How Does Dispatching Work?

[orange choo choo]

I'm currious as to how this works. Amtrak and Metrolink have set schedules and routes, so do they just start their shift and go station to station trying to hit the target arrival times without asking or being given permission from the DS and does the DS just route them around other trains without alerting the engineer such as routing it east on M3, crossover to M2 to pass something, and back to M3 for arrival at Fullerton? I sometimes hear the DS on the scanner asking them to wait if they are really delayed and miss their "window" but that's usually it unless there's something out of the ordinary.

How does freight dispatching work? How do they know when to go and when/where to stop or wait? When I listen to the scanner I don't hear them requesting a set of blocks to traverse. I really only hear them when they are about to enter a Form B area, cross a mainline (such as the Marlboro swithcer), or something similar.

[LAJswitchman]

Whoa, this might be the heaviest question I've ever seen asked on this forum. I don't know where to begin, perhaps you might be interested in the video game called Train Dispatcher.

[Amtrakboy32]

http://softrail.com/traindis3sof.html

[orange choo choo]

I tried a free dispatcher game, so that's basically it? The dispatcher lines the routes and the engineer just looks at the signals and goes (or stops)?

[n6nvr]

Matthew 8:9 etc

9 “For I, too, am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” 10 Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled, and said to those who were following, “Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel. 11 “And I say to you, that many shall come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven; 12 but the sons of the kingdom shall be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

That weeping and gnashing of teeth comes when you roll through a red or dark block.

[orange choo choo]

At what point do they inform the DS that they need routing such as a train wanting to leave Hobart to head east on the mainline or a Surfliner starting its route?

[Axy_Dent]

Start here. Too much to expand on.

http://www.vtd.net/vtdpub/ETD/ETD%20V1.html

Axy

[orange choo choo]

Alright, so after reading the replies and then my question I realized I didn't put two-and-two together especially after my many questions about signals

I guess my focus should have been on the last question about how does the DS know when a train is going online on a route. The passenger trains have established routes & schedules that the DS works with and routes freights around it. And it looks like the DS gets some type of heads-up as to the freights that will be running that day through his territory.

I sometimes mix up my short-term memory with my long-term, and in this case I was thinking about the 80s when I would hear SP conductors getting track warrants over the radio so I began to wonder how they do it now.

[Axy_Dent]

(01-27-2012 04:58 AM)roee Wrote:  

(01-26-2012 09:26 PM)Axy_Dent Wrote:  Start here. Too much to expand on.

http://www.vtd.net/vtdpub/ETD/ETD%20V1.html

Axy

Is that a decent book? I've seen it before and wondered how good it was, if it was geared towards railfans, or potential dispatchers?

Most excellent reading material geared for potential dispatchers. It is not geared for railfans. I have his second book and still haven't read it yet. These books are on the shelves at the UP dispatching training facility and used as reference material if that gives you an idea of how well written theses books are. If you are the kind of railfan who likes to only take pictures, stand track side and watch trains this isn’t for you. If you are an operating kind of person who can differentiate the difference between initiating movement on the main track and delayed in block you might understand it.

By the way; for a class of 16 starting in April there were over 800 applicants. Yowsa!

Trick question: Can an absolute signal convey authority in TWC?

Answer: No

When a train comes upon a stop signal in TWC the dispatcher may give them permission by the signal. If unable to contact the dispatcher the crew may pull past the signal 100 feet, stop, wait 5 mins then proceed at restricted speed to the next governing signal or end of block.

Axy

[Axy_Dent]

(01-27-2012 05:04 PM)roee Wrote:  

(01-27-2012 09:27 AM)Axy_Dent Wrote:  Most excellent reading material geared for potential dispatchers.

Sounds good. I'll keep a look out for it. I think of myself as more than just a railfan.

I was amazed with how much great information is packed into his book.

Axy