GENERAL
  
Rugby is a major junction situated on the West Coast main line, 82.5 miles north of London and 75.5 miles south of Crewe. 

At Trent Valley Junction, to the north of the station, is the junction with the Birmingham main line, with a flyover used by trains from the Up Birmingham line.

To the south of Rugby station is the flyover junction of the main line to London with the Northampton loop which is used by local passenger services and freight traffic. 

Rugby has a long railway history dating back to the opening of the London and Birmingham Railway in 1838. The addition of further lines to Leicester, Peterborough, Leamington and Northampton transformed Rugby into a major railway centre, referred to satirically by Charles Dickens who had occasion to change trains here as Mugby Junction. 

The principal railway company before 1923 was the London and North Western Railway, formed in 1846 by an amalgamation of the London & Birmingham, Grand Junction, and Manchester & Birmingham Railways, putting under single operation 247 miles of trunk route from London to Birmingham and Warrington.

The presence of the railway in Rugby dramatically stimulated the growth of the town and attracted heavy industry. At one time around 20 percent of the population were employed by the railway. At its height rails converged on Rugby from 9 directions operated by 3 different companies. In the last 30 years 5 of the lines have been closed. 

The station site has been moved twice to accommodate the growth in traffic and extra lines. The appearance of the present station has recently been radically changed by the removal of the "train shed" and overall roof. The station was for many years known as Rugby Midland as a second station, Rugby Central, served the Great Central line until its closure in 1970.

The modernisation and electrification of the West Coast Main Line in the 1960's brought substantial increases in the frequency and speed of the Liverpool/Manchester/Wolverhampton services to Euston. The current West Coast Route Modernisation scheme is bringing further change to Britain's busiest inter-city route.

Main line services are operated by Virgin Trains and semi-fast passenger services by Silverlink. 

There is a wide variety of freight including freightliner, inter-modal, coal, oil tanks, engineering/infrastructure, car transporters, postal in addition to the regular procession of Virgin trains and the Silverlink semi-fasts.


SIGNALLING
 
The power signalbox at Rugby, with an NX Panel, was opened in 1964, as part of the WCML modernisation scheme.

Standard BR multiple aspect signalling is in use, with Track Circuit Block working.


PLATFORM LINES
   
Permissive working of trains of classes 1,2,3 and 5 is permitted on all platform lines.

The capacities of platforms are as follows:
    
         Platform   Line      No. of Coaches (*)
   			 
            1      Down Slow       16
            2      Up Slow         16
            3      Bay              6
            6      Bay              6 
            7      Bay              6 
            8      Bay              6 
Note:
(*) Reduce by 1 for each loco on loco-hauled trains.       

These capacities may differ a little from the prototype.


NON-PASSENGER TRAIN STOPPING PLACES

Freight trains and light locos scheduled to stop (or terminate) at Rugby may do so at the following locations:

           Line             between signals   Capacity (*)
   			 
           Down Goods         158 and 150        24
           Up Goods           123 and 92         24
           Down Engine Line   124 and 94         20

Note:
(*) Number of freight wagons allowing for 1 loco; reduce by 2 for each additional loco. Capacity for class 4 trains is half the figure stated.


ELECTRIFICATION

All lines in the controlled area are electrified using the 25kV AC overhead system.


TRAIN REPORTING NUMBERS

     First Character (Train Class):

           1      Express Passenger  
           2      Ordinary Passenger       	
           3      Parcels  (Max. 90 mph+)  	
           4      Freight (Max. 65 mph+)      
           5      Empty Coaching Stock     	
           6      Freight (Max. 50-60 mph)    
           7      Freight (Max. 40-45 mph)    
           8      Freight (Max. 35 mph) 		
           0      Light Engine             	

        Second Character (Destination):

           A/B    London
           C      Carlisle
           D      Chester/North Wales
           E      Eastern Region
           F      Liverpool
           G      Birmingham
           H      Manchester South
           J      Manchester North
           K      Stoke-on-Trent/Crewe
           L      Anglia Region
           M      L.M. Region (from another Region)
           N      Preston/Blackpool
           O      Southern Region
           P      Pullman services
           S      Scottish Region
           V      Western Region 

Routing is as specified in the Working Timetable. 

Light locos and empty coaching stock proceeding to/from a booked working may carry the headcode 0 or 5, followed by the last 3 characters of the train concerned.


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
  
Thanks to Rob Weststrate who produced the standard timetable for use with this simulation and to all those who helped with testing.

Thanks also to Aidan O'Rourke for permission to use the image file on the startup screen.
