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Short Line Data Systems ROCS Update – July 2007 Website: www.sdsrocs.com Greetings – Summer is fully upon us, and we’ve been out and about doing installs and customer visits all over the country. We have also completed the upgrading of all customers to Version 10 of ROCS, and we have also started to install some minor upgrades to ROCS to improve reliability at some of our users. All of these upgrades are going to be rolled into Version 11, which we are starting to build and test, and we plan to release in early 2008. We are also working on our revamp of the Rating DB, which we hope to have testing in the near future, and some additions to PET ROCS which will add some new reports and functionality to our passenger ticketing system. Out and About June was a busy travel month, with two install trips and one maintenance trip. Our first trip was to Washington state to the new Eastern Washington Gateway Railroad, who started operations in early June. They are using both ROCS and ROCSDispatch, and as we mentioned last month, the EWG is the second operation owned by US Rail Partners, joining the Blackwell Northern Gateway Railroad in Kansas and Oklahoma. Our next excursion was to Erie, PA and the East Erie Commercial Railroad, a longtime ROCS user. We go out to Erie once a year or so to do maintenance on their system, due to security restrictions in the locomotive plant. The EEC had the last active ROCS Version 9 in service (albeit one that was really more than halfway to Version 10), and on this visit we upgraded them to the most recent iteration of Version 10, which completely retired Version 9. To close out the month we were off to North Carolina and the Carolina Coastal Railway (CLNA). The CLNA has been in operation for almost four years now, and we have been performing the data entry for them on ROCS since they started operations. On June 30 they took over operations on almost 150 miles of Norfolk Southern’s East Carolina Business Unit, and we went down to their base of operations in Wilson, NC to install ROCS and ROCSDispatch on their computer. Starting new operations on any railroad is a big job, and our compliments to everyone at the CLNA for a very smooth startup to what is a very large expansion for them. Version 10 upgrades We have been rolling out some upgrades to Version 10, which we have designated Version 10C. The 10C upgrades include two stability improvements. They both will cut down on the need to make a support call if the user runs into problems when processing inbound data, and are part of a bigger revision to the inbound data processing system that will be the centerpiece of Version 11. The other revision that is a part of the 10C package is a check on the date that the user enters when interchanging cars inbound or outbound. If the entered date is more than ten days in the past or in the future, a warning box will pop up and double check that the date entered is what the user wanted to use. We will probably add further checks to the dates entered on the Customer Status screen and the Advance Cars screen after we get a bit more experience with the two checks that have been created. As was mentioned at the start of this update we have started revisions to the Rating DB, which is a no-cost option to ROCS that helps users keep track of the many rating options, like weight rates, car size rates, or per car rates. It also helps users keep track of payments with the CSXT Junction Settlement system, which requires the junction settlement railroad to audit against the payments made by CSXT. The planned upgrades include revised screens for a better “flow”, better automatic rating, and integration of electronic payment statements from the paying railroad to record payments, and allow the user to audit those payments easily. PET ROCS As we have mentioned in previous updates, PET ROCS has been in use at the Maine Eastern RR for just over a year. We have been adding features to the system as things have been requested by the staff in Maine, but we really have never done a combined review by the people who use it every day and the financial people in the home office. The review was completed last week, and a list of improvements is being compiled. Once we get the list we will get to work on putting the improvements in place as quickly as possible. Upcoming Schedule We will be on the road again for the NS Short Line Conference in Roanoke on July 29-31. As we have had the last few years we will have a booth at the trade show on Monday evening, and we will have all of our products available for demonstrations. That’s all for now, and we’ll be back next month with all of the news that’s fit for print. Stay safe, Steven Friedland President |
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