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Marylebone
Introduction
History
Marylebone IECC, located in the buildings forming Marylebone station in London, controls the railway from Marylebone station, through Neasden South Junction, High Wycombe, Princes Risborough, Bicester North, and just short of Aynho Junction where it joins the line from Didcot to Birmingham. It also controls the single line from Princes Risborough to Aylesbury, the Aylesbury area, and towards the fringe with London Underground. In fact, Chiltern trains from Marylebone to Aylesbury via Amersham travel under Marylebone IECCs signals to just beyond Neasden South Junction where LUL take over and signal the trains to just beyond Amersham, after which Marylebone takes over again for the last few miles to Aylesbury and beyond.
In SimSig we give you the choice of having the Amersham trains disappear into the "black hole" for their LUL transit, or to control the LUL section in its entirety. See the simulation options for full details.
The lines enjoyed express services for many years right up until the mid 1900s but rationalisation in later years gradually wore down the line until in the mid 1980s Marylebone station was on the verge of closure. However, the line was reprieved and a Total Route Modernisation took place instead in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This transformed the line and in the years since it has enjoyed continuous improvement to the extent that formerly-singled sections are now double, the linespeed is 100mph for long sections, the headway is vastly improved, and Marylebone station has departures every few minutes during rush hour - a frequency to rival much bigger London stations. Future improvements include reinstating through lines at various stations, adding a double track chord in the Bicester area to allow through trains from Marylebone to Oxford, and passenger services from the same to Bletchley and Bedford over the sections between Bicester, Claydon, and Bletchley - parts of which are currently mothballed.
Marylebone Map
As noted earlier, Marylebone IECC controls the section up to just short of Aynho Junction. The junction was controlled by Banbury South signalbox, which also controlled the southern end of Banbury station. Banbury North controlled the north end. Both signalboxes are included in the simulation, albeit with some slight adaptions (see later). Nowadays West Midlands SCC controls the area formerly covered by Banbury North and South (and further to the north).
Also included in the simulation are two options for the LUL section. There is a simplified version which requires no user input - trains go in at one end and pop out the other end at the appropriate time. There is also a more detailed version which allows LUL trains to be timetabled in the sim and a much more detailed simulation of the LUL signalling. The user can select which version to use at start-up.
Three eras are included with the simulation; at the time of release in 2013, the simulation included a 2015 era to reflect planned layout changes- the only time SimSig has ventured into the future!
Last edited by GeoffM on 14/09/2016 at 12:35