main street train station questions

[sw/matt]

hey, i am new to posting on this board, but have visited the site many times! hi to everyone!
my question is about the Main Street Train Station. There are two offices that i see the conductors go into. What are these rooms for? One is inside the station and the other is accessed outside under a sign that says baggage. Any help would be appreciated!

[Disco Duck]

The Baggage Claim room is kind of like our storage room that has a pole cart for our reserved section. It also has our computer station to clock in/out, a few chairs and our bulletin boards. There is also a ladder that has access to the second level rafters.

The Lead Office, is our central area where we have the ride control system, our whiteboard that has all the breaks written and other park info/news. We have a cabinet that has all our paperwork needed for the operations.

The replica Office is just that, it looks like a ticket booth. But also has a storage area for all the company radios that we use.

[Eric5675]

-nevermind-

[sw/matt]

cool thanks for the info!! do you guys sometimes take breaks in the baggage office?

[sw/matt]

also what is the ride control system? i know on rides like pirates and thunder they have a ride control consule to estop and such, but what is the ride control system for the railroad?

[Disco Duck]

It helps us keep the spacing between trains...which is exactly what a Block Light System does...so in a sense it just complicates a system that already worked.

With the Ride Control System it allows us to have a Ride Stop, where if it's pressed at Main Street, it will send a "Red Cab Light" to the engineers to signal them to stop. The Ride control system also has dispatch inhibits where we can hold a train at a specific station and it also has a track map that shows where all our trains are at. It also has a function where we can change how long a train can stay inside a station.

It creates more problems than needed sometimes, so a lot of us don't like it. For instance, if we are running 4 trains on a really busy day and the ride control system decides to not work that day, we'd have to go down to only running two trains, which kills our wait time.

Hope that helps!

[Disco Duck]

Oh, and sometimes we do take our breaks in the Baggage Claim room, although it's not something that our leads like us to do, especially inside the Lead Office.

[SnorkletsMom]

Some really interesting information, Disco Duck! Thanks!

[mycroft16]

Thank you Disco Duck! Never knew any of that! I just assumed they were running the trains like real trains without an actual ride control system.

[Disco Duck]

A side note about the control system: Prior to our Ride Control System, we used to have I believe 10 or 11 Block Lights situated along the track. now we just have 4 block lights which are located at each of the 4 stations. So in a sense the "Cab Lights" act like what the old block light system would do but only now it's tied with a control system where we have the power to signal a train to stop for emergencies or if there is an intrusion (two trains in the same block zone).

The Cab Lights in the engines have 3 aspects (Green, Yellow and Red).
Green- obviously, you can proceed and your block zone is clear
Yellow- proceed with caution, usually will turn yellow as you are approaching a new block zone where there might still be a train occupying it, so you should not cross the next block zone until it turns green again. (lights will be yellow if you are in a station and the next zone is not clear as well)
Red- Stop immediately. (has a loud bell when light turns red)

I think that about covers it...if you have questions...feel free to ask!

[sw/matt]

thanks for the info! very interesting. used to work in the park in custodial, so it is interesting to learn about other departments, especially attractions.
If the leads dont' really like you guys taking breaks at the station, where do you guys usually break at? i know when i worked at the park there was an all area break room behind city hall and one behind market house. i heard but never saw the Opera house has a break room. So if you don't mind me asking where do the train conductors using take their breaks??

[Jetlife]

I notice the green lights off to the right at the Train station exits blinking sometimes.
Is that a signal for the trains to hurry it up, and pull out of the station?

[sw/matt]

is it fun to work the disneyland railroad? i would imagine it would be.

[disneyfan07]

I have a question: the ride control system. does that also monitor if/when a train or train car is going to /or needs to go to the roundhouse and/or maintenance area? or is that handled by a different system or by hand?

[Disco Duck]

@sw/matt: There really isn't a designated area for Train Conductors to take a break, just based on preference.

yes, it's very fun to work at the Railroad. I have a lot of pride in that attraction...it was Walt's favorite. Normally when people find out that I work at Disneyland, I enjoy the fact that I can say, "I work on the Railroad." People are in awe of the trains. I also enjoy when little kids come around who are crazy about trains...there aren't many of those around...so when I see one and get to talk to a kid that loves trains...it reminds me just how much I love the trains.


@Jetlife: The blinking block light does actually mean something. When a train arrives at a station, our timer (what we call a Dwell Timer, which can be adjusted at the Ride Control System at Main Street) starts counting down to whatever the interval we have set, right now it's a minute. So after a minute passes, a bell will start to sound off...then another minute will go by and another bell will sound off and the block light will start blinking green.

So basically, we are suppose to unload/load our train within that first minute bell. Once that second minute bell rings, we should be departing the station...whether or not the train is completely full...which is why a lot of times we leave a station with empty seats.

Guests wonder why we do that...simply because if we hold a train until we fill every seat, then we are actually slowing down our operation...because if one train is holding, all the other trains will be holding as well in their stations because they cannot proceed forward.

@Disneyfan07- No there is nothing on the ride control system that tells us when trains have to be put away. We have a set time, which is based off of conductor/engineer's off time to determine when a train gets put away and also based on park closing times.

We have a term "two from." When a train is getting ready to get put away, we declare that it's "two from toontown." This means that particular train will make two full round trips from towntown before it makes it's "deadhead" to the Roundhouse.

On a normal midnight closing, the trains get put away around 10pm, 12am and then the final train is put away roughly around 12:30am. (on a three train operation day)