West Anglia

Hackney Downs Workstation

Introduction

The Hackney workstation is the shortest in terms of route miles but also the busiest in terms of number of trains. The control area extends from the fringe with Liverpool Street at Bethnal Green North Junctions (exclusive) to Rectory Road (exclusive), Chingford, and Clapton Junction.

The signaller has the option of re-routing non-stopping up trains between Hackney Downs and Bethnal Green, which should be used to re-order trains that are out of sequence, or to avoid a problem on the scheduled route.

Gradients are insignificant apart some brief uphill sections into Hackney Downs in the up direction. Linespeeds are low from Bethnal Green to Hackney Downs, and even then only incrementally step up to 50mph maximum beyond there.

Signalling Notes

London Fields

Be careful with trains reversing at London Fields from Hackney Downs. If a following train is signalled to L132 then both trains are trapped, facing each other. The safest solution after this happening is to send the reversing train to Liverpool Street instead.

A TRTS indicator is provided on the Up platform, in the Down direction, to indicate when the train driver has changed ends and is ready to head towards Hackney Downs or Navarino Road Jn.

Graham Road Curve

The Hackney signaller is in charge of the Graham Road Curve. To send a train to Navarino Road Junction requires simple routesetting. For the North London Line signaller to send a train to you, they will first request the slot. This will flash white when requested. Left-click to grant the slot. They can then set the route to L136.

Hackney Downs

Trains between Hackney Downs and Cheshunt can take one of three routes - via the Southbury loop, via Tottenham Hale, or via Southbury and South Tottenham. Trains will accept a diversionary route without questioning the route if it does not miss stopping at any stations. However, the supplied timetable has extremely few trains doing this as nearly all stop at either Tottenham Hale or Seven Sisters (amongst others). Both these stations are station stops on London Underground's Victoria Line.

Clapton Junction

Clapton Junction is almost straight for the Chingford line, whereas the Cambridge line sharply curves off to join the Temple Mills line. That is why signal L167 shows a free green for the Chingford line while flashing yellows are shown for the Cambridge line.

Chingford

Both sets of sidings at Chingford require the shunter's acceptance before a route can be set into them, with the exception of the routes between the two sets of sidings. The shunter will set up the train description for departing trains. Left-click on the SA roundel to request the acceptance. It will turn solid white when granted. Be careful not to lock up the station and sidings with nose-to-nose moves. Outbound trains will operate the TRTS when they are ready to depart.

Because of the way Chingford sidings are set up, a TRTS message pertaining to the sidings does not contain the location name. A message of "Signal 5561 TRTS" means a train is ready at the London End Sidings; whereas "Signal 1442 TRTS" means a train is ready at the Country End Sidings.

All three platforms at Chingford will accommodate eight car trains. Measuring tracks on the approach ensure that too long a train is not sent into an occupied platform. If there is a track section failure in the station then using the white "S" exit arrows instead of the usual grey exit arrows will override the platform occupancy. Beware of misusing this though.

TRTS is provided at all three platforms.

Interlockings

Signal, point, and track failures are reported by interlocking, per real life as far as the signaller is concerned (the technicians get more detailed information from their diagnostic terminals once informed by the signaller). The interlockings in this workstation are as follows:

HACKWEST (Hackney Downs areas, Suburban lines)
HACKEAST (Hackney Downs areas, Fast lines, and to Clapton Junction)
CHINGFD (St. James St to Chingford)

West Anglia Contents

Last edited by Steamer on 01/06/2019 at 17:51