Re: Y2K for the railway industry

[craigd@lios.apana.org.au (C. Dewick)]

In <71tp84$2ho$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com> michael.house@north.com.au writes:

>I seem to hear very little in railway circles on the year 2000 bug.  Most
>companies are spending millions on it (and are required to disclose what they
>are doing to the stock exchanges) - not just PCs and software, but also PLCs
>which control nearly everything these days, suppliers etc.  What exposure
>does the railway industry have to the Y2K bug and what are they doing about
>it.  Some areas I can think of are signalling, communications etc, but what
>about control systems on locos,  electric passenger trains and DMUs??

Well, I have tested a few Tangara sets when I've been driving them, and they
click over quite happily from 23:59:59 31-Dec-1999 to 00:00:00 01-Jan-2000
without any problems at all.

Interestingly, if the TMS clock is set to any year prior to '86', it assumes
it's next century and sets the year to '20xx', but if the year is '86' or
higher, it assumes (correctly) that the year is '19xx'. That's definitely a
strange quirk...

Regards,

Craig.
-- 
            Craig Ian Dewick            |       Stand clear - jaws closing
 Send email to craigd@lios.apana.org.au |  Visit my Australian rail transport
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