Operator location tracking for remote control rail yard switching

A method for generating a rail yard switch list of switch positioning activities for efficient movement of a railyard operator, the method comprising:

• tracking locations of a first operator control unit (OCU) and an associated operator during rail yard switching activities;
• correlating each switching activity with a respective location of the operator to establish a knowledge base of respective preferred locations in a rail yard for a library of the switching activities;
• storing the knowledge base in memory;
• receiving a switch list request;
• accessing the knowledge base;
• and
• processing the request based on the knowledge base to generate a switch list having a sequence of switching activities organized to consider physical movement of an operator implementing the switch list.

A computer readable medium having software code for generating a rail yard switch list of switch positioning activities for efficient movement of a railyard operator, the computer readable medium comprising:

• a software code module associated with an operator control unit (OCU) for tracking locations of a first OCU and an associated operator during rail yard switching activities:
• a software code module associated with a first processor for correlating each switching activity with a respective location of the operator to establish a knowledge base of respective preferred locations in a rail yard for a library of the switching activities;
• a software code module associated with memory for storing the knowledge base;
• and
• a software code module associated with a second processor for accessing memory and generating a switch list having a sequence of switching activities organized to consider physical movement of an operator implementing the switch list.