Hello all!

I live near a Kansas City Southern line.  It is operated by train
order, and the dispatchers often set up meets between eastbound and
westbound trains in the next town east of me, which has a long siding.

I can always hear the dispatcher, and I can sometimes hear the two
train crews talking to each other at the meet.  I didn't notice the
correlation until recently, but when there is a meet set up, I can
sometimes hear six DTMF tones on the same channel they use for voice,
at about the time that one of the trains should be arriving.  Sometimes
these six tones are shortly followed by one single-frequency tone.  Are
these tones possibly operating the switches at the siding?  (My guess
is that the six tones tell a particular switch to operate, and the
single tone is a confirmation back from the switch.)

I haven't ever watched a meet, so I don't know if somebody gets off the
train to throw the switches or not - these tones could have nothing to
do with switching.

Thanks!

Matt Roberds

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