Computers
A major reason for the growing use of microwave and
optical-fibre systems was the tremendously increased
demand for circuits that developed from the railroads'
widespread use of electronic computers.
Earlier, railroads had been among the leaders in
adopting punched-card and other advanced techniques of
data processing. In the 1970s and '80s there was a
strong trend toward "total information"
systems built around the computer. In rail
freight operation, each field reporting point, usually a
freight-yard office or terminal, is equipped with a computer
input device. Through this device, full information
about every car movement (or other action) taking place
at that point can be placed directly into the central computer,
usually located at company headquarters. From data
received from all the field reporting points on the
railroad, the computer can be programmed to
produce a variety of outputs. These include
train-consist reports (listing cars) for the terminal
next ahead of a train, car-location reports for the
railroad's customer-service offices, car-movement
information for the car-records department, revenue
information for the accounting department, plus
traffic-flow data and commodity statistics useful in
market research and data on the freightcar needs at each
location to aid in distributing empty cars for loading.
Tracing of individual car movements can be elaborated by
adoption of automatic car identification systems, in
which each vehicle is fitted with an individually coded
transponder that is read by strategically located
electronic scanners at trackside. Major customers can be
equipped for direct access to the railroad computer
system, so that they can instantly monitor the status of
their freight consignments. Relation of real-time inputs
to nonvariable data banked in computer memory
enables the railroad's central computer to
generate customer invoices automatically. Data banks can
be developed to identify the optimal routing and
equipment required for specific freight between given
terminals, so that price quotations for new business can
be swiftly computer-generated. By the end of the
1980s the ability of freight customers to transact all
their business electronically was the objective of most
major North American railroads.
Computers and microprocessors have found many other
uses as a railroad management aid. For example, daily
data on each locomotive's mileage and any special
attention it has needed can be fed by its operating
depot into a central computer banking historical
data on every locomotive operated by the railroad (an
important accessory of this practice is
microprocessor-based diagnostic equipment of the modern
locomotive, described above). In the past, many
railroads scheduled locomotive overhauls at arbitrarily
assessed intervals, but use of a computer base
enables overhaul of an individual locomotive to be
precisely related to need, so that it is not
unnecessarily withdrawn from traffic. The same procedure
can be applied to passenger cars. Systems have been
developed that optimize economical use of locomotives by
integrated analysis of traffic trends, the real-time
location of locomotives, and the railroad's route
characteristics to generate the ideal assignment of each
locomotive from day to day. Another important
application of computers has been to passenger train
seat and sleeping berth reservation.
Computerization has given a railroad's managers a
complete, up-to-the-minute picture of almost every phase
of its operations. Such complete information and control
systems have proved a powerful tool for optimizing
railroad operations, controlling costs, and producing
better service.
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