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Exeter - What a pickle!

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Exeter - What a pickle! 12/12/2015 at 01:04 #78678
RainbowNines
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Thought I'd share this from TBVE's late night game. A TCF at Cogload meant I was holding two Bridgewater trains at Taunton - then along came a HST the other way and ANOTHER TCF has crippled the station, so I'm down to using platform 2 only for trains in both directions! I'm probably breaking just about every rule in the book...!

What fun...!


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Exeter - What a pickle! 12/12/2015 at 09:22 #78680
kbarber
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" said:
Thought I'd share this from TBVE's late night game. A TCF at Cogload meant I was holding two Bridgewater trains at Taunton - then along came a HST the other way and ANOTHER TCF has crippled the station, so I'm down to using platform 2 only for trains in both directions! I'm probably breaking just about every rule in the book...!

What fun...!


If the signals and the routes are there... Use it or lose it always used to be our motto when I was a bobby. At Kensington, the down platform was reversibly signalled so it could be used by terminating Motorail trains (from the north) and also by the terminating 'Kenny Belle' (from Clapham Jc), so if we needed we had the facility to fill the whole station with northbound freights, ecs waiting paths back to Willesden Carriage Shed, not to mention the odd light engine (not for nothing were we referred to as 'Stop'em Junction'), and still use that platform as a single line to keep the job moving.

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Exeter - What a pickle! 12/12/2015 at 10:36 #78683
KymriskaDraken
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" said:
(not for nothing were we referred to as 'Stop'em Junction')
Standard snooker signalling - you have to have a red before any other colour.


Kev

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Exeter - What a pickle! 12/12/2015 at 12:04 #78685
belly buster
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Why not talk the Up trains past the TCF at Cogload?
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Exeter - What a pickle! 12/12/2015 at 12:22 #78686
Peter Bennet
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Looks like the points are locked reverse by the route. S'pose he could divert via Westbury?

Peter

I identify as half man half biscuit - crumbs!
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Exeter - What a pickle! 12/12/2015 at 12:43 #78687
Aurora
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" said:
Why not talk the Up trains past the TCF at Cogload?

Because the trains are going to Bridgwater, not Castle Cary.

Nil.
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Exeter - What a pickle! 12/12/2015 at 13:17 #78688
belly buster
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" said:
" said:
Why not talk the Up trains past the TCF at Cogload?

Because the trains are going to Bridgwater, not Castle Cary.
OK got it. Handcrank the points?

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Exeter - What a pickle! 12/12/2015 at 14:43 #78689
LMK
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" said:
" said:
" said:
Why not talk the Up trains past the TCF at Cogload?

Because the trains are going to Bridgwater, not Castle Cary.
OK got it. Handcrank the points?
That's up to the host and I decided to wait for them to be fixed.

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Exeter - What a pickle! 12/12/2015 at 16:43 #78691
Stephen Fulcher
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You can fairly well guarantee that if that set of points was locked up by a fault there would be a points operator despatched very quickly.

The other option is to ask the local S&T to release the route, but that would take longer than it would take the P-Way to get a point winder out from Taunton Depot.

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Exeter - What a pickle! 12/12/2015 at 17:20 #78692
RainbowNines
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Glad to see I've generated a bit of discussion ;)

1M85 had already been delayed by half an hour due to police attendance, too! I was a bit miffed because prior to the second TCF I had toyed with the idea of putting 1E37 into P3 - that would have let up trains have a clear run...!

I guess the limitation of MP SimSig is that a point operator would need to be simulated by the host constantly moving them back and forth, especially as I had a slew of trains in my direction following another points meltdown outside St Davids.

Stephen, would that have been the "real life" response? Get an operator down to do them manually? How would this be managed by the signaller?

I appreciate it wasn't prototypical of what would happen in real life but it did get the brain cells going and I enjoyed the challenge - so I'm glad Leon didn't wind the points over!

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Exeter - What a pickle! 12/12/2015 at 17:22 #78693
Stephen Fulcher
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Basically yes.

Either control or the panel directly would request a points operator, and someone would be despatched to hand pump the points to the instructions of the signaller.

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Exeter - What a pickle! 12/12/2015 at 19:06 #78695
JamesN
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" said:
Basically yes.

Either control or the panel directly would request a points operator, and someone would be despatched to hand pump the points to the instructions of the signaller.
To add, control would also try to get some of the traffic held back (say at St David's) or diverted. These days we try and avoid trains stranded between stations where possible. Certainly work to try and avoid the situation you have with both North/East bound platforms at Taunton blocked with Bridgwater traffic.

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Exeter - What a pickle! 13/12/2015 at 01:07 #78701
pedroathome
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" said:
" said:
Basically yes.

Either control or the panel directly would request a points operator, and someone would be despatched to hand pump the points to the instructions of the signaller.
To add, control would also try to get some of the traffic held back (say at St David's) or diverted. These days we try and avoid trains stranded between stations where possible. Certainly work to try and avoid the situation you have with both North/East bound platforms at Taunton blocked with Bridgwater traffic.

Why does part of me think that that would be to allow extra delay mins to be claimed rather than thinking of the passengers

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Exeter - What a pickle! 13/12/2015 at 09:01 #78702
lazzer
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" said:
... avoid the situation you have with both North/East bound platforms at Taunton blocked with Bridgwater traffic.

As a small point of order, all platforms at Taunton are east/northbound platforms

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Exeter - What a pickle! 13/12/2015 at 13:36 #78705
RainbowNines
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Yes I figured I could hold two because I still had two platforms left... Then came the second tcf!

I would have probably held any further Bridgwater trains already sent in the loop at Tiverton Jn station and then asked B Panel to hold trains at St David's, but it never actually came to that.

Very interesting inputs from everyone though. Again proves that clicking signals on Simsig is really only half the story!

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Exeter - What a pickle! 13/12/2015 at 13:57 #78707
lazzer
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" said:
Yes I figured I could hold two because I still had two platforms left... Then came the second tcf!

I would have probably held any further Bridgwater trains already sent in the loop at Tiverton Jn station and then asked B Panel to hold trains at St David's, but it never actually came to that.

Very interesting inputs from everyone though. Again proves that clicking signals on Simsig is really only half the story!
A small problem is that both of the trains at Taunton are XC trains, so sending them on diversion via Westbury and Bradford is a pain for getting them to Bristol (they'd have to reverse there unless a not-to-call order is given, and the train sent round the Rhubarb Loop, but missing out Temple Meads is a major annoyance for passengers). I know Bristol XC drivers sign Westbury and Bradford as a diversion but, not if Plymouth XC drivers do.

But I suppose you could have done that with one of the XC trains, and hoped the TCF cleared up before you got any more trains for Bridgwater arriving. If they were FGW trains for London, it would be easier to send one via Westbury and Melksham, and then give stop orders to a train booked to go via Bristol to mop up the passengers. That sounds sensible, but then control have funny ideas about how to solve a problem like this efficiently.

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