RailRoadFan.com

Today the regular daylight train dispatcher was not on NS' Chicago Terminal, and the man working the desk did a great job.
WOLVERINE 350 left Hammond at 7:13 am, routed TK 1 to CP 482, where he passed at 7:39 am. 350 was 4 min early into New Buffalo despite leaving Hammond 2" LT
PERE MARQUETTE 371 passed 482 at 8:02 am and arrived Chicago at 8:47 am -21" early. 54.1 MPH - that's clear signals all the way to 21st St. (except for CP 509 where a crossover is required)
WOLVERINE 351 passed 482 at 9:43 am (15" LT) and arrived Chicago at 10:32 am (17" early). Incidentally this was a 1'53" run from Kalamazoo to Chicago (72.9 MPH average speed)
BLUE WATER 365, whose 482 time I did not record, arrived Chicago 9 min. early.
It can be done, but usually isn't when the regular man works the desk.
Andy

yeah but,......that cross-over move at CP 509 doesn't affect the run time account of the speed restriction thru the CP for trains that stay on the mainline....30 is 30

I regularly rip the skin off of my face when I watch the NS Chicago west dispatcher run the railroad, but it's good to hear there's been a day that it didn't burn to the ground

PERE MARQUETTE 370 arrived into Grand Rapids over 10 minutes early last night. Whoever the new guy was sounds like he did fantastic yesterday

They must be allowing the dispatchers to ignore AutoRouter…the Chicago line is designed to move steel and move it quickly while co-mingling with passengers, but AutoRouter doesn’t really understand what a seasoned dispatcher does in terms of priority and route setups. AutoRouter is pretty much a follow-the-leader system, routinely sticking slow trains ahead of fast ones and keeping them there.