SECTIONAL APPENDIX - RUGBY CENTRAL


General and History
Rugby Central
In 1847, the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway was set up, joining a number of companies which had been granted rights to build railways but which had not yet started actual construction. By 1889, this company had a network of lines stretching from the West coast (Liverpool) to the East coast (Grimsby), via Manchester and Sheffield, as well as several branches. Coal was an important business, and the ambition was to create an own route to London which was the major market.
Parliamentary permission was granted for what became known as the London Extension in 1889. This work was started at the north end, at Beighton, just east of Sheffield, and was completed in 1899.
Rugby Central was roughly in the middle of this new route, and was opened on 15th of March 1899, It was served by trains between London (Marylebone) and Manchester (London Road), via Leicester (Central), Nottingham (Victoria) and Sheffield (Victoria).
When all the permissions were obtained to build the line to London, and work was in progress, the company changed its name to Great Central Railway, this name became official on 1 August 1897.

Rugby Central station was a very modest station, just a single standard island platform. The station buildings were on an overbridge at the north end of the station. On the Down side was a loop and a small yard, while on the up side there was only a loop.

On Grouping in 1924, the Great Central became part of the LNER. On Nationalisation in 1948, the former Great Central route became part of the Eastern region, but in the middle 1950s it was transferred to the Midland region.

Through passenger services on the Great Central were withdrawn on 4 March 1963, and most of the line was closed for all traffic on 5 September 1966. However, local services between Rugby Central and Nottingham were maintained, as an isolated service run by DMU. These services were finally withdrawn on 3 May 1969, and Rugby Central officially closed on 5 May 1969. Soon after, the lines were lifted and the station buildings were demolished.
The cutting in which the lines were laid is now used as cycle path and walkway.

Barby Sidings
The sidings near Barby were built in 1943, during WWII, as part of a military supply depot utilised by the Ministry of Food. The depot was taken over in the post-war period by the Weedon Royal Ordnance
Depot, and used as a sub-depot for the storage of ammunition returned following the end of the war, with the sidings being used to move materials into and out of the depot.
The depot closed in 1959, and soon after the sidings were lifted.

Adaptations
At Rugby Central, lever 41 was added to operated the points towards the Down Yards, these were manually operated.
Signals 42 and 43 were placed on Down Siding Spur and Down Yard respectively to regulate traffic from these locations.
No special adaptations were made at Barby.

The TC's are based on actual data, though the names of the TC's at Barby have been altered to avoid conflict with the TC's at Rugby.

Local instructions
Rugby Central.
There are routes from signal 11 into Up Loop and from signal 18 into Up Platform to allow trains to be reversed into these locations.

Trains standing in the Down Siding North (between sig. 14 and pts 19) which depart in Up direction need signal 21 to be cleared. This also applies to engine shunting from Down Siding North to Down Siding Middle.

Points 3 are within clearing point for Lutterworth and therefor need to be set to correct route before accepting a train from Lutterworth. Failing to do so will require the train to stop at signal 1/7 before the correct route can be set.

The Down Siding has been split in three separate timetable locations to allow proper timetable setup for shunt moves.
These locations are :
Down Siding North  : between sig. 14 and pts. 19
Down Siding Middle : between sigs. 20 and 21
Down Siding Spur   : spur beyond signal 42

A separate timetable location has also been set up on the Up line between sigs. 18 and pts. 24, to allow proper definition of shunt moves in this area. This location is defined as Sig18.

The Up Loop is allocated to the Rugby Central location.

Note that for proper overlap protection, signals 4 and 9 need section "K" at Barby to be clear.

Barby.
Signals 111 and 112 need not be cleared for traffic off the main line routed into the sidings. These signals control traffic from the sidings to the main lines. However, due to program restrictions, theses signals must also be cleared for moves between the sidings.

FPL 107 locks pts. 105 when normal, and pts. 109 when reversed. Routes in Down direction (from sigs. 102 and 104) need 107 reverse, routes in Up direction (from sigs. 108 and 111) need 107 normal.

Note that for proper overlap protection, signal 103 needs section "N" to be clear.


Shunt locations
At many signalboxes there were a number of locations in the area where trains could reverse for shunt workings, with permission to proceed to reverse provided not by signals but by instruction from the signalman, usually by showing a green flag. Green flags are used a Barby for the exits of the North and South Yards.
Permission for trains to proceed at these locations can be given through a series of buttons, displayed next to the levers. When a button is selected, a green flag is shown at the appropriate groundframe. Available routes from these locations and the related locking details are shown in the locking table. Note that these permissions operate in the same way as for signals, in that when permission is granted, all related switches are locked and other routes which would conflict with the permission are also locked.
As obviously permission can be given to only one train at the time, the buttons relating to shunt locations controlled from the same position are mutually exclusive.


Fringe boxes
Distance to fringe boxes:

Lutterworth to Rugby Central box : 7m 75 yds
   IBS on Down Line : 3m 1178 yds from Rugby C
   IBS on Up Line : 3m 1252yds from Lutterworth

Rugby Central to Barby : 6m 680 yds

Barby to Braunston & Willoughby : 2m 535 yds
Note that Braunston & Willoughby station was closed in 1958, but the signal box remained in operation.


General instructions
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
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
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.

Rugby
Up Platform (actual platform)                 :  7 units
                         (betw. pts 3 and 17) : 13 units
Up Loop                                       : 24 units

Down Platform (actual platform)               :  7 units
                    (betw. pts 13 and sig 15) :  9 units
                    (betw. pts 13 and sig 23) : 21 units
Down Siding North (betw. sig. 14 and pts. 19) : 13 units
                      (betw. sigs. 14 and 21) : 15 units
Down Siding Middle (betw. sigs. 20 and 21)    :  1 unit
Down Siding Spur                              : 11 units

Shunt locations :
betw. sig 18 and pts. 24 : 11 units
betw. sigs. 25 and 9     :  2 units
betw. pts. 19 and sig 23 :  7 units

Barby
Shunt locations :
betw. sigs. 104 and 119    : 20 units
betw. pts. 116 and sig 108 : 17 units
betw. sigs. 103 and 115    : 37 units

Speed Restrictions
Main lines : 75 mph
All turnouts, loops, sidings etc. : 15 mph
                           
Train Reporting Numbers
Train reporting numbers only came into use in later years, and also changed over the years. See timetable information for details.

Opening Picture
The opening picture shows BR Standard Class 5MT no. 73066 on an unidentified southbound working, in March 1963.
The picture was obtained through Colour-Rail (colourrail.co.uk).

Acknowledgements
Thanks to PCRail-Test team for their help in testing this simulation, and as ever to John Dennis for providing the basic program for the heritage simulations.





             
