For the past 6 months I have been logging hours towards my Chief Dispatcher AP certifcate which is part of the NMRA AP program. https://nmra.org/chief-dispatcher

The requirements are two fold, actual operation of a model railroad in different roles (engineer, dispatcher, traffic controller etc) and then a write up on how the operating scheme was developed with reference to prototype practice. Back in July 2020 I helped develop such a system for Gert Muller’s TxNamib layout in Dallas Tx. The N Scale multi-deck layout in a 20x20ft room depicts the railroads of Namibia but using US locomotives and rolling stock that would be seen in Texas.

Operating sessions are from 6pm-10pm on Wednesdays, yes thats midnight to 4am here in Orkney but its worth it. The layout doesn’t yet have signalling and is all single track mainline with the exception of the Helix. So the system developed for operating is based on Track Warrants althought there are still dispatch panels and the dispatcher controls all mainline switches. The system uses the free google documents software, with google forms used to produce the track warrent which is copied down on paper by the conductor in Texas. The data from each track warrant outputs to a PDF in Google Drive which is visible to the Conductors if required and also to a Google Sheet that logs the data from each warrant and is also where the dispatcher log sheet is completed during a session.

I may well cover the creation of these electronic/paper lite versions of operating paperwork in future blog posts if there is interest.

The next thing that we need for this craziness is a way to communicate. I found that we could use a free app called Zello for this. It allows uses to create a network of connected devices into a channel. A really cool feature is that you can create multiple channels and pop them out over other apps on your device so you could have a channel to dispatch and another to your conductor and then you can overlay a push to talk (ptt) button over the top of apps such as Engine Driver to talk and drive at the same time.

We realised that the dispatcher can get lonely when things happen and you are not in the room or there is a lull in activity during a session so we use a video conferencing app to allow the superintendent AKA Gert “Speed” Muller to communicate with the dispatcher.

Its all worked so well that I have now logged nearly 30 hours on the railroad and have trained other dispatchers who need to log hours for their AP certificate to run the railroad. Its been a great experience, we’ll cover some of the paperwork used to remotely dispatch and the paperwork for the AP certifcation submission in next weeks blog posts.

To read more about speeds layout check out www.txnamib.com