General                                     
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When building the Exeter Extension from Yeovil Junction to Exeter of the London & South Western Railway on 19 July 1860, a station for the little seaside town of Seaton was included near the village of Colyton, and this was named "Colyton for Seaton". When the Seaton & Beer Railway was opened on 16 March 1868, which branched off the LSWR main line to Seaton at this location, the station was renamed "Colyton Junction", on 18 July 1869 it was renamed to "Seaton Junction".

At first, the platforms were next to the main running lines and there was no seperate branch platform, with branch trains arriving and departing from the Down Platform.
In 1928, the station was rebuild, adding the platform loops and the new branch platform. This layout was not changed any further up to closure.

In 1934, Express Dairies build a large creamery next to the station which was served by the Up Sidings. An egg packing plant was later added to this facility. Milk, eggs and other dairy products were taken by rail to London.

Seaton Junction was one of a string of junctions between Salisbury and Exeter which either connected to branches or to spurs to lines which crossed the LSWR main line. These were, from East to West : Templecombe, Yeovil Jn, Chard Jn, Axminster, Seaton Jn and Sidmouth Jn.
The end for most of these came in the 1960's, when all branches were closed and the junctions were either reduced to plain stations or closed altogether.

The branch to Seaton was closed to passenger traffic on 7 March 1966, and as Seaton Junction did not serve any local traffic it was closed at the same time.
Goods traffic ceased from 8 May 1967. The signal box was closed and all signalling equipment recovered; all loops and sidings on the Down side were lifted and the main line itself was singled. This work was completed by 11 June 1967. The Up Siding was retained to serve the Express Dairies plant and was connected to the single line at the Exeter end. These sidings were closed and lifted in 1973.
Nothing now remains but a single track through line.

The station building itself still stands and is a private property. The footbridge which connected the platforms, as well as the footbridge which passed over the complete station without access (which is shown in the opening picture) also both still stand.

Part of the trackbed of the Seaton branch is now in use as a narrow gauge tourist tram line. This runs from Colyton to Seaton, terminating just outside the former Seaton station.

Signalling and Adaptations
--------------------------

The simulation depicts the situation as it was in the 1950's. This, in general, was the layout of the station from its rebuilding in 1928 up to the closure in 1966.
No adaptations were required for the signals and switches on the main part of the station.

The access to the Up Sidings was slightly simplified. Lever 33 also operated half of a double slip which gave access to 1 out of the 3 Up Siding tracks, and to a further (manually operated) double slip which connected the other two lines. This latter double slip also connected to the Goods Shed which was on the outer side of the Up Platform. Signal 34 read to both approaches to the double slip.

In the Down Siding, all switches were manually operated, except for the half of the double slip operated by lever 25, and the switch operated by lever 38.
Signal 27 read to both Down Siding 1 and 2 (left of switch 102). All other points were manually operated.
As the simulation requires all points to be operated by levers, and also requires signals on exits of all tracks, signals and levers to control points and signals were added as needed, these are numbered between 101 and 112.

Local Instructions
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Note that switch 17 is within the clearance area for the Down Line from Axminster. This means that this switch can not be thrown once a train has been accepted from Axminster. If the switch must be thrown for a train which allready has been accepted, this train has to be stopped at signal 2/5.
The same applies for switch 46 for trains approaching from Honiton Incline.

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 also apply to the other switch of this crossover even if the FPL does not work directly on this switch.

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 passed the reversal point upto the next signal.
The 'shunt' command can be issued for a train waiting to depart as issuing this command does not effect the timed departure of this train.

Platform Lines and Sidings
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Length of platform lines and sidings.
Length is shown in units, 1 unit equals 1 engine or 1 pass. coach or 3 freight wagons.
Note that for lines which have a platform, the platform length is shown - distance between signals may be slightly longer.

Up Local :
between sigs. 51 and 31        :  8 units (platform)
between switch 33 and sig. 43  :  8 units
full length                    : 18 units

Up Through                     : 17 units
Down Through                   : 15 units

Down Local :
note : passenger trains on Down Local will stop at signal 6;
       freight trains will stop at signal 7.
between sigs. 18 and 6         :  8 units (platform)
between sigs. 30 and 7         :  2 units
full length                    : 15 units

Branch Platform                :  4 units (platform)

Down Sidings :
Line 1 between sigs. 27 and 36 :  4 units
between sig. 107 and end       :  1 unit
Line 2 (sigs. 103 to 105)      :  3 units
Line 3                         :  7 units
Dock                           :  3 units

Fringe Boxes
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East (Up) :
Axminster : 3 miles 22 chains.

West (Down) :
Honiton Incline : 2 miles 72 chains

Branch :
Seaton : 4 miles 16 chains.

Intermediate stations on Seaton Branch :
Colyton  : 1 mile 49 chains from Seaton Jn.
Colyford : 2 miles 41 chains from Seaton Jn.

Train Reporting Numbers
-----------------------

Train reporting numbers only came into use in later years, and also changed over the years. See timetable information for details.

Speed Restrictions
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Main lines   : 90 mph.
Branch line  : 40 mph.
Up Local     : 25 mph. (including switches 46 and 20)
Down Local   : 25 mph. (including switches 17 and 39)
Branch Plf   : 25 mph. (from sig. 10 to switch 29)

All other lines and switches : 15 mph.

Acknowledgements
---------------

First and foremost thanks to John Dennis for his extensive work on changing the program such that it became possible to build this simulation using just data definitions.
Also thanks to all on the pcrtest-team for their help in testing this simulation.

Opening picture
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Caption for opening picture reads :
Seaton branch train at Seaton Junction
The push-pull train for Seaton is waiting for passengers on a damp day.

Picture is  Copyright Richard Green, and is available at http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3390426.

The picture is reproduced here under the rules of the Creative Commons licence (see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/).
Please note that the rules of the Creative Commons licence also apply to the copy of this picture as included in the data of this simulation.

