SECTIONAL APPENDIX - BRIDGNORTH
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General and History
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The Railway.
The Severn Valley Railway ran from Shrewsbury in Shropshire to Hartlebury in Worcestershire where it connected with the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton railway.
The railway was 40 miles long, closely following the river Severn for most of its route but crossing the river only once via the Victoria Bridge just south of Arley.
Some of the stations were inconveniently on the wrong side of the river for the settlements from which they took their name, none more so than at Ironbridge where railway users had to pay a toll to cross the river on the Iron Bridge!
The railway was built as a single line with passing loops initially at Buildwas Junction, Ironbridge & Broseley, Bridgnorth, Bewdley and Stourport.  Loops were added at Hampton Loade and Arley in 1883 and at Berrington, Cressage and Coalport in the 1890s.
The line was opened in February 1862 with a daily service (except on Sundays) of three trains between Shrewsbury and Hartlebury and one between Shrewsbury and Bridgnorth each day.
Passenger revenue was a secondary consideration - freight, especially agricultural and industrial, was the main revenue earner. [The Coalbrookdale area around Ironbridge had been producing cast iron products since 1709 thanks to the local abundance of limestone, coal, ironstone and clay.]
The Great Western Railway absorbed the railway in 1872 and built a direct line between Bewdley and Kidderminster in 1878 providing direct access to Birmingham without a change of trains at Hartlebury.
The line was a secondary route but it did prove useful as a diversionary route which avoided Birmingham during the 1940s.
The railway passed to British Railways when the entire rail network was nationalised in 1948.
Following the infamous Beeching Report the line was closed in stages. Bridgnorth station was closed in 1963 when all passenger services north of Bewdley ceased.  Freight traffic continued until 1969 and passenger services to Bewdley were withdrawn in 1970.

The Town.
Bridgnorth is a market town in southern Shropshire.  The river splits the town into High Town, which sits high above the western bank of the river on top of a sandstone cliff, and Low Town on the eastern side of the river at river level.
The town has been an important settlement since Anglo-Saxon times. In 912AD Aethelfleda, Lady of Mercia and daughter of King Alfred, built a fortification against the Danes at Bridgnorth.  The ruins of the Norman built Bridgnorth Castle can still be seen, leaning at a 15 degree angle following incomplete demolition by Roundhead troups during the Civil War (1640s).
Bridgnorth was a busy river port until the coming of the railway.  Tanning, weaving and iron working were the main local industries.
Richard Trevithick's fourth and final locomotive "Catch Me Who Can" was built at Bridgnorth in 1808 and became the first steam engine to draw fare paying passengers. [A replica of this locomotive can be viewed in the carriage siding dock at Bridgnorth station.]

The Station.
Originally a through station with a passing loop, today Bridgnorth station is the northern terminus of the Severn Valley Railway.
The main station building is a unique stone neo-Jacobean Grade II listed structure in its original 1862 form.  An additional building housing a cafe and toilets was recently completed (January 2019).

Preservation Era.
The Severn Valley Railway preservation society has restored the portion of the line between Bridgnorth and Kidderminster in stages - starting at Bridgnorth and gradually extending southwards as BR ceased operations.  At Kidderminster a terminus station and a signalbox, built from scratch on the site of the goods yard, were opened in 1984. Carriage sheds and a diesel depot were added in 2003 and 2016 respectively.
Bridgnorth is the home of the steam motive power depot though there are some facilities at Bewdley where some engines start their day's work.
The line is currently 16 miles long with six stations and seven signalboxes (two at Bewdley).  An intensive steam train service operates 250 days a year - daily between Easter and the end of September.
Examples of many types of steam-era signalling equipment can be viewed at the Kidderminster Railway Museum which is housed in a two storey ex-GWR grain and wool warehouse alongside Kidderminster station.

Signalboxes.
The Regulation of Railways Act 1889 forced the GWR to build two fully interlocked signalboxes at Bridgnorth, one at the south end of the station and the other at the north end near the tunnel under High Town.  These boxes were brought into use in October 1892.
In 1923 relaxation of the maximum distance between the signalbox and mechanically controlled facing points enabled the GWR to rationalize the two boxes into a single central box situated on platform 1 just north of the platform building.
This less than ideal position means that most of the signals are out of sight or obscured by the footbridge so the instrument shelf contains many wooden GWR signal repeater boxes.
The line to Hampton Loade (or Highley when working "long section") is controlled under Electric Train Token regulations by Tyers No. 9 single line token instruments.
The central box is still in use today but it was partially demolished when British Rail closed the line and had to be rebuilt by the preservation society using the operating floor and roof from Pensnett South and the GWR 3-bar VT lever frame from Windmill End Junction.
The box is somewhat larger than required to house 30 levers because the GWR provided space for extra levers to control a junction with a line from Wolverhampton that never materialised.

Adaptations
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Some adaptations were necessary in order to work with PC-Rail.
Levers 16A and 16B each control one shunt signal in the simulation; in real life a single lever 16 controls both signals.
The ground frame outside the boiler shop contains levers G1 and G2 only; there is no lever or signal G0 - the operator gives a hand signal instead.

Local instructions
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Shunts to the Yard from a platform will normally require the engine to move to the beginning of the Hollybush Road siding; the "Shunt to signal 28" command should be given to avoid running too far down the siding.  Similarly when running round the stock via the other platform the "Shunt to signal 2" command should be given.
The exception to this is when the timetable specifically says the destination is Hollybush Road.  In this case you must NOT use the "Shunt to signal 28" command.

General instructions
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Rules to caution trains.
For semaphore signalling, the rule (rule 39A) applied that for a sequence of signals which had no intermediate or combined distant signal, if the last signal in this sequence could not be cleared, all preceding signals had to be kept at 'danger' at the approach of the train and could only be cleared if the speed of the train was sufficiently reduced. For the simulation, the speed must be reduced (to about 10 mph on approach). The speed while passing the signal must not exceed 15 mph.
See the locking details for the list of signals and conditions where and when trains must be cautioned. Note that the cautioning does not always apply for shunt moves which are wholly within the station area.

Locking rules.
For locking rules please see locking table.

FPL.
Facing Point Locks (FPL) have been provided where these were installed - see Locking information for details.
FPL's normally stand 'out', i.e. the normal position of these levers is 'reverse', in this position the linked switches are locked. To operate the switch, set the FPL lever to 'normal'. Once the switch is thrown, return the FPL lever to 'reverse'. FPL levers are locked in 'reverse' if a route is set over the switch on which they operate, or when this route is occupied. If an FPL is in 'normal' position, all routes over the related switch are blocked and signals can not be cleared.
Note that if an FPL operates on a switch which is part of a crossover, these rules generally also apply to the other switch of this crossover even if the FPL does not work directly on this switch; some shunt moves are exempt from this rule.

Notes on shunting
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The 'shunt' command must be used if a train is to reverse at a particular signal. It is good practice to issue the shunt command before clearing the last signal which leads to the location where the train is to reverse, this in order to avoid 'overshoot' when the shunt command is issued too late for the engine to brake in time, which will result in the engine running past the reversal point up to the next signal.
The 'shunt' command can be issued for a train waiting to depart as issuing this command does not affect the timed departure of this train. However, the shunt command must NOT be used for a signal which is beyond a booked station stop before the train has come to a stand for that specific station stop. Setting the shunt command before the train has stopped will cancel out the station stop, and will lead to an error on missed station stop.
 
If an engine is to be attached to a train, it has to be terminated before it can do so.
If the engine is terminated in the same location as the train to which it is to be attached, it will stop short of this train. After the engine has terminated and is redescribed to a 0Z** number, it can be moved onto the train using the 'proceed' command, and can then be coupled to the train using the 'couple' command.
If the engine is terminated in another location and is moved onto the train while it already has a 0Z** number, it will move up to the train and can then be coupled using the 'couple' command.

Section lengths and timetable locations
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Some sidings have been set up as separate locations such that moves to and from these sidings can be properly timed.
The names of the relevant locations are detailed below.

The list below details the lengths of platforms and sidings etc.
The length is defined in units, each unit equals an engine, a passenger coach, or 3 wagons.

No. 1 Platform  : 11 units
No. 2 Platform  :  9 units

Hollybush Road  :  6 units (between signal 28 and clear of G1)
                          (location : H'bush Rd)
                   2 units (on headshunt beyond signal G0)
                          (location : HBRoad Hsh)

Carriage Siding :  6 units (location : Car Sdg)

Headshunt       :  2 units (location : Hshunt)

Between sigs. 2/5/10 and 22 (for shunting purposes) : 11 units

Note on Hollybush Road:
if a long train is to be stored in Hollybush Road which needs to be set back all the way up to the buffer stops, it must be booked to stop at location HollybushRoad Headshunt (HBRoad Hsh). However, an engine which is sent to Hollybush Road to pick up this train must be booked to terminate at Hollybush Road proper otherwise it will not terminate and cannot be coupled to the train.

Speed Restrictions
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Main line        : 25 mph
Station Approach : 10 mph
Platforms        : 10 mph
Hollybush Road   : 10 mph
Carriage Sidings : 10 mph
All other sidings:  5 mph
 
Train Reporting Numbers
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Train reporting numbers only came into use in later years, and also changed over the years. See timetable information for details.

Opening Picture
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The opening picture shows the inside of Bridgnorth signal box on 31st October 2018.  The lever frame is set for the final arrival of the day (levers 11, 12 and 29 reversed).
 
Acknowledgements
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Thanks to PC-Test team for their help in testing this simulation, and as ever to John Dennis for providing the basic program for the heritage simulations.
