dispatch

[BroadwayLion]

trainman50

ok, iwant to do my dispatching off the computer, how do i do that.

 

Your sentence is quite awkward. Do you want to use a computer, or do you not want to use a computer.?

The LION'S railroad is fully automated, but it is an analog automation and no computers were killed in its construction. My dispatch is "off-line" too and is in the form of a book or worksheet that is filled out throughout the course of the day as trains arrive and depart the terminal. Since my railroad runs on a tight schedule, the arrival and departure times are printed on the worksheet. In actual practice on NYCT, they are not printed in the book, but only actual movements are recorded.

If you want to computerize train movements, you need more help than what the LION can give.

ROAR

[Texas Zepher]

trainman50

ok, iwant to do my dispatching off the computer, how do i do that.

Please define exactly what you mean by dispatching?  Do you want the computer to run the trains, do you want the computer to hold a representation of the layout and use the mouse to up date where trains have been dispatched to, do you want the computer to generate switch lists and train schedules, do you want the computer to automatically respond to train positions and set signals appropriately according to the commands of a human dispatcher?   

For the full deal one needs to have the layout set up for detection and signalling, then it needs to interface to some computer program that has the capability of changing the signals, then finally the computer would need to be able to communicate to the trains and give them commands to run them.   The Greeley Freight station museum has such a system.  It took 4 years to get it working with trains moving in one direction (folloing each other) and another year to get the trains running in the opposite directions and making the meets correctly.  

For the creation and scheduling of trains there are many software packages you can use.  In my operating circles the one called "RailOP" seems to be most popular.  One must tell the computer where the trains and cars are.

 

[trainman50]

ok, iwant to do my dispatching off the computer, how do i do that.