SECTIONAL APPENDIX - BEATTOCK
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General and History
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In 1845, the Caledonian Railway obtained the rights to build a line from Carlisle to Glasgow. This would be the first through line from England to Scotland.
A major obstacle to cross were the Southern Uplands. It was decided that the line would follow the small river named Evan Water to reach the summit from the south, and it would follow the valley of the Clyde from the north.
This led the railway through the small village of Beattock, which was at the foot of the steepest part of the climb from the south. Beattock station therefore became an important location, as between this station and the summit (named Beattock as well) most of the trains needed to be assisted. Beattock was therefore provided with additional loops and sidings and an engine shed.
Banking lasted all the way through the steam era, but with the demise of steam came also the end to the need for banking engines.
Electrification, which was completed in 1974, obviated any need for assisting engines and the engine shed was closed and demolished. Beattock did however retain a number of loops and sidings.
Beattock station survived the Beeching era but when the line was electrified, the additional cost of modifying the station was not deemed worth while and the station was closed on January 3rd 1972, leaving Lockerbie as the only passenger station between Carlisle and Carstairs.

Moffat Branch
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At the time the line was constructed, Moffat was already a reasonably well known spa town. But as the railway had to follow the lay of the land, it was not possible to route the line through or near to the town. The Caledonian Railway declined to build a branch to Moffat.
So it was left to the good citizens of Moffat itself to raise the money and provide for a link to the main line. They did so in 1881 and the 1m 71 chain long branch to Beattock was opened on April 2nd 1883.
Passenger traffic ceased on December 6th 1954. The line was finally closed completely on April 6th 1964, and track was lifted soon after.

Assisting Engines
-----------------
As mentioned above, during the steam era most trains were assisted up the bank to Beattock Summit by banking engines.
However, the program does not support banking engines and therefore, for this simulation, all assisting engines are operated as pilots.
Please refer to the timetable notes for full details of these engine workings.

Note that the returning light engines from Beattock Summit are not linked to the actual northbound workings these engines assisted. This means that if the simulation is run with delays activated, it may happen that the engines return from Beattock Summit even before the northbound train has run. It may therefore be that two (or even more) instances of the same engine are present on the simulation at any one time. If this effect is unwanted, please limit the possible delay of northbound trains to just a few minutes.

Signalling
----------
The signalling as depicted in this simulation is as it was during the 1950's, up to the end of steam working. The area has completely changed with electrification in the early 1970's.
The station was controlled by two boxes, Beattock South and Beattock North.
In the simulation, Beattock South lever numbers are raised by 100, the levers for Beattock North retain the original numbers. Note that despite the higher numbers, the levers for the south box are located on the left-hand side.

Adaptations
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South box : an additional signal is required at the south exit of the Down Sidings (signal 125). Note that there is no exit from the Down Loop to the south.

North box : additional signals and an additional switch lever are provided for the exit of the loco shed (switch 71, signal 72) and for the exit of the North Spur (signal 81). Access to the Branch Sidings is simplified and reduced to just a single access point. 

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 'in', i.e. the standard position of these levers is 'normal', in this position the linked switches are locked. To operate the switch, set the FPL lever to 'reverse'. Once the switch is thrown, return the FPL lever to 'normal'. FPL levers are locked in 'normal' if a route is set over the switch on which they operate, or when this route is occupied. If an FPL is in 'reverse' position, all routes over the related switch are blocked and signals cannot 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.

Local instructions
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The distant signal on the Down Line was a three-aspect colour light signal. The state changed from yellow to double yellow on clearing signal 113 of the south box, and changed from double yellow to green on clearing signal 18 of the north box.
Switch 22 was set up as a catch-point for safety. The normal position of this switch is diverging.
On both the up and down lines, there were intermediate block signals between Beattock and the next box (27 on the down line, 100 on the up line). These IB signals were operated as separate blocks and had their own distant signals, main and distant signals were operated by a single lever.
The distant signals at Beattock (down : 18, up : 105) did not read through to these IB signals and could therefore be cleared even if these IB signals were still at danger. Also, there was no requirement to caution trains at the preceding home signals (down : 21, up : 107).

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 upto the train and can then be coupled using the 'couple' command.

Train stop locations
--------------------
The main location, Beattock, is set for the main Up and Down Platforms, the Down Loop and the Moffat Bay.
The Up Bay is set as a separate location, this allows for engines returning from Beattock Summit to be routed explicitly to the Up Bay if these need to take refuge to allow other traffic to pass through before crossing over to the loco shed.
North Spur and South Spur are also set up as separate locations to help with timing of shunt moves.
A separate location has also been set up at signal 17, this is specifically intended for light engines coming off the shed and required to attach to trains in the Down Platform. Such engines can now terminate at signal 17 rather than in the Down Platform itself, this saves on a two minute delay as trains take two minutes after terminating before the next move can be made.

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.

Up Platform   : 17 units
Down Platform : 17 units
Down Loop     : 17 units
Moffat Bay    :  5 units
Up Bay        :  6 units
South Spur    :  7 units
North Spur    :  4 units

Distances to fringe boxes :

Wamphray : 5m  5c (IB signals at 3m 42c)
Greskine : 5m 41c (IB signals at 3m 33c)
Moffat   : 1m 71c

Speed Restrictions
------------------
Up and Down Main     : 80 mph
(Speed on Down Main north of Beattock is gradually reduced to 60 mph to simulate the impact of the bank)
Moffat Branch        : 40 mph
Moffat Bay           : 15 mph
Up Bay               : 15 mph
Switches and sidings : 15 mph
Access to turntable  :  5 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
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The opening picture shows 'Duchess' 4-6-2 no. 46252 'City of Leicester' as it is approaching Beattock Station from the North on May 29th 1961. The train is just passing the engine shed.
Prominent next to the train is signal 28 with distant 29. Just visible down in the left corner are disks 1 and 4, and above it there is just a glimpse of signal 19. The line to the right leads to the former Moffat Bay, the lines next to it are part of the Branch Sidings.
The picture was obtained through Colour-Rail (www.colourrail.com).

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.
