An opportunity for regulation awaits you

I've sat behind signallers where, with an early running freight, the signaller has used words to the effect of "if you get your rear end in gear, I can let you go early". This is only where the signaller has some expectation that, even without the hint, the train could make it to the next regulation opportunity without affecting whatever was coming up behind.

Options are F3, not F2. Unchecking Show automatic signal aspects only disables the aspect; it doesn't delete the actual signal. Similarly, "Panel signals" only refers to the aspects, not the signals themselves.

Are you saying that "regulating a train" actually translates into enabling it to pass another? I assumed a "regulation opportunity" meant that the train entered an area of controlled signals, as opposed to a fully automated region of track. Silly me.

After Reading that post re regulating,I'm glad we didn't have to work to that rubbish years ago
when we worked the class 1,2,3 system of regulating,and as for holding early goods trains to booked time
especially on a Saturday was sure to create "rail rage " with the train men. :laugh:

" said:

After Reading that post re regulating,I'm glad we didn't have to work to that rubbish years ago
when we worked the class 1,2,3 system of regulating,and as for holding early goods trains to booked time
especially on a Saturday was sure to create "rail rage " with the train men. :laugh:

Yep, that's what the privatisation-era (lack-of) "performance regime" has done to railway operating.

Some time ago I had the chance of a visit to Banbury South box one afternoon - this was before the Cherwell Valley resignalling. A down X-Country was due off Oxford. But what was described was the all-stations Padd - Leamington (or was it Brummagem?) Then the fast was described in after it. So the fast (top speed 100mph) crawled along behind the stopper (75mph), being stopped at the signal in rear of every station, getting later & later all the time. At Banbury, in spite of the down loop platform, the stopper was run down the main & sent off immediately, so the fast must have had to wait for at least 5min, perhaps more at Banbury North (or his IB)while the stopper cleared the next section. All this, of course, because it had been just a few minutes late at Oxford (and that, perhaps, because it had been even less minutes late at Reading but, out of path, others had been given priority).

What that meant was that:
passengers for stations to Banbury lost their connection at Oxford and had to wait an hour for the next;
the fast got later & later as it dragged its weary way to Banbury;
passengers from Banbury probably lost a connection at Leamington & had to wait an hour for the next;
the fast lost its path over the single line through Kenilworth and probably had to wait some considerable time until it could be got through to Coventry;
it lost its path over the very congested Coventry - Birmingham section & probably had to wait some time until a margin could be found for it;
it lost its platform at New Street and may well have had to wait outside until space could be found for it;
who knows what impact there was on the crew arrangements - drivers pushed over their maximum driving time etc;
crew being relieved late relieving their next working in turn;
etc, etc.

While a decision to hold the stopper back a couple of minutes would've avoided all of that.

Of course in the fragmented railway delaying the stopper would've meant someone (whoever was responsible for the fast being delayed down south on the Clockwork Railway) paying compensation to the TOC who worked the stopper, so m'learned friends have been paid a fortune to work out agreements that are given to the signalmen and regulators as rules that have to be obeyed to prevent such things happening. But in the unified railway someone would have realised instantly that in the real world passengers, crew and the smooth operation of the railway all benefitted more from everything running a couple of minutes late than from one train extremely late & getting later so another that acted as a feeder/distributor could be right time.

Now you know why I'm proud to be a dinosaur!

Then, I mused, why do SimSig sims bother to display completely automated signals anyway? It would make for much smoother route setting, not to mention shorter routes, if we weren't continually interrupted by automated patches, and routes became unbroken white lines from beginning to end.
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" said:

Then, I mused, why do SimSig sims bother to display completely automated signals anyway? It would make for much smoother route setting, not to mention shorter routes, if we weren't continually interrupted by automated patches, and routes became unbroken white lines from beginning to end.
[/i]

I don't understand this. Why would you not want the automatic signal sections displayed?

Not all countries show automatic signals - the US being one example I can think of. Different country, different standards.

" said:

Not all countries show automatic signals - the US being one example I can think of. Different country, different standards.

The US is incredibly regional; where I've gotten the impression most of England at least runs on the same signal systems and core infrastructure, in the US things depend on which railroad initially built a line and who's running it today. Just taking a train from Boston to New York, the first 50 miles will have bidirectional 4-aspect color-light wayside signals; the next 100 miles or so will have color-light signals, but only at interlocking home signals, the intermediate automatics are replaced with cab signals; and the next 75 miles or so will be fully cab signalled with only "stop" or "proceed" aspects at interlocking home signals. I have no idea what these look like inside the dispatching centers; I'd expect the areas with busy commuter systems (MBTA from Boston to Providence; Metro-North from New York to Hartford) to actually care down to the block level.

" said:

" said:

Then, I mused, why do SimSig sims bother to display completely automated signals anyway? It would make for much smoother route setting, not to mention shorter routes, if we weren't continually interrupted by automated patches, and routes became unbroken white lines from beginning to end.
[/i]

I don't understand this. Why would you not want the automatic signal sections displayed?

Not all countries show automatic signals - the US being one example I can think of. Different country, different standards.