Directional Awareness

Overheard during an operating session on The Hills Line…

Crew: "So the yard report lists cars from East to West, but the railroad runs South to North, right?"

Me: "Correct."

Crew: "That doesn't really make sense."

Me: "Well... you see... uhmm..."

Crew: "You would think the prototype would want those two items to match?"

They would, and they do. It just took me being slapped on the head to figure it out.

The RailConnect TMS/RMS system that both the Iowa Interstate and CRANDIC use for car tracking is capable of generating numerous reports from a set of data. That way crews of a specific train, yard, or station only get the information they need concerning their job. If you’re the yardmaster at Newton, you’re only concerned about getting the car out of your yard and onto the correct train. No need to worry about what happens after that moment.

But that same system can take the same set of data and present it in a manner specific to a certain job or crew member. Want to know what cars are carrying hazardous lading? Need a list of which stations are exceeding capacity? Wondering what the total tonnage will be at the initial terminal? All possible.

So it makes sense that cars could and would be listed by different cardinal directions as needed by specific crews and jobs. A few button clicks later, that option is now in place on The Hills Line.