Dispatch

The Cascade & North Western will be different than other VR's in yet another way. Here the engineers will not have complete freedom in choosing where and when they wish to work. A new system has been developed by Brian Element that will be called Locomotive Engineer Automated Dispatching System or LEADS. This new system will assign work to each engineer as they complete a series of work orders. New engineers will be assigned a series of introductory work orders before they are allowed to operate any equipment on the main line without supervision.

After the introductory period is completed each engineer will be assigned the first series of work orders that originate in Ada. A brief description of the first 10 work orders in this day long series appears in the concept section of the web site.

You must complete a time slip for each work order and engineers will not be able to select additional work until each phase of the previously assigned work order is completed. When you complete a time slip you will receive credit for the time alloted to that work order regardless of the actual time taken to complete the work. While this may be a little unprototypical it is the only way that the C&NW has of maintaining a schedule.

When this day of work is complete the engineer will be allowed choose to do another day of work in the Ada area or to make a mainline run. When a choice is made the engineer will be allowed to down load the equipment that is required to properly run the work order that has been chosen. Engineers will not be able to down load equipment that is not required to complete work previously or currently assigned.

After completion of a main line run the engineer will be required to select another local work order. In this manner our engineers will become proficient in yard switching, running local/pedler freights, running unit train and passenger trains. Engineers will not be able to just run one type of work order.

Ideally an engineer would be expected to select from the work options available in the location where their last mainline job terminated. As an example an engineer may complete the assignment in Ada and then select to run the Cascadian to Nuggett. There the engineer would be expected to complete at least one series of work orders in the Nuggett area before making another mainline selection. Then they might make a peddler freight run that ends in Bailey after which they would do a series of work orders that originate from Bailey.

This type of sophistication most likely will not be implemented from the beginning but it remains the goal.

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