Saturday, April 16, 2016
Crew Call Board
After seeing what Bill was using for a call board on his Southern Pacific Cascade Line, I realized what a good fit a magnet board was for operations here also. So I stole his idea and tweaked things a bit to conform how operations are handled on this end (Thanks Bill!). Hopefully this also makes life easier for the Crew Dispatcher. There are six columns configured in an attempt to help crews get a general overview of their next job. Typically trains are run by just an Engineer, but adding an option for a Conductor allows for unfamiliar operators to mark up with an engineer on mainline trains, and also for operators that like working as a two man crew for switch jobs. Train ID and lead Engine number columns help crews find their paperwork and consist at the corresponding yard office. The call-out Time is to work with the recently installed clocks on the wall (which are also for coordinating Work and Time with the dispatcher). I have incorporated the latter to spread out the sudden start-up of operations at the beginning of sessions (which has been neglected for so long). The departing station refers to the specific yard office where the orders and throttle are to be picked up by crew members.
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I thought this worked well for us on the May 1st session by keeping us moving more eficiently to the next job. You still had to stay ahead of it but we did not have to ask you for the next order.
ReplyDeleteA problem is that there is no way to stop the clock so if we are late, and we were, the times go out the window. Maybe leave the times blank until the first train departs then at that point you can decide how to stagger them. Having the train order number with the ID would be nice too, but that's just me.
Hey John
ReplyDeleteThe intent is to focus on the Lead engine number and Train ID for crews to find their jobs. Although the Clearance Card does list the attached train order(s), I'm trying to get away from referring to TO numbers unless directly relevant to movements (or my internal paperwork).
Writing in call-times at the last minute could work for now (yuk)... A sixer to the layout owner for each crew member that is late! ...or at least your idea should work till I can get around to setting the clocks up on a common power supply (w start/stop).