One of the reasons that John decided to go with the C/MRI System was the capability to create a computer monitor screen of the action on the railroad. As you can see by the photo the outcome can be quite good. Due to the complexity of the junction in the middle of the railroad he elected to represent the railroad track plan in a blend of traditional track plan configuration and CTC straight line schematic. If you can see the detail in the photo you will notice that he has reprogrammed the ASCII character sets to allow the “drawing” of nicer looking lines. The corners are rounded, and the diagonals are connected. This monitor screen features working turnouts, occupied blocks with the cab number and direction of travel shown. The block ahead is in green with a cab number and direction if it is assigned but not occupied. He could have include signal repeaters on the screen but found it unnecessary.
Some of the other features are: Cab Relays, Speed indication, Prototypical signaling, Automatic staging, Automatic parking in staging with stopping sections, and future crossing gate control. In addition He has several automatic routes using the computer and detection to throw turnouts, great for casual guest demonstrations of the railroad.
One of his favorites things about C/MRI is the ability to make what would normally be major changes in the control of the railroad by simply changing a line or two of code.
