Train Radio

Experiments with radio communication between moving trains and railroad signal towers had previously been made, but never before so successfully as last week on a mile-long New York Central freight train. In a tower at South Schenectady. N. Y., were Edward W. Rice Jr. and other General Electric officials; on the train were New York Central officials. They talked together, and clearly, as the train moved.

In the locomotive was a 50-watt radio transmitter, which got its power from the engine's headlight generator. A brass rail on the tender served as aerial. A mile back on the caboose was a wire antenna and inside a 50-watt transmitter energized by a generator which the caboose axles operated. Trainmen and engineer com- municated easily.

Values of the experiment: (i) Train crews need not signal one another with lanterns, flags or whistle toots; brakemen need not dogtrot over moving car tops to deliver messages to engineers; (2) Train dispatchers can give orders without stopping trains; (3) The voice supplements automatic train signals.