Updated 5/20/2005

AEI Rail & Road Manager Software System

An inexpensive PC Windows program that enables owners of commercial railroad and trucking facilities to easily track vehicle (rail cars, trucks, trailers, etc.) inventory in a yard or terminal. This program also interfaces to stationary (wayside) and portable AEI readers which enable it to the automatically track vehicle locations.


Figure 1. Terminal Display

AEI Rail & Road Manager is easily configurable to graphically show vehicle locations and status on a diagram of your terminal layout. Password protection allows multiple users to view and update vehicle information without violating data integrity.

A free working copy of AEI Rail & Road Manager is now available for download. To run this program you must have a computer system that runs Windows 98, NT, 2000, ME or XP. This program will not run under the Windows 3.1 operating system. You should also have 6 MB of disk space and 12 MB of RAM.

Click here to download a free working copy of AEI Rail & Road Manager

 

The following is a brief description of the AEI Rail & Road Manager program including a few of the displays:

Figure 1 above is the program's primary screen which graphically shows the position of rail cars on a diagram of the user's track layout. To move cars the user simply places the cursor on the car, holds down the left mouse button and drags the car to another track. Multiple cars can be moved at the same time by selecting several cars. Each time a car is moved or data about a car is changed, a transaction record is created which includes information on the change and the user who made the change. To display or change data on a car, place the cursor on the car and click the right mouse button (see Figure 2).


Figure 2. Car Information

Figure 2 shows all of the data stored for a car. If the user has read/write privileges, he or she can update the information in these fields.

You will notice that seven fields in this display are not assigned. The user can specify names and values for these fields. For example, a user may want to use these fields to store tare, actual and capacity weights on a car.

The user can also enter up to 200 characters of comments on a particular car.


Figure 3. Car Colors

The colors of the cars shown in the Terminal display (Figure 1) are defined by the user and can be modified at any time. Figure 3 shows the screen used to assign colors based on user specified algorithms. Using a similar screen, the user can also specify what information will be displayed in the status line at the bottom of the screen.

Figure 4. Configure the Track Layout

One of the unique features of this program, which reduces overall implementation cost, is the capability to easily enter data about a user's track layout. To draw the layout, the user simply clicks (using the left mouse button) the appropriate tool button on the left hand side of the screen, moves the cursor to the grid position in which he or she wants this tool symbol to be displayed and clicks the left mouse button again. The track symbol is now displayed in the grid. To enter information regarding a track or an AEI reader, place the cursor on the track or the AEI reader symbol, click the right mouse button, select the properties menu item, and fill in the dialog screen that appears. To facilitate the configuration of the track layout the program also allows the user to duplicate symbols, move groups of grids, and add rows and/or columns.


Figure 5. Search Car List

The user can also easily search the car list to find car with particular attributes. In Figure 5 the search is for cars that have been in the terminal less than seven days and empty. The cars identified are sorted in ascending order by the time they came into the facility. Figure 6, which can be printed, is the result of this search.


Figure 6. Car List

These are only a few of the attributes of the program. Others include automatic tracking of car movements with the use of AEI readers, the capability of receiving advanced consist lists, etc. To obtain more information about the program you can download the program's manual and/or an evaluation version of the program or contact Softrail.



System Requirements

Minimum Requirements:
486 with 12 MB of RAM
6MB of available disk space
Windows 98, NT, 2000, ME and XP
VGA or higher graphics adapter
No sound card is required

Prices

The price of AEI Rail & Road Manager is determined by the number of vehicles the user plans to maintain in the program's database at any given time. Users can always delete vehicles that are no longer in their facility and then add new vehicles that entered. The program can always be updated to increase the maximum number of vehicles to a higher level.

 Maximum Number of Vehicles

 Program Price

Each Additional User License

 25

Free

Not available

200

$2,000

$200

300

$3,000

$300

400

$4,000

$400

5,000

$5,000

$500

 Program Options

 Option Price

 Stationary AEI Reader Interface

Please download our configuration guide

Portable AEI Reader Interface (wired connection)

Free

Rotary Dumper Vehicle Orientation Checker 

$2,000

Portable AEI Reader Interface (RF connection)

Please ask for a quotation


Softrail


1098 Venetia Road
Eighty Four, Pa. 15330
Toll (US & Canada only) 888 872-4612
Tel. 412 942-1473
Fax. 412 942-1480
E-mail sales@signalcc.com