Guys,
Are there any dispatchers on this forum? I’ve been listening with my new scanner from Chad Thomas and I was wondering what is it like being a dispatcher out there. How are the hours and the pay? Mainly, what exactly does the job in tale?
Hey Zak,
I can’t tell you what it’s like to be a real dispatcher, but I have dispatcher simulator 3.5 with 400 territorys and it’s my favorite game/sim at the moment. I run it all the time and it’s a blast. I’ll show you it next time I see you.
You up for Cajon this weekend?
Ah man, I’m playing around of golf and the wife only lets me out of her site for a few hours. What about the week after?
I’ve dispatched for Conrail, Santa Fe, and the GTW.
There is an “Hours of Service” law that only allows us to work the maximum of 9 hours, but we always worked in 8 hr. shifts.
I started out as a Block Operator and was promoted to a Train Dispatcher after only about a year of service. Of course there were tests that have to be taken and road trips to learn all of the territories that I worked with.
I really enjoyed it. And of course the pay wasn’t bad either. The only problem I had was the little seniority I had so it was tough to hang on to a job.
Now I have a Train Dispatcher simulator program and have a lot of the same territories I use to dispatch.
I’ve been told there were no old train dispatchers as they either have a heart attack or go crazy!!!
But I really enjoyed the job and always looked forward to going to work.
cf7
Where did you get that game Chad?
hey R.J.,
I got it froma company called “Softrail”. Here is there info:
Softrail
1098 Venetia Road
Eighty Four, PA 15330
Ph.# 888 872-4612
or
724 942-1473
And remember this is chess not checkers [;)]
im not a 'spatcher but ive been railraoding from the armchair and the rails for awhile…you cant learn to be a dispatcher…your born with it
*railroading
Dispatching trains was one of the hardest jobs I ever had. Coming from an EMS dispatching experience as well as several years on the street as a paramedic, I had spent years speaking in EMS language. I was totally unfamiliar with train lingo. When one crew called up and asked me to fleet the signal so they could run around their train and set out a few…well, I looked up at the training dispatcher and said, “Uh, they want me to do what?”
Dispatching trains requires the ability to plan ahead for meets, to keep trains moving despite the daily interference of late crews, or tripped detectors, or poorly set-up meets. It requires knowing when your crews are dead-heading and where they will dead-head and to then try and avoid them deadheading!
Dispatching means knowing your territory so well that you don’t stop a train for a meet where they will have to cut the train apart for street crossings or have to pull extra hard to get up an incline.
Dispatching means you have to handle radio calls from crews who are staring at a red signal because you forgot to clear the route and listen to irritated yard masters wondering why you aren’t moving trains out of the yard or accepting their request for a date. (Okay, maybe that doesn’t happen to everyone.[;)]
But you also get to use your brain, work with some of the best people anywhere and laugh at everyone’s story for the day. It was fun, challenging and difficult. After six weeks of class and two months on the job, I quit. But for those who can get the job and keep it, it is a very rewarding career choice. The smaller railroads don’t pay alot, but benefits are usually good. Your first years will put you low man on the roster and you will work a lot of “midnights in a train yard.” And if you don’t get a regular shift, it can be hard on your family.
But I wouldn’t trade my brief experience in railroading for anything. There was something beyond d
I’ve been using the simulator from Softrail (Signal Computer Consultants) for @12 years now. It’s a very good simulator… It gives you a very good sense of what it is like to be a dispatcher. The main thing that is missing from the simulator is the radio calls/chatter/etc. Dialogue boxes replace radio calls when necessary There are good territories and there are some not so good ones out there. (BTW… still putting the finishing touches on the UP Geneva Sub sim with… oh… @300(?) train movements a day. Of course, I’m trying to keep it up to date which means that I’m always putting the finishing touches on it! If anybody wants the latest version, send me an email.)
Maybe this is what Chad was refering to on another post about ATS…
CC
The simulators show you about 10% of the dispatcher’s job, and I’m being generous in that assessment. Unfortunately lots of people who should know better are lured by the simulations into thinking that train dispatching is some sort of video game/sandbox exercise. Dispatching is one of the arcane arts of railroading, along with signaling, rate making, and operating rules. No offense, but those who are not “in the know” cannot know. Of course that doesn’t sit well with many people. No one likes it when their subordinates know something they don’t know, and when the subordinates can do something that management can’t, it gives them power. Thus there’s been much effort put into automating things such as dispatching, typically designed by people who don’t know what it’s all about, and the results are typically very bad.
S. Hadid
Dispatching, along with yardmastering, are among the most arcane arts in railroading. Right up there with industrial switching.
While, I’m not a dispatcher, I am a Yardmaster/Trainmaster for in a terminal that is a major crew change point, sees a good amount of trains picking up and dropping off, and is frequently used as a holding point when traffic is heavy. In addition, I have local crews that need access to the area’s customers.
There are times, I’ll have three or four crews trying to work at the same time, in the same space. It takes a good deal of planning, finese, cooperation, and sometimes just plain dumb luck to make this all happen, and keep everyone moving, and to find spots to stash holding trains.
Often, I will ask the dispatcher to send me trains in a certain order, or to slow an on coming train down, so one guy can set off, one can pick up, one can change crews, and a fourth can service a customer. Four crews, moving in three different directions - no one stops.
When it goes right, it’s like watching a perfectly orchestrated ballet. When it goes wrong, it looks like a monkey having relations with a football.
Nick
In my opinion, the logistics of dispatching and classification yards are the two areas in which I have the most interest. Process logistics fascinates me and I never tire of it. It is a thing of beauty to see someone doing it well.
If I were to start all over, I would become an RR dispatcher or yardmaster.
To those of you who keep America’s railroads running, I salute you!!![tup]
Nick and Mr. Hadid:
Thanks for your insight in two very critical jobs in the industry. As stated many times, I am a listener. I have 3 scanners running in my house and find it fascinating to listen in on the conversations between the crews, dispatchers, and RWIC as all attempt to do their jobs.
Nick, I am far enough from a yard that I do not hear the drama of those critical points.
I ask both of you, plus any others out there…what is your ideal territory or yard? This can either be real or in your minds.
How would you design a territory which sees, lets say 50 plus freight trains a day, consisting of manifests, stacks, fast intermodals, coal trains, plus 2 Amtraks per day? I would assume with this volume it would either be double track, or mostly double. What other features both on the line and approaching the yard and in the yard limits?
Does this ideal territory exist today?
ed
No, but I have both.
The Softrail simulator is a game / simulation.
ATCS Monitor is a program that allows you to see the real thing, on a real railroad territiry. When in Cajon pass I can pull out my laptop, plug in my scanner (modified scanner) for the data stream, load ATCS program and Cajon pass territory file, then see where on the sub the trains are and what routes they are currently lined out for. I can also get some territorys through the internet, but someone has to host the data stream just like someone has to host a scanner feed for railroadradionet.