I would like to with your permission add the above comments in the Rule Book for my model railroad, Eastern Illinois Santa Fe. I am developing this Rule Book for Operation on my layout. You can see my railroad at www.atsf93.com
I would like to give you credit for your remarks if I can have your permission.
I dispatched on the BNSF and ideally management would like to get dispatchers out to ride their territory once a year if relief is available. Of course, when you do go, you are a sounding board for every crewmans gripe about every dispatcher on the railroad. One engineer I was riding with from Minneapolis to Staples years ago asked me in the course of the conversation what religion I practiced. I paused as I didn't know where he was going with this but then to be safe I figured said I was atheist, no particular religion. He said he figured as much. All dispatchers act like they're God. And then the KC office decided it cost too much money to fly their dispatchers to outlying territories like Amarillo and the Hereford Subdivision, so they directed dispatchers to ride a train to get to Amarillo. Even on a Z priority train, that burns off a good two days of your 5 day road trip. Better yet if you took a grain train out of KC to get there. You would burn off your five days before you got to Wellington if you weren't careful. I always used to like to drive to my territory and then poke around with MOW and local crews to get a better feel of what I was dispatching. The Ride The Train crap kept me from ever taking a road trip again.
I don't know if the other western giant has dispatchers ride or if these guys are coming up on their vacations to do it, but some seem very familiar with local spots.
When the Creston Sub gets backed up with westbounds trying to get into Hobson Yard (Lincoln), I have heard dispatchers with a Texas drawl talk to train crews about bunching up at a road crossing near the I-80/US-6 junction east of Lincoln. Hearing that drawl on the radio "I'm going to have you pull west of the signal to Shakers". Shakers is a strip joint west of Waverly,NE. How does the DS in Texas know that?
Been there, done that?
Part of the 'physical characteristics' that Dispatchers MUST know is where trains can be held, with the ability to get to the crews and not have the trains block any road crossings. Each of those locations on each territory are well known to both the crews and dispatchers on that territory.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
mbv9415 I don't know if the other western giant has dispatchers ride or if these guys are coming up on their vacations to do it, but some seem very familiar with local spots. When the Creston Sub gets backed up with westbounds trying to get into Hobson Yard (Lincoln), I have heard dispatchers with a Texas drawl talk to train crews about bunching up at a road crossing near the I-80/US-6 junction east of Lincoln. Hearing that drawl on the radio "I'm going to have you pull west of the signal to Shakers". Shakers is a strip joint west of Waverly,NE. How does the DS in Texas know that?
He'll know that becuase the crews have commonly referred to it by that name, and it is a regular event. No doubt the crew bus also uses the name as an easily understood location. And such local names often survive long after the namesake has disappeared, puzzling subsequent generations.
John
Where I work, we get road days on any territory before we mark up as qualified on that territory. And any dispatcher holding a regular job is supposed to get road days on that territory at least once a year. So I've seen most of the territory I'm qualified on, but a lot of it I've only seen once or twice. Some areas (such as areas I've lived in or the yard I worked in), I know better than others.
We do also have access to video, taken by a camera on the geometry train, of most of our tracks.
Nora...
Nora! Long time, no see!
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...
tree68Nora! Long time, no see!
No kidding! My fiance saw a link to this thread in his Trains newsletter and suggested I add my two cents. Looks like a lot has changed here!
on Amtrak we are given four road days a year. one is used for the book of rules the others to ride the head end of trains on your section. I was hired by PRR in 1961 as a block operator on the Phila, terminal div. promoted to TD in 1970. when qualifying on a new territory we were given the opportunity to ride the head end of a train.
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