131st Session Updates

Photos from the 131st session along with updated Crew Boards, seniority list and attendance summaries have been posted to www.easton-and-potomac.com.

This session concentrated on extra orders and revealed that some changes are needed to the Train Order system.  So in the spirit of continuous improvement (and the customer is always right) I will be making some fairly substantial changes to the Train Order system.  Hopefully these will be in place before the September session.

Most of the changes will be to improve usability and reduce the chance of user errors.  To this end I will be providing three modes; fully automatic, semi-automatic and manual.  The current system will be closest to the future semi-automatic mode.  The manual mode will make the system work essentially as a typewriter (for dispatchers on the level with Steve King).  While the fully automatic mode will guide the user through the process as much as possible.  The new default mode will be fully automatic.  The dispatcher will be able to change the system mode at any time during the session.

Other minor issues, some improved error messages, help messages and data display will be addressed.

Most all of these changes will be to improve the usability of this system and reduce the stress load on the dispatcher.  We will see how it goes.