SECTIONAL APPENDIX - CLAPHAM


General and History

The first railway line through the small village of Clapham, near the border of Yorkshire and Lancashire, was the line from Skipton to Ingleton, completed in 1849 by the NWR (the little North Western).
The station became a junction a year later with the completion of the final section of the line from Lancaster to Skipton.
In 1861, the line to Ingleton was extended to Low Gill, on the Lancaster to Carlisle main line, by the Lancaster & Carlisle Railway. This now formed a through route between Leeds and Carlisle, but through traffic on this route never gained any significance. This was partly due to disagreement between the L&NWR (who took over the Lancaster & Carlisle Railway), and the MR (who leased the NWR since 1859), and partly due to the completion of the Midlands Settle & Carlisle route, which became the Midlands own through route from Leeds to Carlisle.
As a result, the line from Skipton to Lancaster and Carnforth became the main route through the junction.
The Ingleton branch lingered on for a long time, but the end was inevitable. Passenger traffic was withdrawn on 1st of February, 1954. Full closure of the branch followed in July 1966, and the line was lifted a year later. All freight facilities at Clapham were withdrawn in 1968, at which time all remaining sidings were lifted and the signal box was closed, leaving just the Skipton to Carnforth line (as the through route to Lancaster was also closed in 1968), as through lines. The station, however, remained open and is still open today. A sharp curve just west of the station is all that reminds of the former junction and sidings.

Adaptations
             
The simulation shows the layout as it was during the 1950s.

Local instructions
               
General information

The switches which gave access to the west end of the Down Sidings were controlled through a ground frame. The groundframe was released through lever 28. Note that there was no signal to control movement into the Down Sidings at this location, so a shunt location is set up at this point to control trains (see below). Note that clearance of the shunt location to signal 3 (on the Tebay Up Line) also requires lever 28 to be reversed.

Yard Layouts

The Down Sidings consisted of one through track, with two dead-end tracks with access from the west end, and two further dead-end tracks with access from the east end.
The Up Sidings consisted of two dead-end tracks.
The Dock consisted of a single dead-end track.

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. At Clapham, this applies for a number of locations as shown in the diagram. 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 signalbox. 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.

Fringe boxes

Distance to fringe boxes :
Eldroth       : 3m. 434y.
Ingleton      : 3m. 462y.
Skew Crossing : 1m. 141y.

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.
There were no separate levers for FPLs at this location, all FPLs were integrated and controlled by the same lever as the switch itself.

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.
             
Down Platform (between sigs. 22 and 30)          :  2 units
Up Platform                                      :  4 units

Shunt locations :
Up Main : between sigs. 32 and 18                : 11 units
Tebay Down : between sig. 25 and location TBD    :  4 units
Up Siding : between sigs. 5 and 10               :  1 unit


Speed Restrictions

Up & Down Main lines   : 60 mph
Tebay Up & Down        : 50 mph
Through pts. 19 and 20 : 35 mph (Up to Up & Down to Down)
                         25 mph (to / from Tebay Down & Tebay Up)
                                                  
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 2-6-0 5MT no. 42851 coming through the junction on an unidentified working on 28th July 1962.

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.





             
