WIRELESS FOR TRAINS

Evening Star, Issue 19660, 13 September 1927, Page 13

WIRELESS FOR TRAINS

AN AMERICAN DEPARTURE A brakeman sitting in a caboose of a freight train and an engineer in the cab of a locomotive a mile and a quarter down tho track talked to one another by radio at Schenectady, New York, on June 16, as easily as two persons carry on a conversation by ordinary telephone. The tests were made by engineers of tbo General Electric Company. Transmission was on a short wave length and low' power, to avoid interference with broadcast reception, Says a report issued by the electric company:— “Caboose and engine carried identical apparnli.s—a transmitter and a receiver. BuGi locomotive and caboose wore equipped with a double antenna, ono for transmitting and the other for receiving. Communication was established at either end of the train by tho simple act of removing a receiver and pressing a button. Tho pressure of the button called the other station by causing a howling sound in the reproducer or loud-speaker at the receiving end.

“ The test demonstrated that communication may bo ■ carried_ on with comparative ease on a moving train. Radio communication, according to railroad men, will be most valuable, particularly on trains consisting of 70 to 125 cars. On such trains the engineer and conductor are separated by nearly a mile of cars, and there is no positive means of communication between them. Signals are usually exchanged by means of whistle or flare lights, which often fail from curvature of the tracks or weather conditions. Should a defect develop on these long trains, the conductor must either send a brakeman over the top of the train or stop tho train by operating the con-ductor-valve, cither of which would cause a. delay. “ Radio-communication,_ as provided by those sets, gives a positive means of instant communication, and will materially expedite train movement on main lines as well as in the yards. “ A sufficient number of sets have been constructed to permit road demonstrations of communication between the engine and caboose of long trains, communication between near-by fixed points (such as the signal tower) and the locomotive engineer or conductor, and communication between the yardmaster and tho locomotives used in making up a train in large classification yards.”