The Mid-Sussex line leaves the main London-Brighton line at Three Bridges and works its way south through the Arun Valley to Arundel Jn, where it joins the south coast line from Brighton to Portsmouth. The line was built in stages from 1848 to 1863 and was joined in 1867 by the line from Leatherhead to Horsham via Dorking. The lines were built by, or with the assistance of, the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LB&SCR). The LB&SCR later became part of the Southern Railway as part of the 1922 Grouping, which itself became the Southern Region of British Railways in 1948.
Three Bridges ASC opened in 1983, and controlled the line as far as Faygate as part of Panel 4, resulting in the closure of Crawley and Faygate 'boxes. At the same time, Littlehaven was reduced to a gate box, with signalling controlled from Horsham box. In February 2000, Christ's Hospital closed, with control again passing to Horsham.
Three Bridges extended its reach in August 2005, resulting in the closure of the mechanical boxes at Horsham, Warnham and Holmwood. Warnham level crossing, at the time worked manually from Warnham 'box, was converted to MSL. To control the line, a new panel (Panel 7) was built at Three Bridges, and the Crawley- Faygate section of Panel 4 was moved to 7. The simulation replicates the panel as it was at this time.
Littlehaven crossing box closed in October 2012, and the crossing controlled via CCTV from Three Bridges.
Three Bridges extended again in March 2014, resulting in the closure of Billingshurst, Pulborough and Amberley signal boxes, and bringing the end of mechanical signalling on the Mid-Sussex line. Panel 7 was expanded to cover the route, and photographs of the construction and installation of the panel can be found here . Panel 7 now fringes to Arundel.
Dorking signalbox, constructed in the distinctive art-deco style of the Southern Railway, remains in use to this day. The box retains its 44-lever Westinghouse frame, albeit now controlling colour light signals. The box is a remarkable survivor, sandwiched as it is between the giants of Wimbledon and Three Bridges ASCs.
The simulation replicates the original Three Bridges Panel 7, as well as Dorking signal box. The Three Bridges section was originally developed by Andy Greenland and Matt Cooper. At the same time, Dorking was being written by Noel Young as a stand-alone simulation. Noel subsequently took over the development of the Horsham section, and merged it with Dorking to create the simulation as released.
Horsham forms part of a set of simulations covering the Three Bridges area. Panels 5 & 6 are simulated in Brighton , with the remainder forming the Croydon and Gatwick simulations, which are still in development.
Last edited by GeoffM on 15/09/2016 at 03:00