Preface: Let’s talk about your duty

You decide to play dispatch mode after several hours driving the

train, or you just want to play as a dispatcher. Then you find out the

tutorial is too hard, and you begin to try something on your device.

And you get kicked out after causing some trouble.

Always happen to you, huh? That’s why this book comes out to

make sure you can learn something before you enter the game.

But before you move to the content part, and start to learn, I think

you’d better read this part carefully.

Dispatching feels cool, right? However, we have some duties,

because our job is to make sure each train runs safely. And I want to

answer three questions often asked by newcomers.

Why I have to dispatch seriously?

Railway operation is not a joke. Any small mistake will cause a

huge trouble, and kill many people. You may argue that this is a game,

nobody would be killed or injured. However, you’re playing a

multiplayer game, which means there are other people on the server.

Sometimes, you may feel this server is empty, so I can do whatever I

want.

Nope, people may come later and have trouble playing on the

server because of your previous mistakes. No matter which station

you choose, remember this is not a single-player mode, people have

Why dispatching is not a casual job?

After you tried many times, you may feel dispatching can be

casual and you can use your own method to play the game.

Nope, again. In reality, it takes much longer time to train a

dispatcher and make sure he can take the position. Just like what I said,

a small mistake may be unforgivable. Here I want to use a real

example of a small mistake causing a tragic.

The picture on the right is

Szczekociny rail crash happened

in 2012. This accident, as you can

see, is caused by a dispatcher

send a train to the wrong track,

which eventually killed 16

people, and 58 were injured.

That’s why it’s not casual,

we should be responsible for

each command, or each operation

we made.

Never and ever think it’s

good to make some fun when you

are dispatching.
 What if you don't do it properly?

I don’t have much to say. Just remember you will ruin other

players’ experience and got banned for trolling.

Conclusion? Well, make sure when you are dispatching, you

don’t have thoughts like:

“I will send this train to southern part; it will be interesting!”

“I need some fun, or it will be too boring.”

“Let’s have a test of substitute signal (Sz command)!”

Let me just tell you things caused by this, and you may know

why you must give up such thoughts.

On May 4th, a newcomer on CN1 server sent 6 trains wrongly,

causing 1 hour traffic jam.

In April, a guy used Sz too much, ruining a French player’s

gaming experience.

In March, a guy tried ZLO and didn’t know what to do. And he

didn’t ask for any help. The whole server was in a total congestion.

I’ll just end up here; the list is too long.

Surprising? That is all caused by such unnecessary trial and

inappropriate thoughts.

So, whenever you want to play as a dispatcher, take it seriously

and play responsibly. If you were in trouble, immediately call

somebody to help before things getting out of control.

Chapter 2: EDRs…………………………………………………...2

Chapter 3: Computers……………………………………………..4

3.1 Pilichowice………………………………………………………4

3.2 Włoszczowa Północ……………………………………………..6

3.3 Sosnowiec Główny………………………………………………8

Chapter 4: Domino Panels………………………………………..10

4.1 Będzin………………………………………………………….12

4.2 Łazy ŁC………………………………………………………...15

4.3 Zawiercie……………………………………………………….17

4.4 Katowice……………………………………………………….19

Reference Area……………………………………………………22

R-1 Polish Alphabet Pronunciation………………………………..22

R-2 Small Route Maps of Some Stations………………………….23

we only talk about AI situation. To call other stations by telephone.

Pick up your phone, click station, choose the microphone icon.

Why we have to report each train depart from us? Well, on

domino panels, you cannot see the train number on the board. Of

course, in the game you can use your mouse to check it, but in reality,

you can’t. That’s why we need to always report when a train departs,

and you don’t have to tell other stations when the train arrives.

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Chapter 2
EDRs

EDRs are used to help you know the station/post’s timetable. The

picture above gives an explanation of things on it. I omit functions

that may never be used or seldom used. Please memorize things I

mentioned in the picture, since as long as you’re dispatching, you have

to fill in this EDR.

You have to fill in the real departure and real arrival part, or

change it, to be more exact. That’s why let’s come to the details about

these questions. How you should fill in this EDR? When you should

start doing that?

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  When do I fill in the time?

A faster way is to right-click on a train’s line,

and then click confirm crossing time, arrival time,

and departure time. Or you can finish this whole

process in one step, by using the “time enter”

function. We’ll talk about that later, so first let’s

check when you can fill in it.

For trains driving through your station, you can click the

“confirm crossing time” when it passed the entrance signal. Arrival

time should be filed when the train stops, and departure time should

be filed when the train departs and reach about 20km/h.

Although you can directly use this right-click skill to fill in the

timetable, I’ll still teach you how to use “time enter”.

Here is the box popped

up after you click on “time

enter”. You can just type

in the time you want, and

click release stop. If the

current time is still earlier

than the departure time

you write, a prognosis is

needed.
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Chapter 3
Computers
Since this chapter, we’ll start to talk about the operation of trains.

First, let’s talk about easier one, the computer system. We’ll begin at

Pilichowice, and eventually go to Sosnowiec Główny, a junction

station.

1.Pilichowice [Kolejowe→Kolejowa, typo]

First, let’s learn some basic displays on your computers. And

then we can start with some basic operation.

I’ve already written some description and explanation in the

picture, so I won’t repeat it here.

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  How can I set the route for trains?

Warning: there should be one block empty when you set routes!

 How can I cancel the route if I set it wrong?

Please use ZW & ZWP, for ZD(normal way to cancel it) will take

about 90 seconds to actually work. Such long waiting time might

cause some congestion.

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2. Włoszczowa Północ

So, here comes a bigger one. And bigger station means more

things to explain. The picture above tells you additional things that

Pilichowice does not have. And for this station, I’ll teach you how to

send trains via semi-automatic interlock.

Wait? What the hell is “semi-automatic interlock”? Well, this is

not a book focusing on these terms, thus I only give simple

explanation: semi-automatic interlock needs both stations to agree

when sending trains. Basically, A station ask B whether it can send a

train, and only if B accepted, this train can depart from A.

This process is done by telephones in the game, let’s see.

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  How to use telephones on semi-automatic interlock?

Here I only talks about sending trains from Włoszczowa Północ,

another direction would use PZK command, I’ll talk it in the next

section for Sosnowiec Główny.

And I want to tell you why the track here should be written as 1,

not 3 or 5 in the station. This number 1Z, does not mean track in this

station’s number is 3, but the next stations. Similar things can be seen

in Sosnowiec Główny, if you want to send trains, you need to write 2

for trains from Katowice, 1 for trains from Warszawa. Because the

signals on these two tracks are 2P and 1P.

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3. Sosnowiec Główny

Welcome to the biggest (or Grodzisk Mazowiecki is the biggest)

computer-controlled station in the game. You can see we have many

things to talk about. And we also have new things to introduce, like

notice for arrival.

It is used on semi-automatic interlock system, for previous

station to know the train had arrived. You can see the arrows will

become red after a train goes by, if it is semi-automatic. At this time,

you need to click on the arrow, execute KO to confirm the train has

arrived, and the interlock direction would be released. After that, you

can refer to following pictures to set the direction.

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  How can I send trains to Sosnowiec Południowy?

Here is the basic procedure of that, and the direction will be

released after your train entered, so don’t be scared when you see the

2P signal blinking again. Receive trains are similar, operate as this:

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Chapter 4
Domino Panels
Domino panels are special. They’re huge and hard to conclude

in one picture, so I have to make a list for you to know.

Appearance Meaning

Routes

Set routes

Occupied/Non-Electrified

Turnover “+” position [straight]

Turnover “-” position [diverge]

Shunting signals

Cancel shunting signals

Signals and other command buttons

Substitute signals

(Only used when there is a failure)

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 Cancel the set route

And here are the commands you will use in dispatching:

Command Meaning

Wbl Set interlock direction

Pzk Confirm set interlock direction

Zwbl Release interlock direction

NO Departure on left-track

dPo/dKo [shown below] Confirm departure/arrival

You’d better remember these things before you start to dispatch

stations with domino panels. It may be hard to you, because it’s too

historical for information era. But you should know many stations in

Poland are using this system, rather than that computer one. So, if you

truly want to be a dispatcher in the game, you have to learn it by your

heart.

The station I listed is based on its difficulty, from easy to very

hard ones. Therefore, please follow this step by step, before you want

to challenging yourself to join huge stations like Katowice.

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1. Będzin

 How can I set the route?

Why operate like 2? Just like this situation in the picture below:

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 How can I set substitute signal?

 How can I cancel the route?

(Please turn to the next page)

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 Basically, it’s all about finding the correspond buttons and right-

click and hold it until it works.

Będzin is easy for newcomers of domino panels. That’s why I

put it there, to tell you some basic operation and let you know how it

looks like in general.

Next, we’ll come to other stations, which needs more skills to

handle them. So, before you actually dispatch in these stations, please

make sure you have already read this book carefully. Otherwise, you

may get into trouble. They’re not so easy to handle as you may have

thought.
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2. Łazy ŁC

 How can I change the red light on track 7?

When you saw the KoS7 button has a white light, please left-click

and hold it, until you see the arrow starts blinking.

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  How can I receive trains from Track 3/Track 7?

Here we use track 3 as an example.

Track 7 is similar to track 3, just use the same way to receive

trains. And you can also use these tracks to send trains come from

Ząbkowice.

This station is not so hard, but the board is very big. You need to

take a few seconds to learn the exact button and the direction the train

goes. Also, passenger trains and freight trains go on different tracks at

this station, so always make sure you send them right. Usually, freight

trains go to the tracks without arrows to show direction. While,

passenger trains go to tracks with arrows.

Here I didn’t say the exact track number, because I think in this

way it’s easier to distinguish them. Now let’s come to a station with

bigger board – Zawiercie.

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3. Zawiercie

Some trains need to ask for permission here, so I’ll list them

together.

 Receive/send trains from/to Łazy ŁA/Góra Włodowska

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  About trains’ direction problem

Here I give a simple explanation of Polish train numbers. The

only thing you need to pay attention to is the first two numbers. They

stand for the region that the train departs and terminates.

1 Warszawa 6 Wrocław

2 Lublin 7 Poznań

3 Kraków 8 Szczecin

4 Sosnowiec 9 Backup number

5 Gdańsk 0 Used for regional trains

For regional trains, they repeat the same number, or use 9/0 to

compound the first two numbers. Remember this sometimes would

help you in your dispatch. Especially, at some junction stations like

Sosnowiec or Zawiercie.
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4. Katowice

This is basically the last boss of the whole game. It’s huge and

sometimes hard to find the route. For this, I’d like to use more pages

to make sure you can understand it correctly.

The route map here will be pretty huge, so let me fill this blank

with introduction of Katowice station.

Katowice railway station is a railway station in Katowice, Silesia,

Poland, and the largest railway station in the Upper Silesian Industrial

Region. Domestic and international trains connect at the station to

most major cities in Europe; these are operated primarily by PKP.

During July 2009, it was announced that the Polish government

had signed a construction agreement with the Spanish construction

firm Neinver, under which the latter would perform the construction

of a new integrated transportation hub and commercial center in the

middle of Katowice.

By the way, you’re playing the 5th busiest station in Poland, so

get ready for the wave of trains.

Please rotate your screen 90° clockwise and zoom in to see it.

19
20
 I only give some suggestions on routes here, since I already told

you enough operations you need to know.

 How shall I arrange trains?

My suggestion is to send all trains from Katowice Zawodzie to

Platform 3 & 4, and send trains that go to Line 1 to Platform 1 & 2. If

they go to Line 138, send them to Platform 3 & 4, as long as there are

free platforms. In this way, it’s easier to arrange their routes if you just

begin to dispatch here. But, I hope you gradually find your own way

to arrange them according to the EDR, since this is a game put

emphasis on reality.

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Reference
Area
R-1 Polish Alphabet Pronunciation

letters pronunciation

Ąą on as in long

Cc ts as in bits

Ćć ch as in cheek

Ęę en as in sense

Łł w as in wet

Ńń ni as onion

Óó u as in push

Rr like Italian R

Śś sh as in sheep

Źź/dź g as in Niger [soften]

Żż/rz s as in pleasure

dz ds as in goods

sz sh as in shark

cz ch as in chalk

ch same as the letter h

dzi du as in duke

Other alphabets are just like English, so I don’t write them down

here.
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 R-2 Useful links

Letters of train types:

https://simrail.cz/wiki/index.php?title=Table_with_marking_of_train

_types

Railway maps:

https://forum.simrail.eu/topic/3840-enpl-simrail-railway-maps/

Timetables & Loco spreadsheet:

https://forum.simrail.eu/topic/6309-timetables-loco-spreadsheet/

Original Tutorial:

https://tutorials.simrail.eu/index-en.html

Photos Used

Infographic of the Crash by Pechristener

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Szczekociny_01_AB_en.JPG

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