CSX Detector Overview
CSX Talker
CSX's custom female voice can be heard in a variety of applications, such as wheel impact detectors, clearance detectors, dragging equipment detectors, and radio-operated switches. The same voice was even tested on a Servo 9000 detector - see the Servo 9000 section for details.
Update your browser or Flash plugin
Update your browser or Flash plugin
Devtronics 68178
The oldest of the Devtronics detectors, designed to interface with Servo tube-based equipment. The 68178 shares an identical voice with the 68278 and MA1B, making them very difficult to differentiate.
Update your browser or Flash plugin
Devtronics 68278
The next iteration of Devtronics detectors, which were designed to interface with solid-state Servo equipment. The 68278 shares an identical voice with the 68178 and MA1B, making them very difficult to differentiate.
Update your browser or Flash plugin
Devtronics CMA02
The final iteration of Devtronics hotbox detectors. While these still utilized Servo bearing scanners and transducers, the rest of the system was Devtronics-designed.
Update your browser or Flash plugin
Devtronics MA1B
An overlay system for existing Servo detector sites which did not have a built-in alarm capability. The MA1B shares an identical voice with the 68178 and 68278, making them very difficult to differentiate.
Update your browser or Flash plugin
Devtronics S.C.A.T.
The newer non-heat detecting model from Devtronics. Note that the results message with the newer voice is identical to the Devtronics UT-1, making it difficult to differentiate between the two.
Update your browser or Flash plugin
Devtronics TSA3000
A short-lived predecessor to the CMA02, the TSA3000 was found exclusively along CSX's former Seaboard Air Line routes in Florida (the Auburndale and Wildwood subdivisions).
Update your browser or Flash plugin
Devtronics UT-1
The older non-heat detecting model from Devtronics. Note that the results message with the newer voice is identical to the Devtronics S.C.A.T., making it difficult to differentiate between the two.
Update your browser or Flash plugin
Update your browser or Flash plugin
Harmon Cyberscan 2000
Although originally conceived by Servo, the Cyberscan 2000 started selling right as Harmon
purchased Servo's train inspection product line.
Former Conrail Cyberscan 2000s are easy to identify due to their speaking of the location name in the results
message. However, CSX's own Cyberscan 2000s share the same voice as their Servo 9000s, making them difficult to
differentiate. The true Cyberscan 2000s transmit a tone at the start of the results message, whereas the Servo
9000 only transmits a tone in the entrance message; the tones themselves sound different; and the Servo 9000
tends to give a safety message at the end of the results message, which was not something the Cyberscan 2000s
were capable of.
Update your browser or Flash plugin
Update your browser or Flash plugin
Harmon Model 24
A very early model hotbox detector from the Chessie System days. Not much is known about these, with most having been retired by the late 90s. The Model 24 shares the same voice as the Model 32 and Model 75.
Update your browser or Flash plugin
Harmon Model 32
After the Model 24 came the much more common Model 32, which was an all-Harmon setup using pyrometer scanner technology acquired from General Electric and Harmon's own transducers. The main processor, WCO-34, was the same one used on the Model 75.
Update your browser or Flash plugin
Harmon Model 75
The Model 75 was an overlay system version of the Model 32, utilizing the same WCO-34 processor as the Model 32, but using the existing Servo scanners and transducers. As they share the same processor, there is no audible way to tell the difference between the two models.
Update your browser or Flash plugin
MicroHBD/Micro Talker
Perhaps the most common voice heard in defect detectors across North America is the one
heard from the MicroHBD/Micro Talker. This was CSX's preferred detector model from the late 2000s to the late
2010s. As GE/Progress Rail offered upgrade kits for existing detector sites that utilized Servo field hardware,
they became common replacements for many Devtronics CMA02s, Harmon Model 75s, Servo 9000s, and Cyberscan 2000s.
CSX was quick to replace Conrail's Parker DED 1GG dragging equipment detectors with GE Micro Talker CPU 1 units
after the Conrail split, as the Parker units did not have transducers and thus could not provide an axle location
of a defect. These CPU 1 models have a little extra spacing between the letters 'C-S-X', an extra pause between
the word 'Track' and the track number, and do not feature a tone at the start of their messages.
Every MicroHBD on CSX has since been upgraded to CPU 3 due to its advanced filtering providing better
protection against false alarms, although MicroHBD CPU 1s did exist for a period of time. Many of the Micro
Talkers in dragging equipment roles were never upgraded, and are instead either being retired or replaced with a
full hotbox detector site.
Update your browser or Flash plugin
Update your browser or Flash plugin
Servo 9000
As with the Cyberscan 2000s, the ex-Conrail units are easy to differentiate due to their
speaking of the location name in the results message. However, CSX's original Servo 9000 units use the same voice
as their Cyberscan 2000s, making them difficult to tell apart - see the Harmon Cyberscan 2000 section above for
details on how to tell them apart.
A one-off and short-lived example was CSX's attempt to use the CSX Talker voice on former Conrail Servo 9000 units.
However, crews reported difficulties hearing & understanding the new voice, thus it was quickly reverted back to
the classic robotic Servo 9000 voice.
Update your browser or Flash plugin
Update your browser or Flash plugin
Update your browser or Flash plugin
Servo 9909
The Servo 9909 was Servo's first microprocessor-equipped hotbox detector introduced in the early 1980s, with many installations along Chessie System lines. Most were retired by the late 1990s.
Update your browser or Flash plugin
STC iCUBE
The iCUBE is Southern Technologies' non-heat sensing detector offering that has been in production long enough that it had multiple voices: first the standard voice as heard on the SmartScan NG, and later the voice of the SmartScan NG2² when that hit the market.
Update your browser or Flash plugin
Update your browser or Flash plugin
STC Sentry 2100
The Sentry 2100 was the predecessor to the more common SmartScan NG, and the two sound nearly identical. One noticeable difference is that most Sentry 2100s say 'nine', whereas all SmartScan NGs say 'niner'; however, a handful of Sentry 2100s have been heard saying 'niner' as well. The Sentry 2100s also had a slightly quicker pace.
Update your browser or Flash plugin
STC SmartScan NG
The SmartScan NG was CSX's preferred unit in the mid 2000s to replace aging Devtronics and
Harmon models. They sound extremely similar to the Sentry 2100 - see the Sentry 2100 entry above to learn how to
differentiate the two.
Existing SmartScan NG sites are almost always replaced with a SmartScan NG² due to the upgrade simply consisting
of swapping out the chassis - all connecting hardware remains intact.
Update your browser or Flash plugin
STC SmartScan NG²
Southern Technologies' newest model, complete with a new, unmistakable robotic voice. These have become CSX's preferred model since the model's introduction in 2017.
Update your browser or Flash plugin