Radio-based electro-pneumatic control communications system

A radio-based, Electro-Pneumatic (EP) rail car braking system for a railroad train having a lead locomotive and a plurality of rail cars, said EP rail braking system comprising:

• a plurality of rail car two-band radio systems, each rail car radio system being mounted on a rail car and including
• a two-band radio including a first narrow band high power transmitter and a second broad band low power transmitter,
• a first microcontroller controlling said two-band radio, and
• pneumatic interfaces responsive to control signals generated by said
• first microcontroller in response to commands received by
• said two-band radio on the first narrow band;
• and
• a locomotive radio system mounted on said lead locomotive, said locomotive radio system including a third narrow band high power transmitter,
• a second microcontroller controlling said third transmitter, and
• air brake control and display providing input and receiving output
• from said second microcontroller,
• said second microcontroller controlling said third transmitter to transmit commands to all rail cars in the train, selected rail cars spaced through the train being designated as repeaters with a predetermined number of cars assigned to each repeater forming a group of cars that act as a Local Area Network (LAN), wherein rail cars in a group communicate with each other using said second transmitter and in response to a command broadcast by the lead locomotive, rail cars in a group act on the command and transmit status information to their respective repeater and the repeater, in turn, transmitting back status messages to the lead locomotive on said first transmitter based on consolidation of data received from rail cars in its group.