ATCS info and tricks--and some basics--CN

[CN5710]

A few things we have learned..

Page up/page down zooms in and out on the dispatcher display.

Pressing the ctrl button (lower left of the Keyboard)(press and hold) shows communication details of the control points.

Teal blocks around switches means moving or in railroad terms "out of correspondence"

Purple boxes around switches "locked and lined".

"in time" appears east and west signals seem to head on..THIS IS NORMAL..Nothing is wrong with your screen..safety item for dispatchers...Dispatchers unable to line anything for pre determined time..ensures all previous moves are clear.

Snowflakes..switch heaters activated to keep the switches clear of ice and snow.

P.O ...power is out at that control point. Battery back-up is working. Better call signal maintainer out to service soon and find out why the shack has lost AC power.

White and red control points(or citys)..White means "not getting" indication info from that control point on regular basis...Red means "getting" Regular control point info on a regular basis.

Colored track....White is the track, red is a train, green is lined for a train.

You can click on any of the DEPOTS, and SAL in Durand and your mouse will turn red..meaning.. Mike installed a hyperlink to the Depot and Durand audio feeds for ease of opening multiple pages (once mouse turns red, just click on them)..

MPXXX.X are CN mile posts.

I hope everyone is enjoying the site. We have probably 500 hours in this. I wanted to get this info out for anyone who didn't already know this stuff.

Thanks for looking..

Dan

PLEASE READ BELOW..We forgot a few things..

[odave]

Thanks for posting that - I was just about to ask about the purple boxes around the switches and wasn't sure what topic to use.

One question - and I may have missed this in another post - why is there a section of the Flint Service track in gray?

Fantastic job guys. I "watched" a meet in Durand earlier this evening from the cozy warmth of my family room. I'll be sending in a donation come payday

[CN5710]

Mike installed the gray track in some areas meaning that we have no communication whatsoever with that part of the track (CN never installed the hardware)... Meaning a train could "disappear" in that track and then re-appear on on the display on a track that we can see.

Also I forgot..control points (or citys) turning blue..a new bit of control information is on the way...here comes a change in the signals, switches etc.
They will turn blue for about 5 seconds (depends on how much info is coming down the line) then turn back red..

Sorry for the add on post..

Dan

[mikerm19]

Thanks!

Yeah, I love it, and watch it often. I dunno, I just think it's really cool.

[CN5710]

Quick Story..

We were watching ATCS one night, we saw the Belsay Turn blue several times on a real snowy night. We also noticed the the Belsay switch was "Teal boxed" or out of correspondence. The control point turned blue again and again. What we were watching was the dispatcher trying to move that switch! It wasn't moving and locking into position. (We could tell because the box around that Belsay switch never turned purple or "locked"). Sure enough, through the wonderful audio feed, we heard the signal maintainer call in to the dispatcher for the location of the malfunction. "We have a stuck switch in Belsay..go investigate". The maintainer went to the problem location and repaired the problem. It was very interesting to watch what was happening from the dispatcher perspective and watch the maintainer through ATCS. What we are watching is real life data. Kinda cool!!

[Mike]

If there are any questions on how/why please dont hesitate to ask. We have been very busy past few weeks getting ready to add more area to the feed. (There are changes coming to the layout file.) I just want to add a few more things to Dan's post that started this.

The Dark area = trackage that is not detected by the CN cTc system or that we can look at with our system as in the case of the CSX/CN Diamods at Kersley & Holly. CSX does not at this time have radio code line installed on the saginaw sub.

Also Non-control turnouts are NOT shown on this system as well as in the crossovers that Amtrack uses in Flint to cross over from Main 1 to Main 2 when things get backed up around North/South yard.

I am thinking of doing a how/to + info session at the spring meet in Durand, MI.

Dan is correct the audio feed is a great tool to have when watching the ATCS feed....

I hope to add everything East from Lapeer to Port Huron in the next few weeks...

[Norm]

Mike,

I have a question about ATCS.

Is this something I can download to my laptop and use while I am on the road? That is where it would be most useful to me. My laptop has WIFI capabilities. Most of the roads I would use are close to the tracks.

[Mike]

Norm,

You can install it on any machine all you need is a internet conection and to have 24bit plus display and you can take it track side if you can get WIFI or have a broadband connection with a cell provider...

[Scooterb]

Another option Norm is to get a radio that you can adapt and plug into your computer to pick things up.

I use it around Fostoria and its great.

There have been times I have picked up trains leaving Willard all the way to Hamler on the CSX line

[Mike]

This is very true. But with CN/GTW Gensys system you need to have a scanner that will do 000.00000Mhz or it will not work correctly...

Example = Durand MCP = 928.08125Mhz and you will need the Zip for the area. Its a lot different then true ATCS. Also if your out at the shaftsburg siding for instance you will not hear anything east of you or on the holly sub as the Antenna's point at Durand's tower behind the depot.... So the only things you would hear are the shaftys if your at E. Shaftsburg. I am not say its a bad idea or implying that just wanted to put that info out there....

[CN5710]

To have ATCS without the internet....

You need a police type scanner capable of 800mhz, 900 mhz, with a discriminator tap installed. This is where the raw data comes out of the radio reciever and goes into your laptop via an imic (usb adaptor) or into the soundcard via 1/8 in mono male plug into the mic jack. If you do not have a microphone plug in your computer, you will have to purchase a griffin imic ($40-50).

Like Mike said, The scanner must be able to go 5 places past the decimal point 928.08125. If yours can't, you will tons of errors and incorrect data.

You need height, and an outside antenna. You will be limited to only about a 10-15 mile radius, provided you are on the front side of all the Yagi antennas.

You will need the layout files for the track you want to watch and all the MCP data decoded or nothing will happen. Most areas are not decoded or maped yet.

Depending on the protocall used (Genesis or ATCS), you will need the zip codes of the area you are in. As you drive through diffrent areas, you will have to change zipcodes and re-start the program.

hope this helps..