Abstract: A method for operating a railroad vehicle without reference to physical railroad signs placed along a railroad track includes determining a current location of the railroad vehicle along the railroad track based on the determined current location of the railroad vehicle, automatically selecting a virtual railroad sign from one or more databases containing a plurality of virtual railroad signs, each of the plurality of virtual railroad signs stored in the one or more databases being associated with (i) a location along the railroad track and (ii) a message, and displaying, on an electronic display device a railroad track indicia representative of a segment of the railroad track, a railroad vehicle indicia representative of at least a portion of the railroad vehicle, and an indicia representative of the associated message of the selected virtual railroad sign.