Frisco Radio Chatter Recordings - Road Crews To Dispatcher - Inquiry

I would like to track down some recordings of Frisco radio chatter between the crew and dispatcher.

Ideally if anyone knows of a place to download or order digital recordings would be fantastic but even an old recording on magnetic tape would be helpful.

I have done a some searching with your standard search engines with no luck.

I appreciate any help.

Derrick

 

Starting in the late 1970s, I was an avid scanner radio listener, police, fire, aircraft and especially railroad, but I cannot imagine anyone really thought to record any of that.

It never crossed my mind to do so.

Tom

 

It is fairly easy to find audio files on the internet of your current class I railroads but it might be hard to find any fallen flag sounds.

There is a fairly simple way to convert it to a .wav file and use it in Trainz V-scale. I have some BNSF, NS, and UP files but they just do not sound right with my Frisco V-scale collection.

I am guessing some real model railroaders out there have used similar sounds. I can imagine with the right volume and placed inconspicuously close to a yard would add quite a nice ambiance to a layout.

Well again if anyone knows where I might find any please let me know.

 

The video tape "Use of Train Radio on the Frisco" has such recordings from the 1950s.

This video was available through the Frisco Museum years ago.

Ken McElreath

 

Thanks guys.

That was a very interesting and entertaining video.

I will add to my collection; but, unfortunately it does not have any audio of radio chatter.

I will keep looking.

 

Guys,

The BNSF (ex-Frisco) road channel on the Springfield to Lindenwood main line is 160.335.

Any scanner can pick it up if it can cover VHF frequencies.

Though it is not really a Frisco operation you are listening to, it sounds pretty cool hearing real track personnel chatting.

FriscoGeorge

 

This topic reminded me of an incident my conductor and I experienced one night while waiting for an air test on our road switcher in Tulsa, OK.

He knew the channel of the Sun Oil refinery switch engine, switched by SKOL employees, and we started listening to them talk. The subject was certainly not railroad related as required by FCC and FRA rules as it was very racy and interlaced with foul language.

After listening for a few minutes, and wondering how they had the nerve to use the radio like that, my conductor demanded in a very professional sounding voice that the men identify themselves. After several seconds of pregnant pause silence, the offending SKOL employees began asking each other who that was.

They were obviously concerned because of their clear violation of radio rules. We left them to wonder who had been on their channel. We got a good laugh out of that.

Back in the Frisco days the radio rules enforcement was very lax, and all types of conversations could be heard. As trains passed in the night the crews would talk until the trains passed the spot where they could not communicate any longer.

In today's strict radio rules enforcement, the casual chatter is very limited for fear of reprisal by the railroad or the FRA if they are testing at that time.

Terry Jankowski