead of one. we all know one or two of these people, the rules don't apply to them.

Jeff
P'S. There are two types of people in the world those who put the shopping cart in the cart rack and those who don't that little thing is a "tell" about your true character.

[pdlethbridge]

GG looks like the blood from your icon

[Guilford Guy]

The weight behind the gon stringlined it when we tried to pull the train around the 22" curve (before adding helpers). I went to get a pic with my phone, and my friend got a pic of me!
Paul... Hint... Substitute the red for blue.

[CNE Runner]

Here in Alabama it is not unusual to see a short lady, in a large SUV (think Hummer), backing up in a crowded parking lot - talking on her cellphone! I have seen folks breeze through a stop sign while...talking on their cellphone of course.

Ray

[JerryB]

On the more serious side here for a little money, a low power cell freq jammer could be installed in the cab. <snip>

Technically that is possible, but jamming any cellphone or in anyway interfering with or listening to a call is against federal law. That's one reason why there is an ongoing presence of illegally obtained cellphones in prisons and jails where prisoners are not allowed to have cellphones.

My company is currently developing a system to locate and report illicit cellphones, with the target market being prisons and other places where there is a security issue caused by cellphone use. Still, we can legally only report a cellphone's use and its location. We can not legally interfere with the call.

Jerry

[mudzuks]

There are exceptions that can be worked out with the FCC. and I believe it is legal to listen to any cell phone call. I believe the law allows you to listen but thats it and  that you can not relay what you hear to anyone or use the info in anyway. but then I have been out of the RF field for a number of years and things could have changed.

[the Bach-man]

Hey, GG!
My favorite cell phone story is the time you called Cory from the Springfield show- classic!
Best,
the Bach-man

[Guilford Guy]

Hey, GG!
My favorite cell phone story is the time you called Cory from the Springfield show- classic!
Best,
the Bach-man

I thought that was the Marlboro. Regardless, that was indeed an interesting conversation!
Me with cellphones could certainly fill a book.

[Stephen D. Richards]

There are exceptions that can be worked out with the FCC. and I believe it is legal to listen to any cell phone call. I believe the law allows you to listen but that's it and  that you can not relay what you hear to anyone or use the info in anyway. but then I have been out of the RF field for a number of years and things could have changed.

mudzuks,  it is true that things can be worked out with the FCC but it is illegal to listen in on "cell" phones without a search warrent!  I may be new to model railroading but very experienced with the law.  You can listen in and report (i.e. prosecute) for anything that is heard over cordless phones.  As most know, two different technologies here.  Cell phones are treated just like landlines without the cordless version.    Hope that sheds a little light.    Stephen