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Short Line Data Systems ROCS Update - November 2005
Website: www.sdsrocs.com
Greetings -
Well, October has passed, and a month of travel has passed quickly. The ASLRRA
should be complimented on the programs at each of the three regional meetings,
as it was one of the most balanced sets of presentations that I have seen at the
meetings, and each of the meetings had enough variety to keep the people who
attended all three interested for at least part of the program. At the meetings
there was a lot of interest in both ROCS and ROCSDispatch, and the
progress on the revision projects for both of these projects will be described
in this update. We are especially excited in the direction that ROCSDispatch
is taking, as we are making the changes to the system needed to be compliant
with the General Code of Operating Rules, or GCOR. But as I said above, we will
discuss this in more detail below.
Version 10
The revisions for V10 are progressing, with most of the emphasis being placed on
the Railinc Nextpath communications system. We have decided to utilize the
flexibility of the system to modify how we send and receive data, which should
help to a better job of making sure that messages get to Railinc, and the data
gets to you. What we have decided to do is to continue to use FTP (file transfer
protocol) to receive data, but the files will be processed more before being
sent to the user, which will speed data translation. The big change will be on
the upload side, where the user’s email program will be used to send the data to
Railinc. The reliability improvement will come from the fact that most email
programs will continue to send the message until they connect to the email
server, so dropped connections can be avoided. We are starting to data test some
messages right now, and moving ahead with the rest of the system as time
permits.
ROCSDispatch
As we stated above, we have been very busy with revisions to ROCSDispatch
to make it conform to the GCOR book of rules. The interest in the system has
been flattering, with inquiries coming from both NORAC and GCOR railroads, and
we hope to be making announcements about some new users in the near future.
In addition to the GCOR revisions, we have been adding modules to deal with the
FRA Emergency Order 24, which deals with switch position awareness, which has
arisen after the accident in Greenville SC, and other smaller incidents
throughout the year. The order requires railroads to further train their crews
in switch operation procedures, and add one of two procedures to their regular
operations. The first option is to operate trains prepared to stop prior to
reaching a switch that might be misaligned, and the second incorporates a form
that must be filled out by the train or MOW crew that indicates when a switch
has been reversed, and returned to normal, and confirmation by both the
conductor and engineer that the actions have been performed. Both procedures
include notification by the train crew to the dispatcher that the switch has
been operated, and we have added a switch position indication to the main
dispatch screen, and an area to record the operation of the switch. We have also
added the ability to show a track that has been isolated by blue flag or other
means. The EO is not the initial or final rule making, but we have tried to keep
ahead of the curve as much as possible.
We are also starting to build the crew management functions of Dispatch, which
will include crew assignments, time and delay recording, extra personnel
assignments, and other tools to better manage your train crews. One of the goals
of SDS has been to create tools that supplement or replace paper forms, and we
will continue doing this in other areas, such as MOW forms, such as track and
grade crossing inspections.
The GCOR revisions will be complete by the end of the month, and the crew
functions should be ready around the end of the year.
Well, that’s about all for now. We will be back at the beginning of December
with the latest on the projects underway, and an update on the progress we are
having with ROCSMobile.
Be Safe,
Steven Friedland
President
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