' I95 is the major N-S corridor and it runs at capacity.'
Some further elaboration on the railtrack problems.
John
_______
'On Mon, 4 May 1998 06:06:13, Robert Sturgeon <i638573@mail.calwest.net> wrote:
> Bradley K. Sherman wrote:
> >
> > In article <7kepWhCNP4qd-pn2-jPeigQLvjCUM@localhost>,
> > cory hamasaki <kiyoinc@ibm.XOUT.net> wrote:
> > >
> > >If they still had the switch yard, bks would be right. It's gone, paul is
> > >right, they can't switch the trains without computers.
> > >
> > Sorry Cory. This does not scan. Are you implying that the
> > physical manifestations of the trains are being switched
> > inside computers? I think you're blowing smoke here.
>
> Gee, don't you know ANYTHING about railroads? Did you skip over the
> whole point of the posting? There are these two ways of marshalling
> trains and putting them together and running them. One uses a big ol'
> switchyard with a bunch of people to put the trains together. The other
> is to use computers to track the trains, engines, and individual cars
> and control the trains by adding and subtracting cars on the various
> sidings all along the Eastern Seaboard. The railroads have torn up the
> switchyards and now MUST depend on computers to control the makeup of
> trains. No functioning computers = no railroad deliveries. For a
> similar result, see the Union Pacific's disastrous takeover of SP/ATSF.
>
Bob, bks is an astounding piece of denial. <note, I'm not attacking bks, just
observing a phenomenum.> Thanks for the effort and clarification.
There was no alternative to switch yards until computers and reliable computer
driven communication. That's why they used switch yards.
The Arlington-Alexandria (note it spanned two counties) switch yard was huge.
It was next to extremely expensive office buildings and hotels, almost walking
distance to the Pentagon.
All heavy freight on the East coast used to pass through this switch yard, it
was like the Fed Ex hub except they were juggling freight cars instead of
overnight letters.
The yard is gone, torn up, converted to stores and this just happened last year.
It is physically no longer possible to switch freight cars without computers.
Match this up with Erich's reports on how rail *really* works. This one
specialized program (it's a system) is the key to keeping the food, fuel,
materials, products, moving on the East coast.
Sure, you can run a few trains manually, but at a fraction of the capacity of
the current computer managed system. ...and please don't suggest that we can
move freight by truck. I've driven the Washington Beltway, Wilson Bridge, I95,
Route 50, I395, mixing bowl. That's not possible either. I95 is the major N-S
corridor and it runs at capacity.
The distributed switching system is the only physical way to move freight. If
it fails, it's milne-time in the big city.
As to what will happen? I don't know. They don't have the systems staff to
pull 10 years of deferred maintenance and testing in 606 days. They can't
do it by hand, they don't have the switch yards. If they try to do distributed
switching using people, the trains and cars will get lost. Not that there are
a lot of people around who understand trains.
Like everyone else, they've been dumbing-down, cheaping out the staff for 10-15
years. That game is over but the corps, horn-hairs don't seem to realize it.
The UP fiasco was just a taste of what's about to happen.
>
> UP was not in fedinfo@halifax land. Their computers were running.
> Their programs were enscrewed. Their trains were not running.
>
> --
> Robert (West Coast secret agent, Prieure de Sion) Sturgeon-
>
> "Et in Arcadia Ego"
____
Subject:
Re: Handwriting On The Wall For Buttheads
Date:
4 May 1998 13:00:01 GMT
From:
kiyoinc@ibm.XOUT.net (cory hamasaki)
Organization:
IBM.NET
Newsgroups:
comp.software.year-2000
References:
1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 |
