York North/South

York North Workstation

Introduction

The boundary between York South and York North on the station lines is shown as being between signals 301/302/303/304 and 305/306/307/308. In reality York supervises 301/303/305/307 while York South supervises 302/304/306/308.

The real life workstation is a Grade 6 position.

Geography

This workstation covers Skelton Junction northwards to the fringe with Tyneside IECC (Darlington desk). Much of the control area is 4-tracked with the fast lines signalled at up to 125mph with lots of straight and level track. Careful use of fast<->slow crossovers at Skelton, Tollerton, Thirsk, and Longlands/Northallerton give ample opportunity to regulate trains well.

The lines with 25kV overhead electrification are:

York to Skelton Bridge
York avoiding (slow) lines
Skelton Bridge to Northallerton (all lines)
Northallerton to Doncaster

Interlocking areas (for failure reporting) as as follows:

York North 2: Down Slow/avoider around York; Skelton area
Tollerton: Tollerton area
Thirsk: Thirsk area
Northallerton: Northallerton area

Signalling Notes

General

Most main signals have a 3 minute approach locking timer which will activate if a train is within the defined approach locking distance of the signal. Non-track circuited siding exits are generally 2 minutes while bay platforms are generally 1 minute and shunt signals 30 seconds.

York Up Arrival

Though track circuited, the ends of these two sidings are protected only by stop boards. The north (right hand) end is one way only: Skelton Junction into the sidings. It is *not* permissible to allow a train to pass stop boards 1 or 3.

Heading from the Up Arrival into York Yard South requires that the route be set from Y634 into York Yard, the hand points to be in the correct position (between Y634 and the stop boards), and then permission can be granted to a train to pass the appropriate stop board.

When setting a route from Y245 towards the Up Arrival lines, put the hand points into the correct position for the desired arrival road, and then set a route from Y245 to Y634. While the latter (Y634) is unusual because it's not the exit to the route, it is the way it is handled in the real life York IECC. Route lights will only appear between Y245 and Y634 - again, prototypical.

Signals Y634 and Y245 can be off together (opposing locking omitted). This allows trains to shunt back and forth without requiring the signaller to constantly re-stroke the routes.

York Yard South

Permission is required to enter York Yard South from Y248 or Y252. Telephone either the York Yard South (Y245) or York Yard South (Y247) according to whether the timetable states ENG or YYS. While the timetable location is the same, the possible fans of sidings that can be reached from each are completely separate.

The yard will phone you to inform of a departing train.

York Yard North

Permission is required to enter York Yard North from Y243/245/247 and Y262/312/666.

The yard will phone you to inform of a departing train.

When approaching Y243 to go into the yard, a train will come to a stand some tens of seconds before the position light aspect will light, allowing the train to proceed. It is not known why the approach control timeout is overly long.

Hammerton area

A short distance beyond the edge of control at Nether Poppleton AHB the pair of tracks become one for around 6 miles. This means trains will get held at P2 if a train is approaching from Hammerton. The signal after P2 is a semaphore with no overlap so trains are not allowed to approach it with a train already on the single line.

Thirsk

Passenger platforms here exist only on the Slow lines. Ensure the train is routed correctly just before Thirsk on the Down Slow, or an up at Longlands Junction.

There is a barrow crossing that traverses the Up Slow, the Up Fast, and the Down Fast. Signals Y426 and Y428 will be held at red for a time to allow the barrier crossing warning to activate if a train is already within striking distance of the crossing.

Signals Y405/407/412/414/436/438/451/453/456/458/462/464

Some of these signals are allocated to ARS subareas but none are enabled for ARS operation, per real life. Normally they would be left set in auto.

Northallerton to Darlington Bi-Di

The overlap at signal Y502 will not release which reduces the risk of a nose-to-nose situation. This also means the points to/from the Redmire branch will be locked until a train from Darlington has passed over those points.

The N/F control labelled "510 Dn Main Up-Di Rel" is a control to allow Up trains from Darlington to use the Down Main from East Cowton (off screen, between Northallerton and Darlington). Left click on the F circle to allow the movement and right click to cancel.

The F control labelled "Up Main Dn-Di Rel" is an indication to show that Darlington (Tyneside IECC) has allowed you to send Down trains along the Up Main. It can be requested by left-clicking on the green F circle. Once it turns solid white - which may not be for some time if trains are approaching - route can be set from Y467 at Northallerton to T965 (just above the D of "UP HABD").

The bidirectional signalling on the ECML between Northallerton and Berwick is SIMBIDS-style signalling, hence usage of it is allowed only for planned engineering works or to work around emergencies like failed trains, broken rails, etc. Additionally, the speed for wrong line movements is restricted to 50 mph.

Northallerton points P888

These points have time of operation locking on them. That means if a train arrives from Longlands Junction with the overlap locked then the points will be locked in their current position until the overlap releases. This is because the points are very close to the signal and damage would result if the train were to pass the signal at danger.

Redmire Branch

Though there are multiple sidings on the Redmire Branch, operationally a train must come off the branch before another train can enter the branch. The OTW (One Train Working) section will show red if the branch is occupied and green if the branch is clear. There is no train detection on the red/green section: occupancy is determined by correctly occupying and clearing tracks in sequence, and the driver is responsible for ensuring the train is complete.

A telephone call from the driver will be received shortly before a train coming off the Redmire branch passes a stop board (not shown), before occupying track NEA. A telephone call is required to be placed to Redmire Branch asking for permission for a train to go towards Redmire. This should be initiated when the train is in the Longlands Junction area but you can still route into the siding behind signal Y496 (assuming the OTW is showing green).

Eaglescliffe Branch

Trains may be timetabled via Boroughbridge Road LC or via Northallerton. However, trains can use the alternate route without penalty as long as no booked stop is to be made at Northallerton or Boroughbridge Road LC. An exception to this is container trains which are *not* allowed via Boroughbridge Road due to clearance issues: they must be routed via Northallerton station.

Green circles on the Boroughbridge Road and Eaglescliffe sections relate to the level crossings. The four level crossings are supervised by Low Gates signal box; the Low Gates signaller will give the slot to York IECC when the crossing is lowered and clear. The slot is aspect-level, that is it is only required for the signals to show a proceed aspect; routes can be set without the slor being illuminated. Note that some are grouped and will illuminate for multiple signals (eg Y482 and Y698 will illuminate simultaneously even though only one can have a route set at a time).

Trains approaching from Eaglescliffe show their TD stepping along between Long Lane and Brompton AHB even though there are no intermediate signals. This is as per real life in the IECC and is assumed to better predict arrival times at Northallerton and Longlands Junction for the ARS. Long sections like that approaching Y484 are harder for ARS to predict future timings.

The APPR berth from Eaglescliffe is interposed manually by the adjacent signaller sometime after the train leaves Bowesfield (no train describers there). It therefore may be a while before the train actually occupies the first track indicated to York.

Automatic Route Setting Notes

Skelton Junctions are handled fairly well by ARS and note that it is normal (in real life) for up freight trains to queue approaching Y325 to await a move over to the Slow lines around the west of York station.

Tollerton and Thirsk are similarly handled fairly well by ARS. However, with some late running it may be beneficial to reconsider switching lines manually.

Northallerton involves some conflicts so should be scanned frequently. The long section from Eaglescliffe can mean the predicted arrival times at Northallerton to be skewed, resulting in wrong priorities through Northallerton station.

York North/South Contents

Last edited by Steamer on 30/06/2019 at 17:35