How do I learn about train dispatching?

[CSXDixieLine]

I am planning a full custom computerized CTC/signaling/dispatching system on my N-scale model railroad. I think know enough to do a very realistic implementation, but along the way I have really become interested in the art & science of train dispatching and would like to learn more. Where is the best place to start? Are there any train dispatching computer based training courses available? Books or other materials? Would any of the commercially available simulator games be helpful? Sorry for such a wide ranging question, but I figure some others on here would be able to recommend a good launching point instead of me just wandering around in Google for who knows how long. Thanks, Jamie

[4merroad4man]

I would start here:  http://www.unionpacific.jobs/careers/explore/prof/operating/train_dispatcher.shtml

After that, I would go to the various railroad supplier sites, General Railway Signal and Union switch and signal.  Then I would acquire an old rulebook to learn about CTC rules.

Train dispatching is something of an art, even today with all of the computers, etc. and describing the job is really a difficult proposition.

To get a simulated feel for sitting in the seat, go to www.signalcc.com and download the trail version of Train Dispatcher, then try your hand at dispatching the Northeast Corridor.  This is a game in a sense, but it is built upon similar platforms for the actual computer assisted dispatching software in use today.  It does have significant differences from the real thing, but it will give you a good feel for the system.

[CSXDixieLine]

4merroad4man

To get a simulated feel for sitting in the seat, go to www.signalcc.com and download the trail version of Train Dispatcher, then try your hand at dispatching the Northeast Corridor. 

Thanks for the link! That site also has two books (about 350 pages each) on train dispatching. I may have to check one out, although I think I am going to look at a signaling book first. Jamie

[tgindy]

I just received an eBay copy of Carsten's, "Operation Handbook for Model Railroads," by Paul Mallory, and it has everything/operations noted in great detail to apply the prototype to a model railroad.  Paul Mallory never left a stone unturned in his books.

This "Operation Handbook" is the 11th book listed at...

http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/default.aspx?GroupID=8

Here are Paul Mallory's books at The Model Train Magazine Index...

http://index.mrmag.com/tm.exe?opt=S&cmdtext=book+%22mallery,+paul%22&sort=2

http://index.mrmag.com/tm.exe?opt=I&MAG=BOOK&MO=6&YR=1991&output=3

Another good operations book is Tony Koester's, "Realistic Model Railroad Operation"...

http://index.mrmag.com/tm.exe?opt=I&MAG=BOOK&MO=1&YR=2003&output=3

These two books give a balanced approach to operations.  The big picture provides what the dispatcher must know before the dispatching occurs.

[Valleycrest RR]

General Railway Signal is no longer. Has been gone for many years. The latest producer of previous GRS products is Alstom. I don't think the Alstom business in Rochester, NY does much with dispatching these days.

 

[Railway Man]

 You're correct, Alstom has exited the business of making computer-assisted train-dispatching consoles, at least in the North American market.  I liked their system very much but it sat on top of hardware and software that is now obsolete and Alstom apparently decided the market opportunity was too small to invest in the R&D to design an updated system. 

Other makers of dispatching systems in North America that interface with CTC are/were Digicon, which is exiting the business in two months; US&S; Wabtec Railway Electronics, and a new maker in Canada whose name at the moment escapes me.  There are several companies that offer computer-aided dispatching systems for railroads that use TWC or DTC as their Method of Operation; these are really just simple Windows-based systems for issuing forms and providing conflict checking.

Clicking a mouse on a train-dispatching console is not "train dispatching" by any realm of the imagination; it's merely being a control operator at best and a mouse-pusher at worse.  Train dispatching requires management of:

1. advance planning of meet-and-pass events considering variations in train performance, weather, work events, and unforseen events
   
2. prioritization of trains
3. prioritization, assignment, and planning of on-line work events 
4. management of crew call times
5. management of locomotive assignments, to some degree
6. knowledge of customers, work rules, and characteristics of the railroad
7. management of signal outages, grade-crossing signal outages
8. management of temporary speed restrictions
9. management of operating rules and their application
10. management of maintenance-of-way work time
11. management of unforseen events and their effects on track, trains, maintainers, etc.

An analogy is that the train dispatcher is both the air traffic controller (about 4 of their consoles rolled into one) and the airline dispatching desk and the airline crew desk and the airline maintenance desk, all rolled into one.  The knowledge base required is large, in order to be any good at it.

Almost none of this is really suitable for modeling on a model railroad (unless it's a computer simulation) and frankly I wouldn't know why anyone would want to as most of it not fun.  I think what would suffice is to model a CTC console and do the meet-and-pass events like a control operator.  The rest of it is mostly arguing nastily with people who have very different ideas of what's important at that moment.

RWM

[dehusman]

There is a game called "Train Dispatcher 2" that is a good dispatching simulation.  About 90% of what a real dispatcher has to know to do his job a model dispatcher won't need to know to run a model railroad because its either compressed out of the model railroad or not modeled in the first place.   So unless you are just wanting to learn about dispatching in general, there is very little out there about strategy and a large part of the prototype strategy may not be very useful in a model setting.

The key to dispatching is to be able to visualize or plan several moves in advance and to be able to arrange things to permit multiple simulatneous moves or a sequence of moves efficiently.  Do you like chess?

Dave H.

[CSXDixieLine]

Railway Man

... Clicking a mouse on a train-dispatching console is not "train dispatching" by any realm of the imagination; it's merely being a control operator at best and a mouse-pusher at worse.  Train dispatching requires management of: ...

RWM, Thanks for the (as usual) very helpful insight and information. For some reason, probably because I want to tie my software development skills into my model railroading hobby, I wan't my CTC and dispatching system to at least use prototypical practices where applicable. Just to give an idea of the types of things I am researching, I am currently looking at fleeting signals and how I would implement them on my CSX Dixie Line CTC system. While I could easily hack something together that would work, I would like to use the same practices that the big guys use. Jamie

[tomikawaTT]

In the ultimate analysis, dispatching, both model and real world, is like gymnastics or figure skating.  You can look at a gazillion frames of photos, read a library of books and try out a hundred computer modeling ideas - but until you actually DO it, in real time with real people and real equipment, you'll never know what it's all about.

It's a skill that has to be learned - and the more you learn, the more you realize that you don't know!

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - in ways that would make Pete Josserand cringe!)

[Hudson]

http://www.softrail.com/index.html

 

I have "Elements of Train Dispatching" Volumes 1&2.

Good informative tomes.