Control Charting & Method of Charting

 CHARTING:

It is nothing but plotting all the train movements in a time and distance chart by section controller. Master Chart is prepared and kept before him as a guide for plotting Passenger / Mail / Express movements. After tracing the paths for all Passenger Carrying Trains the paths of Goods Train can be traced and they are classified in to 3 kinds.

1) Goods Path - Requiring minimum running time.

2) Auxiliary Path- Suitable for short distances

3) Bad Path - Shall not be used except in case of emergency because it occupies maximum time.

For the purpose of Section Capacity the paths of scheduled trains and goods paths are only taken into consideration and the number arrived at, shall not be less than the number obtained by Scott’s Formula. If so, it is considered as lead charting and requires revision.

Method of Charting:

Every chart is printed for 8 Hours which shall by chart neatly and legibly in the following manner:

1. Station names are printed in vertical rows, as far as possible in proportion of main distances with required details like Kilometer, inter-station distance etc., in the left and station codes on the right.

2. The station name from Top to bottom refers down direction and bottom to top - Up direction.

3. In the horizontal row, broad lines refer to hours and these are further divided in to by thin lines in 6 parts. Every line is referring to 10 minutes each of which in further sub divided into 5 parts, by dots each dot referring to 2 minutes.

4. The timings of trains are marked by dots above the line for Up trains and below the line for Down trains usually.

5. The progress of Up trains is indicated by a line from bottom left to top right and progress of Dn train is indicated by a line from top left to bottom right.

6. Trains being received from other stations from other sections or going to other sections from a section or starting from a station in the same section or terminating in a station in a same section are to be shown by a line in the same Up and Down inclination either with vertical line or dissimilated inclination starting or ending.

7. Blocking of running line is indicated by drawing a continuous horizontal red line either below or above the line, as per its direction, from the time it is blocked till it is cleared.

8. Time loss or gain in a section is shown as plus or minus with minutes.

9. Temporary speed restrictions are indicated in the form of a small red triangle with prescribed speed restriction, on the right side between two station codes.

10. Attaching of loco is indicated by a semi circle up or down depending upon the

actual direction.

11. Train parting / dividing is indicated by showing detention in mid-section by drawing a horizontal line, the plotting movement of the first portion to the next station. The second portion is indicated by a dotted line in red. Arrival of engine, attaching and clearing second portion is plotted normally.

12. When scheduled trains lose time, in section, the schedule passage is shown in dotted line and actual passage is plotted.

13. Detentions to trains are to be serially written in remarks column.

14. Usually the following colours are used for plotting:

(a) Mail/Express Trains and other trains – Red

(b) For other passenger carrying trains - Blue

(c) Goods trains (Electric Traction) - Green

(d) Goods Train (Diesel Traction) - Lilac (Violet/Pale Purple)

(e) Other Goods Trains, Ballast Trains - Ordinary Pencil

Checking of Control Charts:

Control Charts have to be checked regularly to take up all cases of detentions that have taken place and also other irregularities. Chief controller to scrutinize the charts, AOM looks and gets a picture of it and DOM does test checks.

Chart reading brings out the following:

Late Starts; 

Wrong crossings and precedence;

Wrong stabling of goods trains;
Cross working of light engines etc.,

NOTE - Control Office Application (COA) is comprehensive software for the automation of Control Charting at a railway divisional control office. COA is intended to replace the tedious manual plotting of running trains on a chart. The core functionality of the control charting with ergonomics is intended to provide the Traffic Controllers d good look-and-feel and user-friendly work environment. The benefits of COA II/auld include- better planning and