The American Association of Railroads has assigned channel numbers to each of 96 radio frequencies in the 160-161 MegaHertz bands. These frequencies are used in the United States and Canada. Channels 7-96 are used in the U.S. for railroad operations. Channels 2-6 are used in Canada for rail operations only. In the U.S. channels 3-6 are used by railroads for truck operations.

Scanner Radios are available that have: 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 300 and even more pre-storable channels. These are internal channels that the user can select frequency, after which the frequency is permanently stored in that channel.

For railroad scanning: 20 channels is usually adequate, but 100 channels is much more flexible since then the 96 frequencies can be pre-set. 200 channels adds even more flexibility as the 96 frequencies can be pre-set, and other banks frequencies for particular areas can be pre-set.

But often the antenna that comes with the scanner is hardly better than no antenna, particularly inside a steel vehicle or in an area of poor reception such as a city, valley, dense forest, and so on. The best way to improve the performance of your scanner is to improve the antenna you use.

Although convenient to use, rubber duckies and base station whips are short, not optimized for railroad frequencies and cannot be moved to the best position without moving the scanner. Longer antennas, adjustable whips, and a wall-mounted antenna can be a major improvement.

Rubber duckies are actually a coil of wire used to effectively lengthen the electronic length of an antenna without increasing it's physical length "loading coils" . The electronic length of an antenna is critical to it's performance, but only a variable length antenna is correct for many different frequency bands. So one important improvement over rubber duckies is an adjustable whip, usually with a small loading coil near the bottom. Antennas of this type which will connect directly to scanners are available at Radio Shack and many electronic supply shops.

To tune an adjustable whip the following formula governs:

Correct length (inches) = 2,800 / frequency in MegaHertz
Note: "/" means divide

Conrail's main frequency, roughly in the middle of the railroad band:

Example: length = 2800 / 160.800 = 17.4

A 17.4 inch antenna will optimize reception. Note that this is a "quarter-wave" antenna, which one quarter of the wavelength for that frequency. Quarter-wave 17.4 inch antenna will work across the entire Channel Range.

To improve performance by using a "ground plane". Without a ground an antenna cannot work well. Good ground planes are:

• Flat Metallic Objects
• Earth Grounding

  handheld Scanner: the best position for scanner is on a metallic object such as an vehicle hood or roof, roadside guardrail, or pipeline standpipe. Obviously the scanner should be removed from any sort of leather case and the plastic case of the radio reduces the effect but doesn't eliminate it.

There are several sources for lists of frequencies used by North American railroads.

• Compendium of American Railroad Radio Frequencies: Kalmbach Publishing.
• California Timetables 20 is available from: Altamont Press
• Scanning Reference

Auto Train is the o service in the United States, which enablingrail passengers to take along automibles, small van, or motorcycle when traveling the east coast. Passengers ride in either wide coach seats or private first-class sleeping compartments while their vehicles are safely carried in enclosed auto carriers.

DISCLAIMER: ATD LINES is not associated with Amtrak or the Auto Train Operations. The material contained herein is not an official publication of the National Railroad Passenger Corporation.

Lorton is about a half-hour drive south of Washington, DC, just off I-95. Sanford is about a half-hour drive north of Orlando, a short distance from I-4. Auto Train operates daily between Lorton, Virginia and Sanford, Florida. Auto Train can also handle trailers, travel trailers, boat trailers with boats, and trailers that handle jet skis and motorcycles, with conditions.

Contact Amtrak for details at the special Auto Train: 1-877-754-7495 or Amtrak: 1-800-872-7245. Remmber: passengers must have a car, van or motorcycle with them.

Auto Train is Amtrak's finest train, next to Coast Starlight, which empolyes the finest train attendants and best-maintained cars. The Auto Train is very popular and is often crowded, particularly during the winter and spring months. It's also used by quite a few families traveling to Disney World. Many people from Pennsylvania, New York and the New England states also use the Auto Train.

It's best to book several months ahead, as sleeping car reservations can be difficult to get on short notice.

Amtrak continues to consider other routes for Auto Train-type service, in particular Chicago to Florida and along the Coast Starlight Route.