Handheld Scanner for Cross Country Trip

We've traveled quite a bit by train over the years. Naturally, there have been a few memorably long delays due to derailments. Derailments are quite rare and I've only been affected by two in about thirty years of Amtrak rail travel but, when they happen, it is time consuming, frustrating and memorable!

I was on one train that derailed in one incident and, in another, we were delayed by about eight hours due to a freight train derailing up ahead of us. During both incidents, it really would have been nice to know what was happening and to have an estimated time of when we'd be back on track (pun intended). But, how would that be possible?

When the train that I was on derailed while I was on my way to my sister's wedding, Amtrak resolved the issue within a couple of hours. The tracks were washed out due to heavy rains in the preceding weeks and only one or two of the cars came off the tracks. They sent buses to pick us up and transported us to a station about sixty miles down our route and we then boarded a new Amtrak train that was already waiting for us. I actually made it to my destination on time even with that little bit of excitement and waiting around for buses. 

Another time, when the freight train derailed up ahead of us on our route, we sat on a side track at the San Antonio station for about eight hours... in the hot sun... roasting away. Worse yet, this was at the end of our trip so we were all pretty exhausted already. The derailed freight train was a tanker train... cars overturned... fires... it was a bad scene. After they removed all the tanker cars, new track had to be laid. Of course, we didn't learn of all of this info until after we were on our way again. We did hear bits and pieces of info throughout the day but we didn't hear enough to know enough to make some command decisions. Even though our train made up some time on our journey north (by traveling in the 120 mph range), after an eight hour delay in San Antonio, we still missed our connecting train in Chicago.  

That late arrival to Chicago was brutal... we were tired and very hungry but we had no time to get to a restaurant. Amtrak immediately put us on buses at Chicago's Union Station and transported us to a motel about an hour outside of Chicago. The following morning, the buses brought us back to Union Station. If we had known Amtrak's plan earlier in the day while we were trying to get to Chicago, we would have made our own reservations at some nearby hotel... pay for our own room nearby... get some food... relax... and avoid the entire time consuming and exhausting busing nonsense. We appreciated the free rooms provided by Amtrak but the two hours of busing and missed meals was brutal. 

After our missed connection in Chicago, I started doing some research to find out what other experienced Amtrak travelers do in situations like this. I was told that the railfans (guys who simply love everything about trains) carry handheld scanners with them to stay on top of delays, alternate plans and such. 

Upon thinking about it, I have to admit that it made sense and it would have been nice to have had a small handheld scanner radio to listen to what was happening whenever I experienced delays. Listening to the radio chatter would have provided us enough information to piece together the plan to get us to our destinations. Obviously, the earlier we know the plan and estimated time of arrival, the sooner we can make other arrangements with hotels, rental cars, food, etc. Carrying a small scanner was a good idea.

For our upcoming cross-country train trip, I decided it was time to carry a small handheld radio scanner with an earpiece. This will allow us to stay informed of delays and Amtrak's plans to get us back on track. If necessary, we can get a jump on making reservations or changing reservations if we know what is happening before everyone else. 

So, I recently purchased a nice little handheld scanner. 

I have input local frequencies for fire, police and ambulance into one storage bank... I have input all the railroad frequencies Amtrak will be using on our cross-country trip into another storage bank... and, just for fun, I also input the frequencies used by the International Space Station in another storage bank for when the ISS is flying overhead.   

I'm hoping that now that I'm more prepared for contingency operations on our cross-country rail journey that our trip will now miraculously go smoothly without even a little hiccup!