Hi there, got a novice question for you
I've edited my layout to have 4 lines running around the board and wanted to check some details to try make my layout more realistic. I assume that two lines would be the up line and the other two the down line
Up line ------> --------------------------------------------------
Up line ------> --------------------------------------------------
Down line <-- --------------------------------------------------
Down line <-- --------------------------------------------------
So my question is, are any lines dedicated as freight and passenger. For example the inner up and down lines being freight and outer up and down lines being passenger, vice versa, or free for all?
Reason being is I want to put in a yard area connected to the mainline to shunt freight stock, so need to know if I should just branch it off from the outer line or connected it to the outer and inner lines.
Cheers
I'm no expert but I think the slow lines are the outer and fast the inner (goods or passenger)?
Living just a few miles from a 4 track main line, the main designation for the lines seems to be slow and fast rather than freight and passenger. In steam days, I think that only the fastest freights would have used the inner lines. The fast lines would tend to be free of station platforms and other obstructions to allow unimpeded high speed running. So have a crossover between slow and fast every now and again but the bulk of your turnouts etc should be on the outer lines.
Wonderful, thank you both, thats quite helpful for having the layout the way I'd prefer whilst being somewhat realistic and now finish my layout design :thumbsup:
There are two main layouts for four track routes
Down Fast (or Main)
Up Fast (or Main)
Down Slow (or Relief)
Up Slow (or Relief)
OR
Down Slow (or Relief)
Down Fast (or Main)
Up Fast (or Main)
Up Slow (or Relief)
Down Main
The particular layout and designation depended on the company who built the railway.
Express passenger trains always used the fast line. Parcel, semi-fast passenger and express freight trains would use the fast lines if there was sufficient clearance to prevent delays. Stopping passenger and slow freight trains would use the slow lines.
As stated above there were frequent crossover to allow trains to switch from fast to slow lines or vice versa.
The timetables was often arranged so that all the express passenger trains left in a short period so that the fast lines could be used for slower trains as well.
Having lived in Wolverton for many years on what is now the WCML, I can confirm Dodgers first layout was the one used. Local passenger services used the Down and Up slow lines unless there were permanent way issues.
To elaborate further on what has already been stated.
GWML and WCML use the separation by classification, so two fast and two slow. Between Fast and Slow lines there is a larger gap to allow signals to be sited there.
Slow -----------------------------> Up
Slow <----------------------------- Down
gap
Fast -----------------------------> Up
Fast <----------------------------- Down
On the ECML and on sections of double lines the separation by direction is used. This is what the OP has drawn. Between the slow/relief lines and the fast lines is also a larger gap to have space for signals.
Slow -----------------------------> Up
gap
Fast -----------------------------> Up
Fast <----------------------------- Down
gap
Slow <----------------------------- Down
With both these arrangements, it depends on the signalling what can be run on the slow lines. If the Slow line is signaled with Absolute Block then passenger trains can run on them. Radyr for example had specific goods only lines. On the ECML were sections where the slow lines had Permissive signalling only. Passenger carrying trains were not allowed to run on them, however slow they were. There was an accident near Connington in 1961 which I found an interesting read, see http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/documents/MoT_Connington1961.pdf (http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/documents/MoT_Connington1961.pdf) .
Most of the Midland main line was laid out (west to east)
Down Fast
Up Fast
Down Goods
Up Goods
As suggested by MacRat, lines designated as Goods could not be used by passenger trains (except under special rules during planned or emergency diversions). On the Midland the signalling on these lines was fairly primitive and contributed to several accidents to goods trains. This was allegedly needed to handle the heavy traffic of coal to London in particular, though you do wonder whether if they'd been a bit more organised they could just have kept everything moving instead of having several queueing nose-to-tail on occasions!
With resignalling over the last 20 years these goods lines have now been upgraded to passenger standards to become Slow lines. The last Goods lines around Chesterfield went around 2008. Looking at stations like Loughborough and Chesterfield it is clear that they didn't originally have platforms on the Goods lines - and I think this is also the reason for the strange layout of the platform accesses at Luton.
Another pattern you will see sometimes is by route. Thus you'll see things like
------------ Up Route A ------------
------------ Down Route A --------
------------ Up Route B ---------
------------ Down Route B------
with the two sets then diverging at a junction proper (so that trains can be flipped onto the other tracks for engineering/congestion what have you), although on some modern arrangements the junction is now just a divergence and the two lines have no crossovers but split away eventually.
There are good examples of both, and they tend to affect and be affected by the layout of things around them, yards, branches etc.
Thanks everyone for your advice. I think I'm going to go with the 2 Up 2 Down method rather than a 1 up 1 down 1 up 1 down method as it will make life much easier for me with how my layout is coming together.
Where tracks are paired by direction (typically slow outer and fast inner tracks), they would usually switch to being paired by use as they approach their London terminus. This avoids slow trains having to cross the entire station throat after reversal in the terminus (you would have the same problem in the fiddle yard of an end-to-end layout).
For example the LSW main line has a flyover at Wimbledon to take the up slow over the fast lines, and plonk it down next to the down slow. The ecml has a similar arrangement just north of the kings cross tunnels. The wcml is paired by use from as far out as Roade (the slow lines being the Northampton loop to Rugby).
Where tracks are paired by direction, there was often a bigger gap between the slow and fast lines in the same direction. This was to allow signal poles to be placed on the left of the line they controlled, ie., between the two down (or up) tracks. The two fast lines in the middle would have normal spacing.
Likewise Paddington of course where there are a series of stations on the slow lines only with the fast lines to one side and clear
Were any of the main lines originally constructed with four roads ? The variations would seem to be based on what could be done as an afterthought.
Wimbledon's flyover was probably constructed to ease the bottleneck getting into and out of Waterloo which was initially just four platform faces. Counting the tracks in the 80's I think they had four lines coming in and four going out. All of the point work seemed to be to get as many trains as possible in and out avoiding to many conflicting paths.
A couple of days ago I was looking at the station layout for Pretoria's new high speed network (the gautrain - first std. gauge railway, uses variations of the electrostar emu's.) It's a terminus with twin tracks coming in from Johannesburg and a two road branch off to Hatfield (a Pretoria suburb). I think they were trying to emulate Waterloo when they designed that track layout but couldn't quite manage it with only four roads to play with.
As modelers, simplicity is often dictated by available space - doesn't seem to apply for 1:1 scale.
I believe all main lines were built with only two tracks. They were converted to four tracks as the number and speed of trains increased. Parts of the Victoria - Ramsgate line were only converted to 4 tracks during electrification in the late 1950's.
Avoiding conflicting paths is always a major problem and the approaches to Paddington were extensively remodelled in the 1960's and again in the 1980's to cope with new traffic flows.