ATCS Monitor/Rail Simulator/RailDriver

Hello all, I just discovered the fascinating world of virtual railroading without the hazards of real world trackside railfanning since 9/11 & the new railroad law enforcement mindset, I'm reading as much material that I can find before taking the plunge, any railfans here familiar with ATCS Monitor, Rail Simulator & the Raildriver Console?

ATCS Monitor for Windows

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RailDriver

Thanks all & have a very Happy Fathers Day.

yip i used atcs monitor for a year or so before csx switched over. if you need help seting it up just pm me

I miss using ATCS...I moved to a region that does not use it,lots of railtraffic,,just no ATCS..Sigh......

yea i started using it as csx was just starting to phase it out on the A line

reconrider8 said:

yea i started using it as csx was just starting to phase it out on the A line

Click to expand...

Phased out? What was it replaced with?

I'm hoping to find a good way to monitor trains in Southern Indiana, and CSX will be running a lot more trains here soon.

JasonTracy said:

Phased out? What was it replaced with?

I'm hoping to find a good way to monitor trains in Southern Indiana, and CSX will be running a lot more trains here soon.

Click to expand...

They've started moving to a Satellite system.

Hmm...
Satellite?

So the rail equipment will have transponders,
There will be an uplink and a downlink...
Up from the railcar to the satellite,Down from
the satellite to the control centers.Maybe a
cellular connect to the MOW crews..

The downlink may be possibly be monitored.
Maybe even by the chirp from the transponder,
at close range..

If the data packets can be decoded..May get
harder,depending on the format..The pucks will
active and have to put out a data burst,cant
imagine they would be passive.

It's not as easy on Sat. monitoring, the signal changes and all sorts of stuff, it's too difficult and time consuming. It's all covered on ATCS_Monitor yahoo group.

I think he is talking about PTC or positive train control. Maybe

CSX in some places used a completely different format. In some areas, they had a sat data link at some control points as pole line/RF holes needed that connection.

Using one dish per connection is a bit overkill compared to normal RF, but using commercial accounts with low data is entirely possible (but still need interconnections - so no sure what the cost/benefit is).

PTC is overlayed with the signal system and connected to the back office stuff for the slow orders/train spacing/track work to prevent collisions. Typical installation on ABS/CTC lines is a node at each signal.

In TWC/Dark its usually at specific points and/or stations/sidings, as the railroad see's fits. Usually its going to be switches/sidings and "named points" in TWC land - so that the crew can still use existing places and not guess where things are (That's how TWC works).