SECTIONAL APPENDIX - GLEBE STREET and STOKE NORTH
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General and History
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The line through Stoke-on-Trent was first cut between 1848-1849 from Colwich on the London Line to Macclesfield on the line to Manchester. It was known as the North Staffordshire Railway (or the Knotty). Later extensions were added, the Stoke to Derby line, the Biddulph Line, the Newcastle Branch to Market Drayton and the Potteries Loop line to Kidsgrove along with other various branch lines and by the end of the 1800's it was a very successful franchise. It was paid for largely by local businessmen who did not want to pay the high freight charges imposed by the larger railway companies.

Staffordshire was very rich in minerals and with its China Porcelain, Iron and Steel and Coal industries, was very wealthy. This resulted in a very busy railway operation in a relatively small area. Passenger traffic was soon established with direct services between Manchester and London, Crewe to Derby and the local services to Trentham, the five towns (Hanley, Burslem, Tunstall and Longton along with the forgotten 6th town, Fenton), with partnerships with the LNER. Running rights were established with other railway companies and "Knotty" engines could travel to popular seaside resorts as far as Llandudno in North Wales.

Signalling
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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 1960's.

Entrance and Exits to Stoke Yard and the Up and Down Arrivals were also controlled by two Shunting Signal Boxes, Stoke South and Stoke North end. Therefore through trains from the Down Arrival or Up Departure and Up and Down Goods lines are classed as Yard exits and entrances.


Stoke-On-Trent Station working
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Permissive Block working was used through the Station. As this simulation is limited and cannot depict this type of working the calling on Signals are used, as they were back in those times. Trains have to be brought under control of 10mph when operating these. Also Regulation 5 was used between Glebe Street and Stoke North Junction but again this cannot be depicted by the simulation. Therefore when a train is being brought into the Up or Down Centre when a train is departing at the far end, the train being signalled into the Up or Down Centre must be brought to a speed of 10mph before the main line Signal is cleared.

Adaptations
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Signal 193 is added on the Down Goods, as is Signal 13 on the Down Main Line and Signal 20 on the Up Departure. These have been added to comply with the program requirement that a single exit signal is provided for the simulation to function.
The distant signals for Newcastle Jcn on the Down Main are fixed at caution, as are Stoke Junctions Distant Signals on the Up Main. It is impossible for this simulation to determine in which direction trains would go.
The Goods lines originally allowed for Permissive Block Working but the simulation will not allow for this.
Viaduct No 1 and Viaduct No 2 were through roads and were bidirectional but because of limitations of the sim they're shown as Yard entrance/exits. The same is true for the Up and Down Goods Lines between Stoke North and Glebe Street.

Local instructions
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Signal 131 is a "Calling On" Signal, and is to be used for trains shunting into Stoke Yard or the Bay or Bay Sidings. Signals 1, 2, 161 and 163 are "Calling On" Signals for trains entering occupied lines into the Station area. The "Calling On" Signals beneath Signals 108 and 110 are non working.


General instructions
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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 '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 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.

Notes on shunting
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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.

Banking
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Quite a number of freight trains had to be banked by an engine in the rear from Stoke Junction up the steep incline of the Derby Line. The engine would let go at Caverswall and return from there. I saw it done many times even with diesel engines. The bank engine usually came behind the train on Viaduct No. 1.  The simulation does not allow for this.

Locations and Section Lengths
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Below is the list of locations and the lines which are part of these locations, also showing the length of these lines.
Where no specific lines are shown, the location consists of that single line only.
The length is shown in units. A unit represents an engine, a passenger coach or 3 freight wagons.
For dead-end sidings, deduct one unit if a shunt engine is to attach to take the stock out of the siding.

Stoke (station) :
        Down Centre Line : 10 units
        Down Platform    : 11 units
        Up Centre Line   : 10 units
        Up Platform      :  9 units (between sig. 64 and sig. 116)
                           11 units (between sig. 64 and switch 119A)
        Bay              :  5 units

Turntable : 1 unit

Wagon Works Sidings :
        Both sidings     :  5 units

Bay Sidings :
        Both sidings     :  5 units

Carriage Sidings :
        All sidings      :  5 units

Dock : 2 units

Other shunt sections :
   between sigs. 57 and 24   : 6 units
   between sigs. 182 and 113 : 2 units
   between sigs. 198 and 193 : 2 units

Yard entries and exits
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Below is the list of yard entries and exits.
For yard entries marked *, trains will report when stopped at the exit signal.
For other yard entries, trains will report when approaching at line speed.
Yard entries and exits which are grouped are linked, so trains which exits at one of these yard entries can be linked to another train which enters the simulation at the same or one of the other linked yard entries.

Stoke Yard main lines (North and South) :
        Stoke Yard South Up Arrival (exit only)
        Stoke Yard South Down Departure
        Stoke Yard North Up
        Stoke Yard North Down

Stoke Yard sidings :
        * Stoke Yard North 1
        * Stoke Yard North 2

* Viaduct Siding 1
* Viaduct Siding 2

* Old Turntable Siding

Through Siding

* LNW Sidings

Speed Restrictions
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Max. speed on all main lines throughout the station area is 20 mph.
Max. speed on Down Main is 40 mph. beyond points 158.
Max. speed on Up Main is 40 mph. upto points 170.

Max. speed through switches and on all other lines and sidings is 10 or 15
mph.
 
Train Reporting Numbers
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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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Glebe Street Signalbox at the south end of Stoke-on-Trent Station. Photograph
credited to Rex Christiansen author of "Portrait of The North Staffordshire
Railway", published in 1997 by Ian Allan Publishing

Personal Notes by the developer
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I started to work as a boy of 15 on the railway at Stoke-on-Trent  in August of 1967. I worked as a train recorder at Stoke Power Signalbox, which had replaced Stoke Junction, Stoke North, Glebe Street, Newcastle Junction, Cliffvale and Etruria Junction along with a number of other signalboxes and shunting cabins, in July of 1966. I eventually went through the Manchester School of Signaling in 1970 and became one of the youngest signalmen on BR.

If you are on the platform at Stoke-on-Trent station today and walk to the North end of the station, the sight you will see resembles nothing of the layout as it was during the time that is depicted here in this simulation. Gone are the carriage sidings on the Up Side. Cars park where they used to be. Looking over towards where Stoke Yard and Stoke North Signalbox were, is now a fenced area containing another car park and weeds. The Bay Sidings have long gone as are the Up and Down Centre roads through the station.

A walk to the South end of the station will be met with the same depressing picture. Where Glebe Street stood along with the Turntable etc is completely overgrown with weeds. The Up and Down Arrival and Departure lines have long gone, now separated from the main line by a fence. It is a far cry from what Stoke once was in it's heyday.  

Acknowledgements
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Thanks to Rob Roeterdink for all his hard work in making Glebe Street come to live again.
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.
Also a special thanks to all the Signalmen who inspired my love for the railways and the former manual boxes.
Thanks also to JP Mould for all his help with the Working Timetables.
