Calling Departure Times after Station stops

[empirebuilderdude1929]

So I have noticed that sometimes after station stops, the conductor will call the arrival and departure times of the station, for example; if your arrival time was 6:45 and departure time was 6:50 they would say "45 and 50" on the radio. But after that, crews would say other numbers and/or say they have a "pair" of one of those numbers. For example, at the 1:30 mark. After the highball, the conductor says "52 and straight up" which indicates arr time 5:52 and dep time 6:00, but then he says "I have a pair of 50s coming up" This is what I am questioning, because I have heard it before on the radio and have never understood what they were referring to, and I could not find anything in the GCOR or Amtrak Service Standards documents that had any reference to this. If anyone has any idea what this means, leave it below.

Another example of this: at the 8:37 mark.

 

[Ryan]

Speed restrictions at mileposts.

 

[TinCan782]

A pair of fifties (or thirties, etc.) would be upcoming speed restrictions as Ryan stated.
Friendly reminder. Conductors will keep their engineers up-to-date on any restrictions, etc.

 

[empirebuilderdude1929]

Ah, that makes sense. That's why the one in the second video said "25 at 206.5" Thank you.

 

[MikefromCrete]

A big part of a conductor's job is to remind engineers of speed restrictions, maintenance of way work, etc.

 

[RebelRider]

Back in the day, station agents would manually input the arrival and departure times into ARROW, as provided by the conductors. For several years now, that functionality has been automated with NTAMS (National Train Activity Monitoring System). Agents are actively discouraged from inputting arrival/departure times in ARROW, unless NTAMS goofed which rarely happens.

We still remind engineers of work authorities and speed restrictions, but don't call times out at staffed stations any more. With the advent of PTC, I wouldn't be surprised if it matures to the point conductors won't be required to call out restrictions either.

 

[Barb Stout]

Greetings to EmpireBuilder 1929 from a former resident of Fargo/Moorhead. I don't believe I have seen anyone from ND post here before, so I'm so glad you're here.

 

[jis]

We still remind engineers of work authorities and speed restrictions, but don't call times out at staffed stations any more. With the advent of PTC, I wouldn't be surprised if it matures to the point conductors won't be required to call out restrictions either.

With PTC wouldn't it be possible for the PTC computer to have more upto date information about TSRs and such than the Conductor's print out? Or do the Conductors already get wireless updates on their hand held devices?

 

[John819]

I think that they still would want to have the two humans communicate with each other to confirm the information. Or would you prefer to rely wholly on a computer - "I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that."

 

[jis]

I think that they still would want to have the two humans communicate with each other to confirm the information. Or would you prefer to rely wholly on a computer - "I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that."

On the NEC it is all done by computers talking to each other in the ACSES II system. This includes TSR notification and enforcement. So no, there is no need for two humans to communicate with each other to confirm TSRs, PSRs or signals. That is why during normal operations the radio channels on the NEC are so quiet.