SECTIONAL APPENDIX - LLANELLY
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General
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Llanelly (or Llanelli, as it is spelled nowadays) is an industrial town on the south coast of Wales, about 10 miles west of Swansea. It is just about the western fringe of the south Wales industrial area.
Located on a plain between the sea and the hills, it was an ideal location for industrial development, with both the minerals in the hills and the sea for transport close by. Transport between the mines, the mills and the ports clearly was very important, and the first steel rails were laid down as early as 1805.
It was the Copperworks, which was established in Llanelly that year, which built the first tramway from one of the mines north of the town to the mill. This was a horse-drawn tramway.

The first real steam powered railway was built by the Llanelly Dock Company, which in 1835 was renamed to the Llanelly Railway and Dock Company and in the same year started building a railway line from its docks to Llandeilo. The line opened in 1839, and the first steam engines started running in 1840. The line was extended to Brynamman in 1842. The line was further extended from Llandeilo to Llandovery in 1858, from Llandeilo to Carmarthen (opened in 1864), and from Pontardulais to Swansea (opened in 1866, but the passenger station at Swansea Victoria was not opened until 1867). For these sections, a new company was set up, named Vale of Towy railways, but the lines were leased to the Llanelly company. However, the Llanelly company failed to renew its lease in 1868, and a new shared company was set up, named Central Wales Railway. By this time, the LNWR line from Shrewsbury (now known as the Heart of Wales line) was connected to the Llanelly system at Llandovery, and in 1871 the LNWR obtained running rights to Carmarthen and Swansea. Conflict over payments with the LNWR brought about the downfall of the Llanelly company as it was forced to hand over the Carmarthen and Swansea lines to the LNWR in 1873. The GWR took over the operation of the remaining lines in that same year.

Other mineral lines also were built in the Llanelly area, mostly running north to south, connecting mines with the mills, and both mills and mines with the docks.

The first east to west railway was the Swansea to Carmarthen line, built by the South Wales Railway in 1852. This company also built the Llanelly passenger station. The South Wales Railway merged into the GWR In 1863.
 
In 1911, most of the mineral lines were incorporated in a new company, named the Nevills Dock & Railway Company, after a family which had been involved with railways from the beginning. It connected the mills which were spread over the town, to the docks and the main line yards. In the 1950's, closure of some of the mills and relocation of other mills to new out-of-town locations led to the decline of the system, and it finally closed down in 1963. A small section remained in use, operated by a tinplate recycle plant, until the 1980's.

Llanelly station was a very modest affair, with just the two running lines, a bay platform which could be used by trains departing in the Up direction only, and a single siding. However, freight yards were spread all over the area, the main yard being at Llandilo Junction just east of the station. Other yards were Old Castle yard just to the west of the station, and Dock Yard which was to the south of Llandilo Jn. The Llanelly loco shed was located at this yard, and a direct spur connected the station to the Dock yard.

Llanelly station is still in operation, although both the bay platform and the siding have been lifted. All freight yard connections around the station are also lifted, although a small yard remains at Llandilo Jnc. The station is served by trains from Swansea to West Wales, and also by the Heart of Wales trains which reverse at the station on their way to and from Swansea, as was set up with dieselisation and closure of Swansea Victoria in 1964.

Signalling
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The simulation represents the signalling as it was around the early 1950's. The area was controlled by two signal boxes, Llanelly East and Llanelly West. The lever numbers for Llanelly West are the original numbers, the lever numbers for Llanelly East have the value of 100 added to them. 

Adaptations
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Signal 27A was added to the simulation to provide an exit signal from the line from Glanmor Foundry. Signals 18 and 20 were moved outward to cover the entries from Nevill's Railway and Gasworks respectively. In reality, these signals were located on the line from Nevill's Railway to Gasworks, between points 43 and 19, resp. 41 and 19.

Local instructions
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Level Crossings.
Both level crossings were worked by two levers, one lever working the gates (36 and 101), the other lever working the locks (37 and 102).
To close the gates, first operate the gates and then set the lock. To open the gates, first release the lock and then open the gates.
Rule 99 stipulated that level crossing gates must be closed if a route is cleared to a signal protecting that level crossing. The crossing at New Dock Road was exempt from this rule, so trains can be signaled to signal 105 without the need to close the gates. The rule does apply to Glanmor Road crossing so the gates must be closed before a route can be cleared to signal 33/22. Signals 7 and 129 are far enough from the level crossing to allow routes to be set without closing the gates.

Gasworks line gates.
The gasworks line gates are operated by 3 levers, one lever working the actual gates (2A and 4A) and two levers to lock gates in both opened positions (1 and 3) and closed positions (2 and 4).
The default position of the gates is 'open', that is the gaswork line is blocked and, for gates 4A, the main line is clear
To close the gates, first release the lock on the 'open' position, then close the gates, and finally set the lock on the 'closed' position. For example for gate 4A, first release the lock in open position (lever 3 normal), then close the gates (lever 4A reverse), finally set the lock in closed position (lever 4 reverse). The sequence to open the gate is similar but in reverse order.

Signal 23.
This signal is an advanced splitting signal, it can only be cleared if the route is set to the Down Running Goods Loop (16 reverse).

Advance distant signals.
Advance distant signals were placed in both up and down direction, controlled by levers 6, 104 and 130 respectively. These signals are not shown in the simulation. Also note that distant 6 also serves as an advance distant for 104, and therefore is slotted by 104.

Yard approaches.
Trains from Up Siding West, Up Siding East (1 and 2) and Down Running Goods Line will be stationary at the exit signal when announced. Trains from other yards exits will approach at line speed.

Yard exit Up Siding East 2.
Exit Up Siding East 2 does not lead to the full yard, but leads to short spurs only. The exit cannot be used by full trains but only by light engines.

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.

Locking rules.
For locking rules please see locking table.
Take good notice of these rules as there are many additional flank protection and overlap locks.

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 upto 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.

Section lengths
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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. 34 and 113) :  7 units
Down line (between sigs. 33 and 113)     : 12 units
Down line (between sigs. 33 and 29)      :  1 unit
Down line (between sigs. 32 and 33)      : 10 units

Up Platform (between sigs. 105 and 31)   :  5 units
Up Platform (full length to sig. 105)    :  9 units
Up line (between sigs. 116 and 107)      :  9 units
Up line (between sigs. 121 and 107)      :  2 units

Bay Platform                             :  5 units
Station siding                           :  5 units

Distance to fringe boxes :
Old Castle Jn (from West Box) : 29 chain
Dock Jn (from East Box)       : 28 chain
 
Speed Restrictions
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Main line : 70 mph
Main lines through station (betw. sigs 6 and 107, and 129 and 32) : 50 mph
All other lines, switches and sidings : 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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The opening picture shows 94xx 0-6-0 Panier Tank no. 9485 passing through Llanelly Down Platform, hauling a train loaded with what looks like scrap metal.
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 sorting out the very special program requirements for this particular simulation.
