The dispatcher will work at a computer desk with screens that simulate a train sheet, order forms and order form notes. The station operators that a dispatcher would interact with in the prototype will be simulated by the computer system and the train readers. Trains will always OS when they go over a reader and the computer system will tell the dispatcher when trains are created or terminated. The train sheet will be updated by the computer for trains that arrive or leave stations to save the dispatcher some time.

At the start of a operating session the dispatcher would be working from his computerized train sheet. As trains are created the dispatcher would authorize the train and assign the train any special orders on his train creation screen when he receives the computer notification of the a train is being created.

If all everything runs by the time table the dispatcher would not have much to do, right! there will be extra trains and delayed trains to deal with. To send orders to a train the dispatcher would use his train order signal application to turn on the train order signal for where a simulated station operator is located. When the signal is on the dispatcher would use the train order form application to print a label with the train order on it for all the trains and locations he selects for the order. I hope to turn on the train order signal by using the locations the orders are assigned to without an extra step for the dispatcher but I am not sure I can do that yet so for now I think of it as a two step process. All orders to date can be reviewed by the dispatcher on the orders screen.

As the dispatching system progresses extra tools will be added to help the dispatcher deal with the short station distances and the short time period he has to work in. A train detail screen seems like it would help so the dispatcher could find out how long the train was and any other details that would help him.