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I was a train dispatcher trainee on New Jersey Transit for most of 2002. While I was employed by NJT we were all located in an office at Hoboken Terminal in Hoboken, NJ. I now believe that they've moved out to Kearny, NJ to NJT's rail maintenance complex. Having the dispatchers in one location seemed to work for NJT. As for the dispatchers being familiar with territories they dispatched, NJT required that each dispatcher be territory-qualified. This happened after you passed your NORAC rules test. You'd be quizzed orally and via a written test on the physical characteristics of your territory. You learned the territory by cab rides, hi-rail rides, and driving/walking along the ROW. Radio communications wasn't a problem. It was repeater-based and we had the capability to activate a specific repeater(s) to reach a train in a specific location. Unfortunately I'm no longer employed by the railroad. It was both the absolute best AND worst job experience of my working life. I won't go into detail about it here, I'll just say that I was fortunate to get my former job back as an emergency services dispatcher, something I'd been doing for 11 years prior to hiring out on NJT. Although I'm glad I took the chance, some times it's better if we don't get to achieve our dream. The good thing is that it hasn't affected my love of trains and railfanning/modeling negatively. If anything, it has helped it since I now know how things work on the inside. It helps me understand what I see and hear trackside and allows me to operate my layout more realistically.
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