Conrail Detector Overview

The earliest talking defect detectors on Conrail were manufactured by Parker of Sewell, NJ and began appearing in the early 1980s. They were very simple units with just a track number input and a Dragging Equipment input; they did not look for any other defects. They did not count axles, and thus could not provide a location in the train when a Dragging Equipment defect was found. Many were replaced in the 1990s by Servo System 9000, Devtronics S.C.A.T., or Harmon Cyberscan 2000 units. Those that survived the Conrail split were almost immediately replaced on the CSX side with GE Micro Talker units, while those on NS lasted as late as the mid 2010s in some cases (albeit reprogrammed to say 'NS' or 'Norfolk Southern').

In the early 1980s, around the same time as the rise of the Parker DED 1GG units, Conrail began upgrading existing Servo installations with talker units. These talkers used voices stored on audio tapes to transmit the results via radio. These ServoTalk talkers were short-lived before being eradicated by mass installations of Servo System 9000s.

Perhaps the best known Conrail defect detector is the Servo 9000 System model, which began appearing in the mid 1980s. While generally employed as a Hotbox Detector, Dragging Equipment Detector, & Hot Wheel Detector (HWD), they were sometimes utilized as a High Car Detector (HCD) as well. As originally configured, they did not provide a speed or axle count, did not end the transmission with 'over,' and had a much quicker pace. Later, a new CPU was introduced that allowed for the addition of axle count and the word 'over' at the end of the transmission; the pace of the transmission was also slowed down. Around 1995, train speed was also added to the transmissions. Many of these lasted well into the mid 2010s on both CSX & NS, with CSX dropping the 'Conrail' introduction around 2007 while NS reprogrammed theirs to mimic their other detectors within a few years of the Conrail split-up. In 2016, CSX made a big push to eradicate these detectors and standardize much of the former Conrail territory with Progress Rail MicroHBD units; by this late date, many of the original Servos were having issues with false positives and 'Detector Not Working' messages.

The Devtronics S.C.A.T. (Supervisory Control Alarm Telemetry) began showing up in the early-mid 1990s as a replacement for older Parker units, as well as many new installations. These units were relegated to Dragging Equipment and High Car Detector functions; while other Devtronics models like the CMA02 featured Hot Box Detector integration, these S.C.A.T. units did not. Although mostly relegated to Pennsylvania, a few did appear elsewhere (such as the Boston Line).

Another non-Hot Box Detector model to come about in the early-mid 1990s was the Southern Technologies Corporation (STC) Small Talk. Conrail used these units almost exclusively as High Car Detectors (with a few used as Dragging Equipment Detectors), and while not as prolific as the Devtronics S.C.A.T. units in this role, they were nevertheless present throughout the Conrail system.

The last pre-split detector to make its debut was the Harmon Cyberscan 2000, which began to appear in the mid-late 1990s. The Cyberscan is officially a Servo product, but its introduction came after Harmon's December 1994 purchase of Servo's Transportation Division, and official literature for this model lists Servo as a division of Harmon. The Cyberscan was generally utilized as a replacement for various Parker and Servo System 9000 sites throughout the system, although some new sites were also installed. All Cyberscan sites were Hot Box Detector & Dragging Equipment Detector equipped, even if the previous detector detected Dragging Equipment only. High Car Detector functionality was also present at some locations. Being such new installations at the time, all of these detectors survived into CSX and NS, with NS' being reprogrammed to mimic their other detectors while CSX reprogrammed theirs to announce 'CSX.' On CSX, these were replaced with MicroHBDs around 2016 during the big sweep to replace nearly all remaining Conrail detectors.

Contemporary Shared Assets Conrail primarily utilizes the GE Transportation/Progress Rail MicroHBD and Micro Talker (non-HBD model) units, both of which are common to most Class I railroads in North America. While this model has undergone CPU upgrades and several owner changes, the voice & announcement scheme have generally remained the same.