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Fenchurch Street

This user manual is an extract from Clive's website - the linked version may be more up-to-date.

Manual - Version 2.0

Last modified 2013-08-10

Introduction

Fenchurch Street was the first SimSig simulation ever developed. The software framework was still being created and development went down some blind alleys. The source of the simulation has been lost, but a few copies of the executable survived.

I have spent some time reverse-engineering this executable to recreate the data for the simulation. And so we have SimSig Fenchurch Street Reborn!

As discussed below, this simulation recreates the original as far as possible. In particular, the data is as it was in the original with no changes. However, the data and core code have been brought up to the latest standards and features (e.g. the provision of sticky notes).

Legal Stuff

SimSig is for personal entertainment use only and must not be used for any commercial use, including the training of signallers etc.

SimSig is protected by copyright. No SimSig file may be distribution by any other website, by CD ROM or other media without express written permission from Cajon Rail LLC.

This software and is offered as-is, "what-you-see-is-what-you-get". Errors, omissions, faults or other problems are not covered by any warranty of any kind. Problem reports may be emailed or posted on the forums but action may or may not be taken by the authors, a decision which is up to said authors. SimSig accept no responsibility for any damage that may be caused to computer systems by the software.

Acknowledgements

My thanks to Geoff for the original simulation and allowing me to do this, to Ben Woodward for the 2009 timetable, and to all my testers for their hard work.

Geographical Summary

SimSig Fenchurch Street basically covers the area of one of the workstations at Upminster SCC. It covers the LTSR, or "Thameside" line, from Fenchurch Street to Upminster and Ripple Lane yard, plus connections to Bow Junction and Woodgrange Park (these are the only remaining links between this line and the rest of the "classic" network, though Ripple Lane also connects to HS1).

The Up direction is leftwards and the Down direction rightwards.

In the default mode, the diagram consists of two parts, one above the other.

Upper section: This consists of the line from Fenchurch Street to East Ham EMUD, with the single track branch at Gas Factory Junction towards Bow Junction. As can be seen, there are four tracks for a short distance out of Fenchurch Street, allowing trains to be reordered on arrival or departure. The platforms at Fenchurch Street at permissive , and controls exist to prevent a second train being called-on if there isn't enough space left in the platform for it. There is also a goods loop at Gas Factory Junction.

Lower Section: This is based around Barking station. This is where the LTSR route splits - both branches head for Southend and Shoeburyness, but one runs directly via Upminster, while the other diverts along the north bank of the Thames to Tilbury before turning north to meet the first at Pitsea. The latter branch sees a lot of goods traffic from the various docks. The Upminster branch is bidirectional from just west of Barking all the way to Shoeburyness, though this is only simulated as far as Dagenham East.

There is also a connection to the other lines around London via Woodgrange Park, and this is also one terminus of the London Overground "GOBLIN" service.

Speeds

The basic speed limits are 20 mph at Fenchurch Street, then 40 mph to Limehouse, a short break back to 20 again, then 50 mph to Gas Factory Junction, 60 mph to East Ham, 45 mph through Barking, and 70 mph from Barking to Upminster.

Electric Traction

The standard 25kV overhead equipment powers all lines in the simulation except platform 1 at Barking.

Scenarios and options

All the scenarios and options have been added in this version; there were no such in the original simulation.

The four scenarios and the four levels of problem are all self-evident. "Normal"/"None" corresponds to what players of the original simulation would have experienced. ARS was provided in the original simulation and has not been changed.

The tick boxes in the options have the following effects. If all the boxes are left unticked you will have as close as possible to the original simulation, warts and all.

• The "new layout" is a scrolly layout that I have designed. If you remove the tick, you will get the original "paged" layout on two screens, though for technical reasons this is provided within a "scrolly" framework. There is no difference in the features offered; a few extra things appear in the new layout (DLR and LU lines, "R" labels on repeater signals, and the labels for Upney and Renwick Road junctions).
• The "full signalling controls" fixes some omissions in the original:
• the five scissors crossovers are interlocked so that only one crossover can be reversed at a time;
• some train describer berth stepping at Fenchurch Street has been made more robust;
• approach control from red is provided at various signals;
• flank locking and double red working is included at Christian Street Junction
• the points at the west end of East Ham depot leading to the Up line (between signals 900 and 1015) will auto-normalize;
• the overlap at signal 156 must time out before a train can be signalled into the depot;
• an overlap is provided for signal 525 at Barking;
• the overlaps display correctly on the long section between Upney Junction and Dagenham East.
• "Add missing routes" adds some shunt routes around Fenchurch Street that were omitted in the original simulation.
• "Add missing paths" adds assorted timetabling paths that were not in the original simulation. These are those to and from Upney Junction, plus Gas Factory Loop to Limehouse, and Gas Factory Junction to and from Gas Factory Loop. If this is not ticked, trains with these paths in their timetable won't validate.
• "Wrong route calls" causes trains to phone in if they are given a wrong route - this wasn't a feature of the original simulation.
• "Fringe slots" adds slots for sending trains to Bow Junction and for entering East Ham depot from the Up line. Note that the slot at the west end is actually a release on the points, and so is required to set the route out of the depot from signal 900.

Fringe working

Any of the fringe locations can be told that the line is blocked by putting a special code into the relevant train describer berth:

• BLOK indicates a temporary blockage and trains will be held until it clears.
• SHUT, POSS, *T1*, *T2*, or *T3* indicates a longer closure and approaching trains will be cancelled or turned round before entering the area.

Train Service

There are two timetables supplied with the simulation. Firstly, the "morning" timetable is that provided with the original simulation, with some minor bug fixes, and represents a weekday morning service (plus, for no known reason, one evening goods service - that being 6E04 entering from Up Ripple Lane Dep at 20:41) at the time the original was written. Secondly, Ben Woodward has provided a 2009 timetable.

The following description is of the "morning" timetable. There are a total of 218 schedules in the timetable involving 130 trains entering the simulation and one divide. The entry points are:

East Ham EMUD 10

Woodgrange Park 32

Upminster 55

Ripple Lane 4

Dagenham Dock 29

Headcodes

Standard railway descriptions (headcodes) are used in SimSig, as always. The first digit is the class of train. The second character is a letter, which usually denotes the route taken by the train. The remaining two digits simply give each train its own identity.

The train classes are:

• 1 Express Passenger Train
• 2 Local Passenger Train
• 3 Priority Empty Coaching Stock (not used in this timetable)
• 4 Freight Train (75mph)
• 5 Ordinary Empty Coaching Stock
• 6 Freight Train (60mph)
• 7 Freight Train (40mph to 45mph)
• 8 Freight Train (35mph or less) (not used in this timetable)
• 9 International Services (not used in this timetable)
• 0 Light Locomotive

The route letters found in the timetable are as follows. They are only a guide; always check the actual destination of the train.

• A Not used
• B Passenger services via Upminster
• C Not used
• D Passenger services via Upminster
• E Trains to Eastern Region outside East Anglia, trains from other Regions, and ECS to East Ham EMUD
• F Not used
• G Not used
• H Used on one light engine; meaning unknown
• I Not used
• J GOBLIN services
• K Not used
• L Trains to or from elsewhere in East Anglia
• M Trains to London Midland Region
• N Not used
• O Trains to Southern Region
• P Not used
• Q Conditional workings (not used)
• R Passenger services via Dagenham Dock
• S Trains to Scottish Region and ECS to Shoeburyness sidings
• T Not used
• U Not used
• V Trains to Western Region
• W Not used
• X Out-of-gauge trains (not used)
• Y Not used
• Z Special trains (not used)

Main Movements

c2c

The "c2c" service runs between Fenchurch Street and Shoeburyness via either Upminster or Dagenham Dock. In the peaks there are fast services that omit some of the stations. Empty stock works in and out of the depot at East Ham. One or two services per day run to or from Liverpool Street instead, using the Woodgrange Park route. The trains are all class 357 "Electrostar" 4-car EMUs, usually coupled into 8- or 12-car formation.

London Overground

The London Overground 'GOBLIN' (Gospel Oak to Barking line) service runs between Gospel Oak and Barking; these normally using platform 1 at the latter, although they can also use platform 7 aswell. It is operated by DMUs - previously Class 150/1s, but nowadays Class 172/0s.

Freight Services

There are normally a lot of freight services between Ripple Lane and the Woodgrange Park route, but the rest of the line sees little or no freight.

Timetable Locations

This section lists the internal codes (which in many cases are TIPLOC codes) for the timetable locations in the simulation, and also provides a brief description of the less-obvious locations. These codes are used when using the timetable converter.

When a train enters the simulation a different code - an entry point code - is used. These codes are shown in italics following a » symbol. In general, the entry location should not be the first location in the train's timetable as well.

• FENCHRS Fenchurch Street
• CRISTSJ Christian Street Junction - signals 107, 112, and 511
• LIMHSE Limehouse
• GASFCTJ Gas Factory Junction - signals 129, 130 (both "ML") and 518 ("BJL")
• GASFLP Gas Factory Loop
• BOWJ Bow Junction »

  EUPGAS

• WHAMHL West Ham High Level
• EHMEMUD East Ham EMUD »

  EHAMUP (signal 900), EHAMDN (signal 1019)

• WDGRNPK Woodgrange Park »

  EDNWOOD

• BARKING Barking
• BARKUPJ Upney Junction - signals 173 & 532 ("DL"), 176 & 529 ("UL"), and 910 & 915 ("UCL")
• DAGNHME Dagenham East - signals 193, 194, and 533
• UPMNSTR Upminster - signals 212 and platform 2 »

  EUPMAIN (signal 214)

• RPLLFLT Ripple Lane Arr - actually immediately in advance of signal 617 »

  EUPRIPL (signal 804) In practice, these two can be used interchangeable for down trains

• DGNHMDC Dagenham Dock - actually immediately in advance of signal 617 »

  EUPTILB (signal 628)

• RPLLRRJ Renwick Rd Jn - signal 620

Known Problems

The following problems are known about in this release.

• Approach locking of signals is not always taken far enough back, meaning that cancelling the route from a signal could cause an adverse change of aspect for a train some signals in rear. This will be fixed in a forthcoming Loader update.

See also: Known Loader bugs

This section will be updated as bugs are reported.

Known Non-Problems

The following are part of the original simulation data. Even where they are not prototypical, they have been retained in the interests of reproducing the original simulation as much as possible. They are not bugs and will not be fixed.

• In a number of places two consecutive signals will show single yellow.
• The shunt routes at Fenchurch Street and Gas Factory Junction only clear if the platform or loop is completely clear, so can't be used to join trains.
• As a consequence of this, there are no locations or timetable paths to allow a loco run-round at Gas Factory Loop.

Reference Section

Signal Number Plan

These are Adobe Acrobat PDF files. If you don't have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer you can get a free download of the latest version from the Adobe website .

Signal Box Prefix Codes

Code	Box
L	Liverpool Street*

*Fringe Box, signals not controlled in this simulation.

Non-prefixed signals are controlled by Upminster (UR).

Platform Lengths

Location	Platform	Length (m)
Barking	1	183
	4	278
	5	257
	7	246
	8	257
Fenchurch Street	All	250
Limehouse	All	250
West Ham	All	248

Source: Network Rail's Timetable Planning Rules

Loop Lengths

Location	Length (m)
Gas Factory Junction	260

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Last edited by GeoffM on 15/09/2016 at 03:00