Induction Train Radio - Two

Port Townsend, today. Many of my inspirations hit me while in the shower. Mulling over my recent post on the Pennsylvania Railroad Trainphone, questions began flooding my “in basket.”

• While the transmitter range seems to have been less than 300 feet, needing only to reach the rails or line-side wires, what was the range of the signal down the rails?
• Did rail weight, cross sectional dimension, influence signal strength and distance traveled? (We all remember from our high school science class, that electricity travels on the surface of the wire, not within the wire, right?)
• Were there portable hand held units that could be used by train crew?
• How many channels were available?

We do know that the system was not usable around Pennsy’s overhead trolley; the signal badly distorted by the presence of high voltage lines.