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Short Line Data Systems Inc. ROCS Update – February 2006
Website: www.sdsrocs.com
Greetings –
January rolls out and February rolls in with a lot of things going on here. In the last month we have made visits to a couple of old friends, set up a new system at a new friend, and have had time to work on the systems to add some new features. And on top of all of that we are getting ready for the CSX Short Line Conference later this month, and have made the decision to add another product to the ROCS family. So, with a full plate of news to report, let’s get going.
Travels
The 2006 travel season is underway, with over 4200 miles under our belts so far. We made a visit to the Texas Central Business Lines to do some heavy maintenance and upgrades to their system, followed by an install trip to Chicago to set up the Blackwell Northern Gateway’s system. We went up to the Housatonic a couple of days ago to do some follow up work on a secondary freight settlement database that we created for them about two years ago, and we have come up with a couple of changes to this database that may eventually find their way into the main ROCS system. In the past I have talked about how important the input from the users is for us to identify areas in need of improvement, and making visits like this help identify things that we need to do, and features in the system that the user might not have known existed, adding to the usefulness of the ROCS system to their company.
Version 10
The development of the full package of Version 10 continues, and we have added a powerful new feature that will add new utility to the system. The Equipment Inventory functions allow the user to know what types of equipment they have in their inbound and on line inventory. The inventory search can be refined by equipment type or last commodity, and an export feature can send the location data to a mapping program to show where the cars are on a map with a reasonable level of accuracy.
In addition to the Equipment Inventory we have added some coding to trap some errors that occur at times when creating outbound bills or consists, and this will clean up the outbound data that we transmit to Railinc and our Class 1 partners.
Dispatch
We have made some additional changes to the main screen of ROCSDispatch. The buttons on the side of the main track display have been rearranged, and small displays of the Forms D, Foul Time, Flagmen, and Grade Crossings Out of Service on the entire railroad have been added to the main screen. By adding these displays you now have a better understanding of what is happening on the entire railroad without having to bounce around to various sub-screens. Right now the changes have been made to the NORAC version, but they will be made to the GCOR version shortly.
Mapping will find its way into ROCSDispatch shortly. We are working at incorporating full street maps into the system. This will not replace the main screen display, but it will supplement it and probably be of use during emergency situations.
On the Road Again
We will be on the road again later this month at the CSX Short Line Conference in Jacksonville Feb. 15-17. Look for us at the trade show on Thursday afternoon, and we would be happy to sit down with anyone interested in a demonstration at your convenience.
Coming Soon: ROCSFleet
We have started the development of a set of fleet and shipper’s tools to be called ROCSFleet. It will take some of the best features of the classic ROCS system and refine them in a package that will benefit the manager of a fleet of cars or a shipper or customer that has a reasonable amount of traffic to keep track of at all times. The system can be set for a fixed fleet of cars or use a parameter trace to determine the cars to keep track of.
Stay tuned for more on the system as development continues. Our current schedule anticipates having the system ready for demonstrations at the ASLRRA Annual Convention in April, where we might have an announcement about another project that we are working on.
Well that’s all for now. I look forward to seeing everyone in Jax in a couple of weeks.
Stay Safe, Steven Friedland President |
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