Vintage Motorola HT220 Walkie Talkie 2 Way Radio 
Engraved L&N R.R. on the front & bottom

The original owner was an employee of the L&N Railroad, who had retired years ago.
Virgil was born in Evansville, Indiana on March 22, 1943.
 Virgil retired from L&N, now called CSX Rail Road after 37 years of service as a conductor, brakeman, and flagman.

You are buying everything in the pictures, including Motorola Radio, Leather case, Hat, Decal, Key Chains and R.R pins

UNTESTED 
Push button works. Radio, Case and antenna show some wear
Consider pictures as a part of the description and judge any and all cosmetic or other issues to your opinion before purchasing. Zoom In. Examine pics closely before purchasing.

This was a radio issued to L&N employees such as a conductor, brakeman, and flagman.


 
An absolute must have for any Railroad Collector




History about this radio

The MT500 was the follow-on radio to the HT220 handheld, was first introduced in February of 1977 and used many of the existing accessories. The MT500 series was produced for only a few years before the MX series was introduced. The MX was the primary handheld radio during the period that saw the end of the crystal controlled radios and the introdution of the synthesized radios.

Like the HT220 the MT500 came in two versions - Slim-Line (sometimes called "Basic") and Omni (sometimes called "Universal"). The Omni / Universal models are thicker, allow larger (higher capacity) batteries and have a speaker-mic connector on the side, while the Slim-Line / Basic models has the jacks for speaker/earpiece and antenna on the (crowded) top of the radio. The additional thickness allows for a second layer of circuit board(s) for optional features - additional frequencies, higher power PAs, or even a multichannel scanner.

Speaking of antennas, here's a cross-reference list (7kb PDF) that lists and identifies the various units.

An additional difference is that the both the Basic and Universal radios came in two different heights of cases - short and tall cases. The additional 5/8 of an inch was used for smaller options like PL.

Since the PT500 is a MT500 in a "lunchbox" case with a big pack of "D" flashlight cells ora rechargeable battery (very popular with railroads, pipline crews, road crews, etc) those folks working on the PT500 radios will find the handheld manuals useful. Click here for an oblique view photo of an 8-channel PT500. Click here for a top view photo of an 8-channel PT500.

There used to be a web site at www.mt500.com that had a great deal of information on these radios but it went away in mid-2003. Also, there used to be a web page that gave information on the channel elements at http://users.leading.net/~radiotr/MT500 but it's gone also. If anyone knows who ran those web pages we'd be happy to talk to them about rehosting their information.

Like other Motorola radios of that era the MT500 RF section comes in multiple frequency ranges or splits for each frequency band. Unfortunately the split is not encoded in the model number.
For low band, the published splits are 30-36, 36-42 and 42-50 MHz. The manuals don't mention a 25-30 MHz range but I've seen one on 26.62 MHz (a media remote pickup channel) and several folks that I trust have told me that they were available in a 25-30 MHz split.
Supposedly there were mid band MT500 radios for Europe. If so, they would probably be in two splits, 66-77 and 77-88 MHz.
For high band there are three splits, 136-150.8, 150.8-162, and 162-174 MHz. I've seen several MT500s on US Navy Shore Patrol channels in the 140-141 MHz.
For UHF there are four splits, 406-420, 450-470, 470-490, 490-512 MHz. There were some SP radios on 512-524 MHz during the 1984 Olympics here in Los Angeles.

Where the prior models (the HT200 and HT220) used crystals the VHF and UHF models of this radio use small "Channel Element" in the receiver and transmitter, the low band MT500s continued to use crystals. A channel element is a plug-in module containing the crystal and a complete temperature compensated oscillator followed by a tripler-buffer. The multiplier chain following the channel element multipies up to what the exciter or receiver mixer needs. BTW, the transmit elements (either a KXN1083A or a KXN1042A) have five pins and the receive elements (KXN1075A) have only three pins. The crystals themselves are in a HC-49/X package.

Like all crystal controlled radios the MT500 radio is power miser, especially in receive. The average draw is about 11 milliamps squelched and 70 milliamps at a loud volume. In transmit the low power MT500 radios draw about 450 mills, and the high power radios draw just about an amp. Synthesized radios draw much, much more power. The 11 ma idle drain was a big selling point to the US Forest service for their firetower radios that ran on storage batteries.
T500 Options
    MDC (both 600 and 1200)
    MODAT
    Touch-Code (DTMF)
    Touch-Code Automatic Number Identification (ANI)
    Time-out Timer
    Digital Private Line (DPL)
    Transmit-Only "Digital Private Line"
    Multiple-Tone Private Line
    Two-channel Scanner
    Eight-Channel Scanner (also covers 2, 4, 6 and 7 channel)
    Single-Tone (AKA Tone Burst)
    Selective Call
    Selective Call Supplement (both VHF and UHF)
    Intrinsically Safe (both VHF and UHF)


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2.0 RAILROAD RADIO RULES
2.1 Transmitting
Any employee operating a radio must do the following:

    Before transmitting, listen long enough to make sure the channel is not being used.
    Give the required identification.
    Not proceed with further transmission until acknowledgment is received.

2.2 Required Identification
Employees transmitting or acknowledging a radio communication must begin with the required identification. The identification must include the following in this order:

* For base or wayside stations:

    Name or initials of the railroad
    Name and location or other unique designation

* For mobile units:

    Name or initials of the railroad
    Train name (number), engine number, or words that identify the precise mobile unit

If communication continues without interruption, repeat the identification every 15 minutes.

Short Identification

After making a positive identification for switching, classification, and similar operations within a yard, fixed and mobile units may use a short identification after the initial transmission and acknowledgment.

 Repetition
An employee who receives a transmission must repeat it to the person transmitting the message, except when the communication:

    Concerns switching operations.
    Is a recorded message from an automatic alarm device.
        or
        Is general and does not contain any information, instruction, or advice that could affect the safety of a railroad operation.

 Over
The employee transmitting must say, "Over" to the employee receiving the transmission when the communication is complete and a response is expected.

 Out
The employee transmitting must give the required identification and say, "Out" to the employee receiving the transmission when the communication is complete and no response is expected.

Communication Not Understood or Incomplete
An employee who does not understand a radio communication or who receives a communication that is incomplete must not act upon the communication and must treat it as if it was not sent.

EXCEPTION:    An employee who receives information that may affect the safety of employees or the public or cause damage to property must take the safe course. When necessary, stop movement until the communication is understood.

Monitoring Radio Transmissions
Radios in attended base stations or mobile units must be turned on to the appropriate channel with the volume loud enough to receive communications. Employees attending base stations or mobile units must acknowledge all transmissions directed to the station or unit.

Acknowledgment
An employee receiving a radio call must acknowledge the call immediately unless doing so would interfere with safety.

 Misuse of Radio Communications
Employees must not use radio communication to avoid complying with any rule.

 Emergency Calls
Emergency calls will begin with the words "Emergency," "Emergency," "Emergency." These calls will only be used to cover initial reports of derailments, collisions, storms, washouts, fires, track obstructions, property damage, or injury to employees or the public. Emergency calls must contain as much complete information on the incident as possible.

All employees must give absolute priority to an emergency communication. Unless they are answering or aiding the emergency call, employees must not send any communication until they are certain no interference will result.

 Prohibited Transmissions
Employees must not transmit a false emergency or an unnecessary or unidentified communication. Employees must not use indecent language over the radio. Employees must not reveal the existence, contents, or meaning of any communication (except emergency communications) to persons other than those it is intended for, or those whose duties may require knowing about it.

 Fixed Signal Information
Employees must not use the radio to give information to a train or engine crew about the name, position, aspect, or indication displayed by a fixed signal, unless the information is given between members of the same crew or the information is needed to warn of an emergency.

 In Place of Hand Signals
When the radio is used instead of hand signals, information must include the direction and distance to be traveled.

Movement must stop within half of the distance specified unless additional instructions are received.

Transmitting Track Warrants and Track Bulletins
When transmitted by radio, track warrants and track bulletins must be transmitted according to applicable operating rules and the following:

    The train dispatcher must state that a track warrant or track bulletin will be transmitted.
    The employee must inform the train dispatcher when ready to copy. An employee operating the controls of a moving engine may not copy track warrants or track bulletins. In addition, track warrants or track bulletins must not be transmitted to the crew of a moving train if the conductor, engineer, or train dispatcher feels that the transmission could adversely affect the safe operation of the train.
    The employee receiving track warrants or track bulletins must copy them in writing using the format outlined in the operating rules.

 Phonetic Alphabet
If necessary, a phonetic alphabet (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, etc.) will be used to pronounce clearly any letter used as an initial, except initial letters of railroads.

Assigned Frequencies
The railroad must authorize any radio transmitters used in railroad service. Radio transmitters must operate on frequencies the Federal Communications Commission assigns the railroad. Employees are prohibited from using other transmitters or railroad frequencies not assigned to that particular territory.

Radio Testing
Radios used in train operation, outside of a yard, must be tested at the point where the train is originally made up.

Engineers and conductors must test the radios at least once during each tour of duty to verify the radios are working.

The radio test must include an exchange of voice transmissions with another radio. The test must confirm the quality of the radio's transmission.

 Malfunctioning Radio
Malfunctioning radios must not be used. As soon as possible, notify each crew member and the train dispatcher or other affected employees that the radio is not working.

Blasting Operations
Employees must not operate radio transmitters located less than 250 feet from blasting operations.

 Internal Adjustments
Employees are prohibited from making internal adjustments to a railroad radio unless they are specifically authorized by the FCC or hold a current Certified Technicians Certificate. Employees authorized to make adjustments must carry their FCC operator license, Certified Technicians Certificate, or verification card while on duty.


























Key Words to help in search of this item
Locomotive Steam Whistles Poster Picture Engine - Great Train/Railroad Railman Man Cave Decor Train Railroad RR Southern 610 Pacific Railway  S. Pacific, Illinois, Palmetto, Canadian Pennsylvania Railroad Photo Baldwin

Vintage, VTG Old Antique


S-Motor was the class designation given by the New York Central to its ALCO-GE built S-1, S-2, S-2a and S-3 electric locomotives. The S-Motors hold the distinction of being the world's first mass-produced main line electric locomotives with the prototype #6000 being constructed in 1904. The S-Motors would serve alone until the more powerful T-motors began to arrive in 1913, eventually displacing them from main line passenger duties. From that point the class was assigned to shorter commuter trains and deadhead rolling stock between Grand Central Terminal and Mott Haven coach yard. Some examples, including the prototype later renumbered #100, would serve in this capacity through the Penn Central merger in 1968, only being retired in the 1970s as long distance passenger traffic to Grand Central dried up.
History
Unit 6000 hauling a train with various railway officials, 1904

After a disastrous 1902 accident in the Park Avenue Tunnel the New York legislature passed a law banning steam locomotives within the city limits effective in 1908. Seeing an opportunity, the railroad decided this could mean a chance to completely rebuild its congested Midtown Manhattan stub end terminal and yard facilities. The electrification project would see not only the construction of the Grand Central Terminal itself, but miles of completely underground platforms and yard tracks which would not have been possible with exhaust-producing steam locomotives.

Having already found success with the world's first main line electrification project in Baltimore in 1895, ALCO and General Electric were tasked with designing a new locomotive for the project with Alco building the engine and GE supplying the electrical equipment. The initial prototype locomotive, delivered as Class L #6000, was in the 1-D-1 configuration with 4 gearless "bi-polar" type traction motors which used the axle shaft as the motor armature. Between October 1904 and July 1906 #6000 racked up 50,000 miles (80,000 km) in test on a track near both Alco and GE plants in Schenectady, New York.

The advantages of the new locomotive were striking. It was only half the length of a standard steam locomotive with tender and weighed only two thirds as much, but could provide more power, especially when starting trains on steep grades. It was capable of rapid acceleration and deceleration, ideal for the Hudson and Harlem lines’ numerous, closely spaced commuter rail stations. The locomotive required no turntable and could be reversed for service in the opposite direction in a matter of seconds. With the tests complete an order was placed for 34 additional locomotives to be delivered in the 3400 series and classed T-2 with the original being re-classed T-1.

Unfortunately, two days into the new electric service in 1907 a train led by two T-2 class locomotives number 3407 and 3421 derailed on a curve on the Harlem Line killing 24 and injuring 140. The investigation identified design flaws involving the long rigid wheelbase and its performance at high speed. The solution was to convert the entire class to use 2 axle leading and trailing trucks to better guide the locomotive around curves. Units already delivered were modified to fit the extra wheels and units not delivered were modified in the factory. Again the class was changed from T to S. Finally in 1908 an additional batch of 12 locomotives, class S-3, were ordered to support the electrification being extended to North White Plains on the Harlem Line.
The original S-Motor, former No. 6000, awaiting restoration south of Albany, NY in 2012.

With weight split between powered and unpowered axles the S motors were never completely satisfactory at pulling long heavy trains at high speed. The 1907 accident only made matters worse with additional unpowered axles being added and new speed restrictions imposed. Finally in 1913 the new class of T-Motors arrived, displacing the S Motors from first line service. For the next 60 years the S-motors were assigned to short local commuter trains and empty equipment movements between Grand Central and the Coach Yards at Mott Haven. They were later re-numbered into the 1100 series and ultimately the 100 series with some examples surviving the Penn Central merger. The combination of the New Haven's new 60 unit strong electro-diesel FL-9 to handle short commuter trains and the drastic reduction in long distance passenger trains using the Mott Haven coach yards eventually ended these niche applications as well. Their final assignment was switching service in the underground yards of Grand Central Terminal. The last S motor, #115, was finally retired from Conrail commuter operations in 1981 after 75 years in service, being replaced by GE E-10 steeplecab units acquired second hand from the Niagara Junction Railroad after Conrail took control of that operation.[1]

Three S-Motors were preserved including the prototype #100. Two are in museums, #113 at the National Museum of Transportation, and #115 at the Illinois Railway Museum; however, #100, owned by the Mohawk and Hudson chapter NRHS, is stored outside on an abandoned rail spur in Glenmont, New York awaiting funds for restoration. The locomotive was recently secured for transport to the Danbury Railw
Ephemera is a word used by appraisers often to cover those objects that don’t fit into general categories such as fine and decorative art or glass and porcelain and can be grouped together as everything left over or oddities needing valuation to finalize an estate or collection value.
In the matter of paper ephemera we are referring primarly to magazines, comic books and even dime store novels and other similar publications that were meant to be read and then disposed of later. Much of this material when first published did not register among the balance of the collecting public and endless stories exist of people who bought every issue of Superman or Mad Magazine in their youth only to discover that their parents had thrown them away years later. Today collecting of paper ephemera has become a major field driven by the Baby Boomer generation as well as those born in the 60s and 70s. Collectors use grading companies to slab (place in plastic) and grade their copies of comic books and magazines considered rare such as Golden Age issues of Batman and Superman or the earliest issues of Mad Magazine and even TV Guide. The higher the grade the more valuable the issue. The subject of grading will be addressed in the next post.

“ephemera” are vintage printed or written items which originally served some specific purpose and were not expected to be retained or preserved, but which are now cherished. A few decades ago much of it was called “Paper Americana”, though ephemera is not necessarily American. Or even paper: these days the field has been expanded to include such things as tobacco tins, photographs, radio premiums, textile swatches, vinyl record albums, items made of celluloid or wood. Also included are various items which were indeed likely to have been saved, such as wedding invitations, marriage certificates, passports, birth certificates, wills, deeds, divorce papers, stock certificates, promissory notes, and many other vintage documents.

Book, Catalog, Advertisement, Textbook, newspaper picture, sign art  rarity
  

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The origins of the caboose appear to date back to the 1840s when Nat Williams, a conductor of the Auburn & Syracuse Railroad (a later affiliate of the New York Central).

He became fed up with cramped and uncomfortable quarters to do paperwork (a common job of the conductor, whose responsibility is general oversight and control of a train, passenger or freight).  This was usually done within either a free space on a passenger car or combine/baggage car.

To fix this problem, Williams found an unused boxcar and, using a simple box and barrel as a seat and desk, set up shop to do his duties. Not only did he find there was plenty of room to work but also figured he could use the unused space to store tools (flags, lanterns, spare parts, etc.) and other essentials when needed.