Jeff, Zug, or anyone else that uses this or a similar system, if you can safely answer without fear of retaliation:
Do you prefer to have the system nag you, or would prefer to think for yourself?
Do you feel that you can run a train better with the system?
Do you like having the information the system provides?
Do you think it really helps that much that it justifies the cost?
Do you feel management will use this as a further tool for discipline?
I have a very similar system in my personal vehicle, except I’m not given the full 14 seconds to comply.[:-^]
I have very limited expereince using the stuff. I mostly run 30 year old 4 axles that don’t have any of that crap in them.
I prefer to run the train myself. There are places I will turn off LEADER because it does a bad job in some areas. Once through the problem spots, I will let it run me again. The only thing good about LEADER is the information displayed on the screen. It predicts what your speed might be up a few miles ahead of you. (When in use and prompting mode, it seems to want to run fast where it should be thinking about going slower and run slow when it should be going faster. I think it might be the constant calculating and predicting speed ahead. It “sees” that it will be overspeed a mile or so ahead so wants to throttle down. Than it “sees” that it’s underspeed now, so wants to throttle up. Just back and forth like that at times.) It has a buff/draft indicator, speedometer and accelerometer. The display shows crossings and bridges/culverts. It also shows maximum speed and where permanent and temporary slows are at. (LEADER asks if you want to accept or reject a temporary slow. If you’re on a 50mph train, no reason to accept a 50mph or above slow. Also handy since LDR doesn’t know which track you’re on in multiple main track areas.) I like the screen, but I can do better than the computer prompts in many areas.
LEADER auto throttle version works better. Although, when the fence is up and you’re running the DP separately from the head end, LDR only makes throttle/dynamic changes on one engine consist at a time. With about 20 or 30 seconds being the norm anymore to have a DP show that it has responded to the head end, sometimes LDR just waits to do anything until the DP has respo
My experience with Trip Optimizer was that it is slow. It would slow down way too far in advance. Then there were times when it would not slow down soon enough. It would approach a 30 mph at 35 and then decide to use the dynamic. By the time it cycled from power to dynamic and back to power the speed would be 20 mph. I could hit 30 mph just by adjusting the throttle.
It may save fuel on individual trains by going slow but that doesn’t consider the effect on any number of following trains that are delayed.
Mark Vinski
I’ve heard others say T-O runs slow, but I’ve only experienced one time when it did. I had a welded rail train about 1/4 loaded. The paperwork showed a weight equal to a fully loaded train. The T-O calculated the trip for a fully loaded train. On the heaviest grades, since T-O calculated the train (due to the weight) would crest the grade at about 15mph, it ran the train to crest the grade at 15mph. On the second heavy grade, again showing a plan for 15mph, I took over and went over the top at 30 mph.
I’ve always felt going into slows, T-O likes to run hot. Hence the time I took over from it.
One other thing about LEADER. We have around some terminal areas Manual Control Only zones. It’s because in these areas signals may be less than clear so they figure manual control will be required. The bad thing is, in these zones you lose the operation screen completely. It was told us that LEADER is supposed to assist the engineer, even if the prompts/auto throttle are inactive. So much for that idea.
Jeff