The Dispatcher's Office

The Helix was built to be the dispatcher's office, but technology has allow us to keep him/her off site and out of our hair. Our chief dispatcher lives on the island of Orkney in Scotland and second in charge is somewhere near Pepperell Massachusetts!

On the real map:

With Kranzberg in the middle, the TxNamib has basically 3 points of a star, Walvisbaai, Windhoek and the points north.

Since there is only double track main line between Kranzberg and Omaruru, the benefit of having hidden track in a helix, the dispatcher is responsible for making sure no two trains stair each other in the face, ever.

The dispatcher has control over all the turnouts on the main line and sidings, and with locking (coming shortly) can prevent anyone entering restricted track.

Here is the "West" dispatcher's panel:

The dispatcher currently only controls trains to the Yard limits of Walvisbaai, but when the staging yard in Sandwich Harbour (SNW) opens, the dispatcher will need to coordinate with the yard master in Walvis to run trains through on the main line marked in blue.

The "East" side, with not all of Kranzberg shown, and the reverse loop to the right of Windhoek not shown:

Notice the train between Okahandja and Karibib in red. This is how the dispatcher might know where you are.

And the "North" section, a little wider, since it covers the whole upper half of the layout:

And Hartseer and Outjo is not shown, since we claim that as "Dark Territory", meaning you get a track warrant to go, but you have to watch for kudus yourself!

The dispatcher does have a nifty Google form to issue a warrant to a train, which will populate a spreadsheet to keep track of all the warrants in effect:

And then he also has a chart online to track the line-up of trains:

So apply when you are willing and we will put you to work!

- Management