SECTIONAL APPENDIX - NEW HUCKNALL SIDINGS
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General and History
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In 1889, a Parliamentary permission was granted to the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway to build a new railway south from Beighton, just east of Sheffield on the line to Retford, to Annesley. This was the first step in the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway's ambition to build a route to London (the London Extension as it became known).
The Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway was set up in 1847, joining a number of companies which had been granted rights to build railways but which had not yet started actual construction. By 1889, this company had a network of lines stretching from the West coast (Liverpool) to the East coast (Grimsby), via Manchester and Sheffield, as well as several branches. Coal was an important business, and the ambition was to create an own route to London which was the major market.
When all the permissions were obtained to build the line to London, and work was in progress, the company changed its name to Great Central Railway, this name became official on 1 August 1897.

New Hucknall Sidings was on the first section of this London extension which ran from Beighton to Annesley, and was located between the stations which served the villages of Tibshelf and Kirkby-in-Ashfield.
The line reached Tibshelf on 2 January 1893, the station was named Tibshelf Town.
The line reached Kirkby on in March 1893, and that station was first called Kirkby and Pinxton, but became known as Kirkby Bentinck once the local collieries of that name opened. 
New Hucknall Sidings were built a few months after the opening of the line, in 1893. The sidings were built to serve a number of collieries in the area of New Hucknall village.
The oldest of these was Blackwell Colliery, which opened in 1861. It had two separate operations, "A" winning which opened from the start, and "B" winning which opened in 1880. 
Next was New Hucknall Colliery which opened in 1876.
The third was South Normanton Colliery which opened in 1895.

The new line climbed from Nottingham to Pilsley, just north of Tibshelf mostly on a gradient of 1 in 132. The section through New Hucknall sidings was almost the only level or slightly favourable stretch on this entire 19 mile section. So northbound trains, particularly the freights would have been slogging past New Hucknall, whilst on southbound trains the fireman would have been enjoying a breather.

The signal box was rebuilt in 1951 to the standard LM type 15 presumably as a result of damage to the old box.

The Great Central line closed for passengers on 4 March 1963, and fully on 5 September 1966. After that, the line was lifted in stages. The last part to be lifted was towards Nottingham Victoria, removal of which was completed in November 1967, at which time the signalbox also finally closed (23rd of November). However, New Hucknall sidings remained in use, because the Blackwell Tip area was at that time in use as a spoil dump for British Rail. In the 1970's it was used to dump sludge waste from work in Clay Cross Tunnel (south of Chesterfield). The sidings were reached via the New Hucknall Colliery branch, using a former Midland Railway branch from Westhouses to that colliery. Exactly when the sidings were closed and lifted is not known but a new ground frame was provided at New Hucknall Colliery in 1981 to access the tip so this little bit of the infrastructure lingered on long after the GC had gone.

One by one, the collieries also closed.
The first to close was South Normanton Colliery, in 1951.
Blackwell "B" stopped winning coal in 1964, and Blackwell "A" stopped in 1969.
Finally, New Hucknall Colliery was closed in 1982.

Little now remains of the sidings and of the Great Central line in this area.

Signalling
----------
The signalling is based on diagrams showing the area in the late 1950's and early 1960's. Shunt locations were set up to control the shunt moves at the sidings, see below for details.
As was common at the time, there were only two track circuits in this area, these were short sections (200y) in front of signals 13 and 18. The other track circuits have been added to provide additional information on train movements to allow proper control of the signals.

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. A number of such locations are provided for New Hucknall as detailed below.
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 appropriate location. 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 signals, in that when permission is granted, all related switches are locked and other routes which would conflict with the permission are also locked.

All siding exits are controlled by shunt locations.
The Up Sidings Storage exit, and the Up Sidings Spur are also controlled by shunt locations.
There is a shunt location on the Up line, allowing trains to stop at pts. 20 to access the siding.
A further shunt location is located on the Up line, co-located with signal 17, for shunt moves on the Up line. See below for further details of these shunt moves.

All shunt locations are controlled from the signalbox, but the flags are shown at the location itself.


Local instructions
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The sidings exit signals (6/7, 10, 23/24/29, 33/34) must be cleared before the shunt flags can be cleared. This does not apply to locations UST, U1N and UPN.

Signals 6/7 control the exits of all Down Sidings.
Signal 10 controls the exits of all Up Sidings, but applies to routing to the Up line only. Signal 10 cannot be cleared when train is routed to Up Siding Spur. For this routing, the flags can be cleared without the need to clear the signal.
Signals 33/34 control exits of Up Sidings 2 to 4 only, they do not control Up Siding 1.

Signal 1 acts as a sort of repeater for signal 2 because of restricted visibility of signal 2. Signal 2 must therefor always be cleared first before signal 1 can be cleared.

Shunt moves are allowed on the main lines, at signals 31/32/43, 2 (and 1 if required), and location UPN. The distance between signals 31/32/43 and exit signal 14, as well as between 1 and 2 and exit signal 17 is not very long, certainly not long enough to allow a shunt move for a full train.
To enable long trains to shunt at these locations, special arrangements are set up, allowing trains to pass the exit signal without requiring LC from the adjacent box, but as far as a limit-of-shunt post only.
At signal 14, an additional shunt signal, 11, is provided for this purpose.
At signal 17, a shunt locations (U17) is defined for such moves at this location.
In reality, a special bell signal was send to the adjacent box, bit this bell signal is not supported by the PCRail program.
Signal 11, and shunt location U17, can only be cleared if the line to the adjacent box is clear, i.e. no Line Clear has been requested, and the line is not occupied (and OOS has been received).

All sidings have been allocated to a specific location, such that all movements to and from and in between sidings can be fully detailed in the timetable.

Brakevans
---------
In this simulations, brakevans are handled as special elements on a train.
In the train details window it will be shown if a train has a brakevan, as part of the train composition. All freight trains on the main lines must have a brakevan attached. However, the local moves to/from the various collieries can be made without a brakevan.
A brakevan can be detached from a train, and can be picked up by another train or an engine, and can be attached to a train. Such moves are detailed in the train details window.
Note that if a brakevan is detached, it is automatically allocated a headcode 9V**.

Passing whistles
----------------
To make the signalman aware of passing trains, trains will whistle when they
pass signal 13 or 18.

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 less than 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.

                              
Notes on shunting
-----------------
The 'shunt' command must be used if a train is to reverse at a particular signal or shunt location. 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, a brakevan, or 3 wagons.

Up Sidings :
 1  : 13 units
 2  : 11 units
 3  :  7 units
 4  :  5 units
 4A : 15 units
 Spur : 3 units (spur is not defined as separate location)

Down Sidings :
 1  : 15 units
 2  : 13 units
 3  : 11 units
 4  :  9 units
 4A :  6 units
 5  : 14 units
 6  : 12 units
 7  : 11 units

Shunt locations :
between sigs. 31/32/43 and signal 11/14          :  5 units
between sigs. 31/32/43 and LoS (with 14 cleared) : 29 units
between sig. 2 and 1                             :  3 units
between sig. 2 and 17                            :  4 units
between sig. 2 and LoS (with U17 cleared)        : 24 units
between sig. 1 and 17                            :  1 unit
between sig. 1 and LoS (with U17 cleared)        : 21 units
between UPN and pts. 9 (clear of points)         : 14 units
(LoS  Limit of Shunt sign)

Length of shunt sections on yard exits, in front of yard exit signal.
Note that length of trains allowed to shunt at such locations is limited to the length of the relevant section.

At sig. 44 (New Hucknall Coll)    : no limit
At loc. UST (Up Siding Storage)   :  2 units
At sig. 22 (South Normanton Coll) : 11 units
At sig. 27 (Blackwell Tip)        : 11 units
At sig. 28 (Blackwell Coll)       : no limit

Speed Restrictions
------------------
Speed restriction on all running lines is 70 mph.
Speed restriction on all sidings, through points etc. is 15 mph.

Fringe boxes
------------
Distances of fringe boxes.

Kirkby Bentinck : 1 mile 67 chains (=1437 yards)
Tibshelf Town   : 2 miles 40 chains (=880 yards)

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 "O4" class 2-8-0 no.63726 as it passes New Hucknall
sidings en route to Annesley.
Date and source of this picture are not known.

Acknowledgements
----------------
The simulation was created by Rob Roeterdink, with details provided by Russ Ashmore. The standard timetable was created by Russ Ashmore.
Thanks to the PC-Rail test team for their help in testing this simulation, and as ever to John Dennis for providing the basic program for the heritage simulations.
