Running lines, yards, signalling at terminus

[ColHut]

Dear all, I am wondering what happens at a terminus like Fairford with regard to train control. Where do the running lines cease and the yard begins? Track plans here http://www.s-r-s.org.uk/html/gws/S247.htm and here http://www.vanguardpublications.co.uk/Plans.htm What happens with clearing points? I am guessing it was operated on single line electric token system or similar. Certainly two locos are shown at the water crane on this page. http://www.vanguardpublications.co.uk/Fairford.htm

 

Regards.

[The Stationmaster]

Depends on the place really.  Looe had what amounted to a pretty clearly signalled division between the passenger running line and the yard.   Fairford was in some respects not so clear because a full size running signal was used to signal into sidings, however the telling feature at Fairford was the trap point, very obviously protecting access to the running line and with a siding signal to read through it.

 

Stourbridge Town also had a fairly clear boundary in the shape of a trap point although it had a running signal reading to a run-round headshunt althogh I think there the headshunt might technically have been part of the running line (it would have been under BR single line Regulations).

[Grovenor]

 

What happens with clearing points?

The 1960 BR/RCH regulations specified that the line for which the facing points are set should be clear to the buffer stops or other specified* clearing point. However if the station had an outer home at least 440 yards in rear of the next home then the clearing point would be that next home.

*You would need local info to find that out.

 

Of course these regs applied to all regions except the Western who may well have had slightly different ideas!

And Fairford would have required an 'other specified clearing point' anyway which would most likely have been the trap point, although SM may know better.

Keith

[RailWest]

These sorts of layouts always raise awkward questions!

 

As SM has intimated, there were subtle differences between Fairford and Looe.  Apart from the size of the signal-arm, there was a FPL at Fairford but not in the corresponding location at Looe.

 

In BR days it is reported that Yarnton - Eynsham was Electric Key Token, Eynsham - Witney was Tyers No 7 Electric Train Token, but the rest of the sections were still Electric Train Staff and I /suspect/ remained like that until the boxes closed. The fact that two engines appear in the yard in one picture is not really relevant, as they might have arrived on a double-header :-)

[The Stationmaster]

At GWR single line termini the Clearing point was probably one of the best defined ever, being 

 

'If the line on which the approaching train has to run be clear TO THE POINT TO WHICH THE TRAIN USUALLY RUNS and the facing points are set for that line.'

 

In 1960 this changed to the standard BR definition as noted above by Grovenor.

 

I don't know what the Fairford Footnotes said but I would think it likely that the Home Signal was specified as the Clearing Point, quite possibly with the proviso that certain points (e.g. the trap) were required to be standing Normal).

[ColHut]

Thanks all of you. I'll try and digest this. The LNER single line electric token regs refer to 'Line Clear' being given at a Terminal Station for passenger trains, assuming all necessary points have been placed in their proper position for the safety of the approaching train... "If the line on which the approaching train has to run be clear and the facing points are set for that line", - avoiding any mention of distance. I suppose the expression "the line on which the approaching train has to run" covers a multitude of sins.