Signalling is to me is one of the most difficult aspects of a model railway to set up, as I see it there is two problems that face most of us. 1) Distances on our models are so short, e.g. in 1:76 scale 1 mile equates to a 1:1 distance of approximately 69 feet or 21m which is not something most of us can achieve let alone multiple miles, so even separating signals by 0.25 mile is almost impossible. 2) Signalling is a complex aspect of railways, and here I am just considering the UK in the 1960s such that probably the only persons that understand how to implement it in a model are railway professionals. Now as most of us are not railway professionals, what do we do, there are some introductory books but even so that only tells us part of the story so I have adopted the following approach on my railway such that there is a potentially plausible* signalling arrangement with a consistent approach in place, which in my mind, is better than none at all. * Yes, a word I use often, it is a key word used in designing and developing my railway as many of its features are industrially based and as such publicly available information and photographic evidence is often sparse, especially if one is considering the 1950 - 1960s era when few individuals would be carrying cameras, and certainly no camera phones! Setting the Scene 1) My railway is a mix of vintage and current fine scale models rolling and static. 2) As I get older, I get clumsier, so they need to be fairly robust, so fairly crude vintage models of signals predominate, mostly upper quadrant. 3) As my trains are primarily freight the passenger trains are essentially dynamic background scenery, the only passenger platforms are for a rail bus/car down at the modeled docks via the port branch, and for passengers to the Euroferry port which is simply off-scene as a fiddle yard. So passenger station oriented signalling is not required. 4) All signals are operated by the hand from the sky, I considered Mercontrol but problematic with junction signals, life is too short, much still to be constructed. 5) Shunting and ground signals are too small and time consuming to implement. I have taken as a guide a book which I have had for some while titled "British Railway Signalling" (Ref 3.1), all errors, including terminology are most likely mine! So here are my simplified rules for signalling across my railway. My Placement Rules 1) Signal boxes are positioned to cover junctions and track that they have line of sight of as their section, the more complex the section the bigger the box. Signals are placed to protect :- 2) Junctions. 3) Traffic on the single track branch lines from opposing movements aided by tokens. Simplifying the track plan from the series introduction (Ref 3.2) by straightening out the relevant track work I have split the Warren Yard signalling into two diagrams. One each representing the north and south junctions that connect Warren Yard to the national trunk route and the local branch lines. The arrival and departure roads are dual purpose and bidirectional and will be referred to by their function in the context of a described train movement. Down (north bound) and Up (south bound) are based on the actual geographical orientation of the trunk line past Warren Yard. I will now attempt to describe the arrivals and departures in a clear way. North Junction This is the simpler of the two, with a small sub-ordinate box near the north junction. Up trains not only access the arrival roads via this junction but down trains cross their path when departing. North Junction - Up Arrivals Up arrivals are allowed entry to the arrival roads by the junction stop signal which is preceded by a distant signal due to an obscured view on approach. The distant signal is placed before the left hand bend as the up train climbs out of the cutting behind the wagon repair works. This can be seen in the track plan of part 1 (Ref 3.2). North Junction - Down Departures Down departures are protected from up trains by the junction stop signal at north junction. They are protected from down trains by the down junction stop signal before the south junction which is at the tunnel entry (not modeled). Down departures are given the road from their starter signal. South Junction There are three arrival and departure routes to and from Warren Yard respectively at this junction, trunk, industrial branch and port branch. South Junction - Down Arrivals - Trunk Down arrivals are protected from up trains by the junction stop signal at the north junction and from the branch line trains by the stop signal at the branch token box. Down arrivals are allowed entry by the down junction stop signal before the south junction which is at the tunnel entry (not modeled), the distant arm set to warn of a stop ahead. South Junction - Up Departures - Trunk Up departures to the trunk line are protected from up trains by the junction stop signal at the north junction. Up departures are given the road from their starter signal. South Junction - Up Departures - Branch Up departures are given the road from their starter signal. To enter the branch lines they are stopped to pick up the appropriate token from the branch token box before they are allowed to proceed past the junction signal to either the industrial or port branch. The token box is an extension of the South box, the trunk line between them renders access by the south box signalman for token exchange impractical so his assistant operates the token equipment in the token box which is interlocked to the south box signal frame. The industrial branch has a distant arm due to the proximity of the next junction around the corner directly after the cutting as can be seen in the track plan in part 1 (Ref 3.2). South Junction - Down Arrivals - Branch Branch line arrivals are protected from each other by stop signals prior to this junction. Arrivals from the industrial branch are pre-warned of the token box signal by a fixed caution distant signal at the entry to the cutting which immediately precedes the junction. Arrivals from either branch are held at the token box stop signal to relinquish their token before given clearance to enter an arrival road of the marshalling yard. Summary This has given a modest amount of signalling interest without overly cluttering the layout, during the writing of this article I actually found two features I had overlooked and have now remedied. 1) Added the branch line junction token exchange box 2) The north junction entry for south bound trains required a two post junction stop signal and not just a single stop signal. I will now move on to describe the function, operation and build of the ancillary areas of Warren Yard. References: 3.1 British Railway Signalling Authors: G. M. Kichenside & Alan Williams Published: Ian Allan, 3rd Edition 1975 3.2 Warren Yard - 1 - Introduction https://platform1mrc.com/p1mrc/index.php?threads/warren-yard-1-introduction.5852/ Next, Overview of the loco services area Discussion always Jim Return to Index
