Any one ever taken a tour of a mainline Dispatcher ? Would like to check out a BNSF subdivision in IL.
power58:
I am curious what you mean. The BNSF has main and branch lines in Illinois.
Ed Burns
Happily retired NP-BN-BNSF from Minneapolis.
He'd have a long way to go. BNSF dispatchers are located in Fort Worth. I would assume that the security around that place is pretty tight.
Even if you do get a tour of a dispatch center, and for the class 1's there are a couple layers of security, you would be behind glass in a visitor observation area. It is a safety concern to allow visitors in with the dispatchers. Most tours are restricted to limited groups by invitation only.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
I hear on the Scanner BNSF Mainline Dispatcher Mongomery Radio or Mendota Radio. I figure they have an office in the Mendota Sub area some where and that it would be interesting to see the operation. I have heard the Mainline dispatcher tell a train the defect desk showed he had a hotbox at over 500 deg. and give the axle location. Sorry I did not explain the orginal question well.
All Class I railroads have radio towers along their lines for trains to communicate with dispatchers, and each tower is (generally) named for a nearby town. The majority of the BNSF dispatchers, including the ones that handle rail traffic in Illinois, are located in Texas, as previously noted.
Brian Schmidt, Editor, Classic Trains magazine
BNSF dispatchers are in Ft Worth, TX, and UP dispatchers are in Omaha, NE. There is a joint Texas dispatch center for BNSF/UP in Willow Springs, TX.
What you are hearing is the conversation when the train crew or dispatcher uses the remote tower at those locations. If all of the BNSF radios were tied together, ther would be too much radio traffic. The dispatcher or train crew can 'dial up' a tower so that they can have a conversation between the crew and dispatcher. Normal train crew radio traffic is just local to the range of their radios for the most part.
Defective Equipment Detectors automatically transmit the wheel count after a train goes by(for the most part). The 'voice' is computer generated.
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
I once got a private tour of the Reading Company's dispatching room in Reading Terminal Philadelphia. That was back in the '60s. The communication I saw was mostly with the tower operators and yard masters.
Very interesting. Thanks for the explanation. Yep Fort worth is a long ways away.
In older times a visit to a CTC dispatching office could be quite interesting to a layman. The relay based machines with their model lengthy boards gave a very intuitive view of what was happening. Some may still exist; virtually all that technology has been superseded by microprocessors and computer monitors. That new technology also means that in many areas it is now possible to get much the same view on your own computer when located near the tracks; the topic has been discussed in the past in these forums.
Dispatching methods in dark territory have little visual interest, and probably appeal only to those already intimately familiar with the trade.
I've been in the dispatching office that handles our line (under contract). It's all paper based, and all dark territory. Being a small operation, we know most of the dispatchers and a phone call to the dispatcher on duty will usually get us in the door.
CSX in NY and MA (former CR lines) is dispatched out of Selkirk, NY. I know a couple of the dispatchers there, but haven't tried for a visit.
There are radio bases about every 20 miles along the CSX St Lawrence Sub. Each can be toned separately by the crews, and the DS will usually respond with "...answering the ??????? radio base...." The remote bases have the ability to talk on both the road channel and a separate dispatcher's channel, usually done when they are getting "paper."
I would imagine that having access to ATCS as well as the radio channels in use would give one a feel for what it's like at the desk. Of course, not every place runs with ATCS.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
You can say I took a bit of a tour with the dispatching department.
Dispatching offices aren't anything special. A bunch of people drinking way too much caffiene and smoking way too many cigarettes staring at way too many monitors trying to figure out how to get the Jell-O back in the box after you made it.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.
zugmann...trying to figure out how to get the Jell-O back in the box after you made it.
I think I've heard a few days (and nights) like that on the scanner...
The ATCS display is very similar to the display that is available to the Dispatcher. Model Board displays do not accurately display reality. Dispatcher has NO knowledge of the actual signal indication displayed in the field - The Dispatcher only knows that by lining the signal he as given the train all the operating authority he can - the signal in the field may actually indicate anything from Restricted Proceed to Clear - the Dispatcher doesn't know.
The Dispatcher's actual model board also keeps track of the Track Warrent Contol (TWC) authorities that have been issued on sections of track where that is the operating method and as long as the Computer Aided Dispatching System (CADS) rules are followed it will prevent the Dispatcher from issuing conflicting authorities.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
The ATCS is amazing, nice set up. Thanks for making the video very well done.
power58 The ATCS is amazing, nice set up. Thanks for making the video very well done.
Not my video, but it is a accurate representation of what the Dispatcher is viewing.
I became familiar with dispatching thru software once sold by Signal Computer Consultants. I found the simulations to be very realistic with displays like that shown in the video above, and offered for various dispatching districts. My favorite is CP's Mountain and Laggin Subs from Calgary To Revelstoke, and the district covered by UPìs dispatcher 57 from Roseville to Binney Jct via both Brock and Del Paso.
Differing days have different scenarios with some days having very heavy traffic and many maintenance windows. You can tie up the sub pretty easy if you're not watching crew expirations, track and time, length of sidings, drawbridge raisings, all that. Six or 7 trains stacked up in both directions waiting for a track surfacing gang to finish can be a stomach churning event to get through. I find it a lot of fun tho.
I was in the dispatcher's office of the C&O at Wyoming (Grand Rapids), Michigan, on a couple of tours in my pre-career days. He threw a switch for us a couple of times to show how the board would respond. Perhaps the neatest thing there the second time (not the first) was the pair of styluses (probably not the correct plural) printing out a line of blips when a train went past a hotbox detector (in those days there may have been only the one on the subdivision). This office had two dispatchers' desks for the Grand Rapids Division: one from GR to Porter and one from GR to Detroit. The main lines were CTC, of course; each dispatcher had a few lines of dark territory to cover.
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
BNSF Mendota Subdivision, Galesburg - Montgomery, IL. 'Mainline' DS.
CC
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