STATIONS ON THE INFORMATION SUPERRAILROAD UPLOADED WITH PERMISSION FROM PACIFIC RAIL NEWS (APRIL 1995 ISSUE) COMPUSERVE First Stop on the Super Railroad The first station that we'll visit on the Information Super Railroad is the oldest. CompuServe was introduced in 1979, and has since grown to a network of 2.5 million members. There are two locations in CompuServe where railfans will find train- related information: the TrainNet Forum and the Rail Section of the Travel Forum. TRAINNET The vast majority of rail-related activity is on the TrainNet Forum, one of CompuServe's many forums dedicated to hobbies. Individuals interested in prototype and model railroads will find TrainNet worth exploring. The forum is organized into twenty-three different sections: General; Railfans; Transit Topics; RR Employees Corner; Graphics; Locomotives; Model RR Layouts; Swap Shop; Games/Simulations; HO Scale; Z, N & TT Scale; S, O, G & Tinplate; Computer/Electronic; Rail Union Members (BLE & UTU members only); NRHS Members; NMRA Members (members only); Garden Railroads; Live Steam; International RRs; Tourist RRs/Museums; FRA; Newsletters and Non-Train Stuff. [NOTE: The TrainNet sections have changed since this piece went to press. General is now The Roundhouse; Rail Union Members no longer has the (BLE & UTU) trailer (it's open to all union members, no matter the union affiliation); NMRA Members is now Model RR Groups and is no longer a private section; International RRs is now European Railways; Newsletters is now RR Retirement Board; and Non-Train Stuff is now Newsletters/Events. Dorr Altizer, TrainNet Sysop, says sections changes continually occur in response to the needs/interests of the membership.-dcw] The forums act like public bulletin boards, where members can post notes on any topic. Other members can then read and publicly reply to the messages, continuing the "thread." Threads enable readers to follow a particular "conversation" taking place amid all the others. The total size of active messages is held fairly constant by the software; messages usually scroll off the forums after seven to ten days. Amtrak's service cuts and budget crises have recently been hot subjects in the topics related to prototype railroading. Sometimes the discussions get pretty intense, particularly on sensitive issues such as Rail-Tex's purchase of the Central Vermont last year. Associated with each topic is a library where files with long-term value are maintained for many months, depending upon the frequency of downloading by users. These libraries literally have megabytes of great railroad graphic files uploaded from our members, as well as rail-related shareware. You may find the libraries more useful than the chatter on the bulletin boards. In the NRHS section, for example, a number of chapter newsletter editors post their chapter's newsletters. Last fall there was a contest for the best BN-AT&SF merger paint scheme, and entries were posted in a forum library. Among the other files recently uploaded was a roster of Montana Rail Link motive power, and lists of all railroad historical and technical societies and commercial magazines. The FRA's track standards are located in the FRA library. TrainNet also sponsors Conferences that permit forum members to interact directly, in real time. These conferences usually have a moderator who directs the discussion along the subject of the conference. Periodically, special guests join in the conferences such as Henry Kisor, author of the recent book Zephyr-Tracking a Dream across America. TRAVEL FORUM/RAIL SECTION Section 18 of the Travel Forum is dedicated solely to rail travel around the world. Recent topics have covered the inauguration of service through the Chunnel, the operations of the various Orient Express trains around the world, and experiences on Amtrak. From the railfan perspective, the Rail Section is unique because most of the people who access it are not railfans, but people from the general public who are interested in traveling by train. As a result, posters will invariably get excellent answers to questions about train travel anywhere in the world. Representatives from VIA Rail and British Rail are frequent contributors, as are some travel agents with expertise in Amtrak and European railroading. The recent developments regarding Amtrak's budget crises and route cutting have also been a hot topic here due to the personal interest of the one of the Forum's administrators. The full text of H.R. 259, the "Kill Amtrak Bill," was first posted here, and then cross-posted to TrainNet and Internet. However, the discussions held on this board usually deal with the adventure of rail travel, and if you want to ask a question about train journeys anywhere in the world, this is the place to do it. OTHER RAILROAD INFORMATION VIA-Canadian schedules are available on CompuServe through Eaasy Sabre, the same system used by travel agents. To view only train schedules, airline "A6" must be selected, otherwise train and airline schedules will be combined. Also all European schedules are online presented by German Federal Railways in German or English. The schedules include the necessary connections and trains to and from Russia. These schedules can be accessed by typing GO RAILWAY. COMPUSERVE COSTS CompuServe has a reputation of being a fairly high-cost online service, but in February CompuServe restructured its rates, resulting in lower costs for users who spend a lot of time on forums. The standard pricing plan has a monthly fee of $9.95 for unlimited connect time in more than 100 basic services, including reading electronic mail from all sources but Internet. The equivalent of 90 three-page personal email messages can be sent per month for the $9.95 fee. A nominal fee is charged to send and receive messages via the Internet. Connect time charges for extended services, which includes forums, was reduced to $4.80 per hour for access speeds up to 14.4 kilobytes per second. Software to Access CompuServe The CompuServe Information Manager (CIM) series of programs for DOS, Windows and Macintosh operating systems offer an excellent starting point to learn your way around CompuServe. It is well suited for interactive communications and other services contained in the basic monthly charge. CIM programs are not fully automated for forum visits, so spending time in forums with CIM can become expensive. If you are already familiar with using a general purpose communications software package, you can use it and CompuServe's own command language. With the lower connect charges and higher- speed modems this method is not as expensive as it previously was, and may be the access-method-of-choice if you don't want to purchase and learn how to use another program. There are a myriad of automated access programs, referred to as autopilots, available. All of these autopilots are designed to minimize the actual amount of time you're connected to CompuServe, thus minimizing your monthly charges. Each of these programs have their supporters and detractors, good points and not-so-good points, and we recommend you read available literature before purchasing one. Fortunately, many can be downloaded from CompuServe for free trials. Some of the more popular automated access programs are briefly mentioned here. One of the best known is TAPCIS. It is shareware, with a requested price of $79, payable if you continue using it after a trial period. It lets you read and write messages off-line, while automating the process of getting message headers and messages while on-line. TAPCIS runs only on IBM compatible machines. Golden CommPass ($99 from Creative Systems Programming Corp.) is essentially a high-tech version of TAPCIS that runs under OS/2 and fully supports the multi-tasking environment that is OS/2's hallmark. For more information send a message to Creative Systems at 71511,151. OzCIS, which costs around $20, is a DOS program that has a Windows look and feel. It has more features than TAPCIS, including the ability to display .GIF files, the format in which photos are stored in libraries. If your computer can effectively run windows, then it should be able to run OzCIS. Further information is available in the OzCIS Forum. NavCIS, developed by Dvorak Development, is an autopilot that is primarily designed for Windows applications. The current release contains a number of different versions, including some "timed edition" versions which quit working after 30 days, but can be brought back to life by paying a $69 shareware fee. Additional information is available in the Dvorak Development Forum, Library 1 (NavCIS) Software. CSNav, The CompuServe NavigatorR for Windows, version 1.0, is CompuServe's own offline navigator for Windows. It can be downloaded online from CompuServe. INTERNET In 1989, CompuServe became the first major online information service to offer electronic mail exchange via the Internet. Last summer CompuServe began providing access to the Internet newsgroups, such as rec.railroad, which is the Internet equivalent of CompuServe's TrainNet. Each of the major commercial online services are rapidly expanding their access to the Internet, which is why later installments of the Information Super Railroad will discuss what is available through the Internet. Thanks to Dick Alvarez, Craig J. Bisgeier, Linsey Bourne, Dan Dawdy, Dennis Larson, Tony Polson, Robert Franz Quillin, Bill Slone, Steve Szabo and "CompuServe 'Autopilot' Software" by Robin Garr. We encourage you to contact us with feedback and questions. You can reach Dave Warner at 70672,3151@compuserve.com and JCDM39B@prodigy.com. David C. Warner READER COMMENTS: Jim Stella (73062,631) has pointed out that railroad news can sometimes be found by accessing NEWSGRID and using the keyword RAILROAD. He does this at least once a week and is frequently surprised by the railroad-related postings. Philadelphia's SEPTA gets unusually good coverage.