Re: (erielack) Train Orders - Upper Case

[Robert Stafford <erielack1_@_yahoo.com>]

BNSF. When I was to school in Ft Worth this past April
we where given a Power Point on the next thing to be
applied to the railroad. Locomotives will have a
computer screen installed and the dispatcher will send
track warrents to the screen, crew will reply back via
the screen. Locomotive will have GPS system that will
track its location and will warn crew when they are
approaching a speed restriction or the end of their
authority. If crew takes no action to comply with the
track warrent train will be put into a pentaly
application or emergency application which ever is
proper for the situation. Every short version of a 30
mins of slides followed by question and answer time. 
We already have such a system in place on our high
rail trucks.
Bob Stafford
- --- Charles_Walsh_@_Berlex.com wrote:

> 
> Bill,
> 
> I'm wondering if you would know if there are any
> railroads using, or
> experimenting with, wireless technology for
> text-messenging of orders?
> 
> Chuck
> 
> 
> 
>                                                     
>                                                     
>                          
>                       TrainGG1_@_aol.com              
>                                                     
>                          
>                       Sent by:                      
>                                                     
>                          
>                       erielack-owner_@_list To:    
> erielack_@_lists.railfan.net                          
>                             
>                       s.elhts.org         cc:       
>                                                     
>                          
>                                           Subject:  
>                                                     
>                          
>                                                  
> (erielack) Train Orders - Upper Case                
>                             
>                       08/16/2005 04:43 PM           
>                                                     
>                          
>                       Please respond to             
>                                                     
>                          
>                       TrainGG1                      
>                                                     
>                          
>                                                     
>                                                     
>                          
>                                                     
>                                                     
>                          
> 
> 
> 
> Regarding Train orders, Bill Sheppard sent this
> Email on August 16th on the
> 
> subject of using all CAPS in the typing of orders:
> 
> One reason that train  orders were typed in upper
> case letters is because
> the
> more concentrated force  of smaller, lower case
> characters could tear into
> the flimsy paper used for  train orders, especially
> when manifold copies
> were
> made with carbon paper. When  making many copies at
> once, the typewriter
> functioned more like a pile driver, I  recall.
> 
> Having started out my illustrious railroad career on
> the C&NW, I  remember
> typing train orders and using an ancient Underwood
> typewriter for  that
> purpose
> (which was also used for billing). Yes, train orders
> were always  done in
> CAPS
> and often five or six copies at a time (which meant
> you had to  beat the
> darn
> keys into the keybed to ensure that the sixth copy
> was legible).  When you
> read the orders back to the Dispatcher you had to
> read EVERYTHING --  and
> when
> reading numbers you would read something as
> followings: ...from  Milepost
> 8.5
> [then say] "eight dot five" from 2:01 PM [then  say]
> "two zero one P.
> M."...
> and it had to be exact or you had to  retype the
> whole darn thing (after
> having
> the Dispatcher ream you a new  one).
> 
> With photocopy machines life got much easier. The
> operator could  type the
> train order once on prescribed form and after
> reading the  orders back you
> could
> copy as many copies as needed. In today's world, 
> orders (read "track
> warrants") are often faxed to yard offices/stations
> for  distribution to
> crews.
> However, as there are virtually no order offices 
> along the line anymore,
> if the
> Dispatcher has a temporary slow order or grade 
> crossing malfunction to
> send to
> the train he/she will call the train on the  radio
> and have the crew "write
> 
> paper" (a "track permit"). This often  requires the
> train to stop and the
> crew
> writes the track permit -- reading  it back to the
> Dispatcher in the same
> way
> the operators did with train orders.  The use of ALL
> CAPS has fallen into
> disuse, except at the beginning of a  sentence or in
> the proper name of a
> person,
> place or location (for example,  milepost is still
> abbreviated (in CAPS) as
> 
> "M.P."
> 
> As an aside, in the Chicago area we still have one
> tower (Rondout on the CP
> 
> (ex-CMStP&P) which "hoops" orders to frt crews on a
> regular basis. Some  of
> 
> the crews, unaccustomed to this procedure,
> occasionally miss catching  the
> orders and have to stop their train and walk back to
> retrieve them. Are
> there any
> places out east still doing this?
> 
> Bill Shapotkin
> 
> 
> 
>              The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List
>              Sponsored by the ELH&TS
>              http://www.elhts.org
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 	The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List
> 	Sponsored by the ELH&TS
> 	http://www.elhts.org
> 


	The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List
	Sponsored by the ELH&TS
	http://www.elhts.org

------------------------------