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This screen presents a track diagram of a segment of CTC-controlled railroad on the BNSF.
This particular screen features (name of territory), between --- and --- .
Following is a detailed description of what you see on the screen:
Maintenance of way (men and machines working on the track)
authority to occupy the track under TRACK AND TIME permits is indicated by BLUE (turn text blue);
trains and track occupancies are indicated
by RED (turn text red), or by PURPLE (turn text purple) if they are within the limits of a TRACK AND
TIME permit issued to a train or MW employee;
active routes (meaning signals lined in advance of a train) are indicated by GREEN (turn text green),
plus an arrow indicating the direction of the lined route; and "stored" routes (routes
"stacked" to execute after the completion of the current train movement) appear in ORANGE (turn
text orange), again with an arrow indicating the direction. Stored routes are a CTC dispatcher's
most convenient shortcut, allowing trains to meet more expediently when a dispatcher is
occupied with other duties.
Note the station and control point names (Digicon abbreviates longer names to no more than 6 letters)
and corresponding mileposts which appear above the track diagram. The green letter "M" above
each control point indicates that the dispatcher has placed the control point in "Manual" control.
If the control point was placed in " automatic " (meaning it would automatically line a signal in
advance of an approaching train), a yellow "A" would replace the green "M".
Note the 2-digit indication (usually a letter and a number) above each track occupancy. Digicon
cannot display complete train symbols or engine numbers above the trains on the track diagrams
(presumably due to space limitations), so dispatchers must look for the corresponding ID at the
bottom of the screen to see the train symbol and engine number. This can be fun on a dispatching
desk with 30 or 35 trains! The "Equipment" column indicates the name of the maintenance of
way employee holding track and time permits, indicated by the blue blocks on the track diagram.
Also note the 2-digit number in the lower left corner of the screen; this is a dispatching workstation
number, unique to each desk. On the former Santa Fe desks, this is the number by which the dispatchers
identify themselves over the radio (DS-4, DS-22, etc). Former BN dispatchers use the name of the
dispatching district.
Finally, note that even the dispatcher's initials appear in the lower right corner. Management employees
have the ability to run " instant replays" of what happens on a given dispatching territory, and
if they see a replay of an important train that was delayed, they don't have to look very far to see
who was responsible!
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