Being near Kansas City, Missouri, I often hear a train passing through on nearby tracks. The one closest to me is a Union Pacific track and one farther away is a BNSF track. When I hear them, I wonder where they are going—North or South, but sometimes I wish I had more information. This information can be discovered many times by listening to the Railroad Radio. Railroad Radio scanning is an important part of Railfanning. By listening to the radio, you can estimate when a train will pass your location as well as listening to the interesting operations happening in the yard.
To begin Railroad Radio Scanning, all you need is a basic analog radio scanner—like the ones used for NASCAR as well as some local emergency channels. The analog radios can also pick up amateur radio and business operations. You can still purchase an analog or digital scanner at the old standby, Radio Shack. Digital scanners can receive digital and analog and most public safety frequencies are now digital.
After you have purchased, or found and old analog scanner, you should program all of the American Association of Railroads (AAR) frequencies into your radio. You can find the railroad frequencies at RadioReference.com. Once you have input all of those frequencies, you are all set to begin listening to the railroads. As you listen to these frequencies scanning through your radio, you will begin to hear the dispatchers talking to the trains.
Once you have listened to the radio for a month or so, you will know which frequencies have the local railroad radio traffic occurring. I suggest, at this point, that you write those frequencies down
and reprogram these into another bank and turn the others off. This will shorten the scanning time for your scanner to hit the useful frequencies without wasting time on the dormant ones. By placing the primary frequencies in an additional bank and turning the other banks off gives you the opportunity to occasionally turn the full banks back on to see if there is activity on other frequencies that you may be missing.
Railroad radio scanning is an enjoyable addition to watching the trains pass, as you can still hear the action, even if you cannot be near it. By listening to the railroad radio, you will become better acquainted with the railroad industry and enjoy the hobby even more that you do all ready.