Roadmasters
Prescribe remedies, set and lift slow orders, and answer for every mile of territory
- The subdivision by milepost with every gap shaded
- Repair options priced before the gang is ordered
- Earlier rulings beside each remedy decision
Features
FRA track inspection features, from the morning chart to the retest reply
Roadmasters, chief engineers and dispatchers use them to find what an inspector would write up and to put protection back on the track. The screens follow one subdivision's morning after a cracked rail lost its slow order.
demoEach railroad, person, milepost, record and figure in these screens is sample data.
- 01Track chart
Track inspection records pinned by milepost on a straight-line chart
- The subdivision drawn as engineers draw it. Sidings, turnouts, curves, bridges and grade crossings sit at their mileposts, so a defect reads against the curve or bridge beside it.
- Five inspection weeks aligned under the line. Each segment shows its date, inspector and method week by week, so a missed or crowded inspection shows as a broken row.
- Defects, slow orders and rail-test coverage together. Pins, speed brackets and the untested stretch share one scale, so an open defect with no bracket over it stands out at once.
- 02Challenger
The file read as an FRA track inspector would, before anyone walks the track
- Points written as an inspector asks. Each point says what FRA would ask to see and links the records behind it, so the roadmaster answers from evidence instead of memory.
- The agents' own draft struck. A closure drafted from a bulletin removal is struck as no repair, so the agents cannot hide an open rail defect behind their own summary.
- Each point handed to its owner. Record questions go back to the agents; remedies, amendments and planning go by name to the roadmaster, the inspector or the chief engineer.
- 03Defect chain
Rail defect traced from the rail test to its remedy, slow order and repair
- Remedy looked up in the 213.113 table. The defect type and size select the table row, and its note is shown as written, so nobody makes up a remedy or a deadline.
- Each link opens its record. The rail-test page, the removal request, the bulletin and the train sheet open from the chain, so planned work never passes for finished work.
- Trains over the gap counted. The train sheet shows how many trains passed and how fast after protection came off, which tells the roadmaster what the track carried.
- 04Reinstatement
Slow order reinstated by a qualified roadmaster and in force at once
- Signed only by a 213.7(a) roadmaster. The agents prepare the limits, the speed and the cited remedy; a qualified person sets the slow order, so no software changes track speed.
- The safer step needs no second signature. Putting protection back takes effect at once and goes to the dispatcher, while lifting it later needs a repair record and a co-signature.
- Reason code and the roadmaster's words. Both go into the audit trail with what the signature means, so the file shows why speed came down and on whose authority.
- 05Track bulletin
Track bulletin revision received by the dispatcher and issued to trains
- The slow order on the current revision. The dispatcher sees the new restriction highlighted on the bulletin crews already work from, with its limits and the time it took effect.
- Receipt logged by the dispatcher. The acknowledgment is recorded with a time, closing the loop between the roadmaster's decision and the trains that run under it.
- No lift control for the dispatcher. Dispatchers receive and issue slow orders and cannot set or lift one, which keeps each duty where the rule puts it.
- 06Repair or protect
Rail defect repair or joint bars, each path costed before the gang is ordered
- Both paths costed line by line. Train delay, crew hours, materials and carloads delayed are worked out on rates the roadmaster can edit, each one labeled as an assumption an analyst confirms.
- A path the rule bars is not offered. Running at track speed before joint bars is shown as not offered under note D, so a choice the rule forbids never reaches the decision.
- The last ruling shown above the paths. How the roadmaster decided a similar fracture before sits at the top, so the same defect on the same route gets the same answer.
- 07Corrective note
Broken inspection interval explained in a dated note kept apart
- Intervals counted in full calendar days. A week is shaded when two inspections fall closer than the rule allows, even when a weekly count shows one inspection a week.
- Signed records stay as signed. The note is stored apart with its author and date, so the inspector's record stays exactly as it was made on the day.
- Counsel decides if the note leaves. It stays internal unless railroad counsel decides it goes with the records, so the railroad's own words about a deviation are reviewed first.
- 08Contractor portal
Rail-testing contractor answers the retest date and operator check in fields
- Fixed fields for retest, operator and size. The contractor answers a date, a proficiency date and a percentage with the record attached, so replies arrive complete and comparable.
- The contractor sees only its request. None of the railroad's internal screens open in the portal, so an outside party never reads the track file.
- Typed notes held for a named reader. Anything the contractor writes in the note box reaches a named person unread by any agent, and changes nothing in the case by itself.
- 09Reply check
Contractor reply checked against the retest limit and the operator register
- Retest date read against the limit. A booked retest keeps the untested stretch open as booked, because a scheduled search is not yet a valid search.
- Operator qualification checked by date. The operator's last proficiency check is read against the run date beside the attached record, so the roadmaster sees whether the rail was searched by a qualified operator.
- A different defect size goes to the roadmaster. A size that disagrees with the report opens a decision for the roadmaster and never overwrites the defect record.