Computer Automated Traffic System

This is the home page for the Computer Automated Traffic System (CATS), a suite of open source programs that provide signal logic on a model railroad. To download the software, scroll down on this page to the Code section. Click on the software link and read the license. Then scroll to the bottom of that page for links to the software, collected into zip files.
The impetus for this software was to implement CTC signaling on Pat Lana's Cedar River and Iowa Central Railway (not affiliated with the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City Railway in any way). Pat's Crandic is an N scale model railroad, a bridge route between Kansas City and the mythical town of Pammelia, Iowa, with connections to Minneapolis/St. Paul and Chicago. Though the date is August, 1968, the railroad mangement has invested in a futuristic computer system using CRTs for dispatching traffic on the railroad. This program is the result of that investment.

Video of the Cedar River and Iowa Central, its CEO, and crew can be found at Dan's video page. A high speed Internet connection is needed because some of these are large. They are viewed through Quicktime, a free plugin from Apple Computer. The official Cedar River and Iowa Central home page is at Bob's page.

What is CATS?

CATS is open source software, written in Java and built on the work of the JMRI programmers (JMRI home page). CATS is a JMRI application and not part of the JMRI toolset, so JMRI (and a Java Runtime Environment) are needed to run CATS.
CATS is

a modern looking, "point and click" dispatcher panel
is a suite of programs, including a GUI editor for creating the panel
supports full interlocking of routes
handles complex interlocking plants through a graphical description
supports ABS, APB, DTC, and CTC signal disciplines
was developed by a model railroader interested in operations for model railroaders, so assists in the paperwork of an operating session
train labels follow block occupancy reports
drop down menus for trains, crews, and jobs can be customized
maintains a crew callboard and records assignments
tracks crew hours on the job
records train movements, with timestamps
uses JMRI, so can work with many different kinds of model railroad control systems
supports full connectivity (signals, occupancy, turnout feedback) to a layout
works as a "magnet board" (no connection to the layout)
works with partial connection to the layout
is written in Java, so runs on many kinds of computers
supports user defined aspects for indications based on 2 block/4 speed signaling

The following screen capture is from the program used to create a dispatcher panel.

The next screen capture is the Crandic dispatcher panel in operation.

One more screen capture shows the train lineup pulldown.

Requirements

Swing (tested with Java 1.4.2-10, 1.5-9, and 1.6-3)
Works with JMRI 1.5.6 through 1.7.6. A new version has been created for JMRI 2.x.

Release Notes

Download the latest release notes. release notes.

Important Note to Current Users: CATS is current with JMRI versions 2.0-2.1. It is not compatible with older versions of JMRI. Though I have kept a version of CATS that will work with older releases of JMRI, all future development will be against JMRI 2.x. It has not been tested with JMRI 2.2.

The highlights of the changes are:

fixed a nagging bug in CATS where larger train labels were harder to grab then smaller ones.
added a keyboard shortcut (control+e) to CATS to toggle the train label between the train symbol and lead engine number.
enhanced designer so that the window does not scroll when adding or deleting a column or row.
the designer cursor can be moved with the arrow keys.

Code

Latest versions:

CATS 2.12
designer 2.03

Download the latest software. You will need to scroll to the bottom of the license to find the links to the software. license and software

Coming Soon

I have some complimentary programs written, which will be posted here when I get them polished some more: Under development

a transformation for converting the operating session log into a Comma Separated Value (CSV) file for import into a spreadsheet or data base
a program to take the results of the conversion program and generate a string chart of the operating session.

Contact

are - r
oh - o
dee - d
in - n
ee - e
wye - y
bee - b
el - l
eh - a
see - c
kay - k
two - 2
zero - 0
zero - 0
zero - 0
at - @
wye - y
eh - a
ach - h
oh - o
oh - o
dot - .
see - c
oh - o
em - m

Copying

CATS uses the artistic license that JMRI was released under (JMRI License)

Support

I am sharing these programs for the enjoyment of the model railroading community. If you find them useful, then great. However, I know they are not perfect - there are over 30,000 lines of Java code in each. There are more things I would like them to do, as well. But, I am the only person supporting the programs, the documents, and this web site and this is not my day job. So, I welcome bug reports and enhancement suggestions, but will get to them when time permits.

Acknowlegements

I have to thank Pat Lana for being the test bed for this code. His Cedar River and Iowa Central is large enough and has enough variety to give this a good workout. I also thank my core beta testers - Patrick Tillery's L&N, Bruce Faulkner's CSXT Shenandoah Division, and John Parker's BNSF Fall River Division , for their suggestions and patience working through the "features". Bob Jacobson, Paul Bender, Dick Bronson, and the rest of the JMRI developers merit special recognition because they provide the glue between the dispatcher panel and the layout. The phrase "JMRI" belongs to the JMRI devlopment organization. "Java" is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems. This page was last updated July 15, 2008.