WIP scenario 20's over Shap

[Derek B]

Since this one's now in the home straight I thought I'd post it up.

Setting the scene.

A wet spring Monday morning. After a weekend of drags via the S&C the engineers have just handed the WCML back to the traffic department. You've brought a lengthy train of reconditioned sleepers up to the outskirts of Lancaster behind a pair of 20's and were running well, only now you've been looped! The climb down to the phone left you soaked through but you convinced the box to let you out straight after the Shap bound empty ballast coming up fast behind you. The Bobby was dubious that you could make it all the way through to Carlisle before being caught by the first northbound passenger of the day but he agreed to keep an eye on your progress and give you a run at it provided you "don't hang about".

Briefing.

Take your train through to Kingmoor reception sidings. You'll be following the train you've been looped for as far as Shap then, after he's been shunted out of the way, you should have a clear road ahead. The Engineers have left four Temporary Speed Restrictions in place for bridge work and track re-alignment between Shap and Carlisle, so watch out for those warning boards. The maximum speed of your train is 60 MPH.

Notes.

I wanted a scenario to give the new JT 20's a good thrashing, and lifting a heavy train up Shap, under adverse signals for some of the way at least, seemed to fit the bill nicely. I was also looking for an opportunity to set some TSR's and settled on four of varying speeds. I've not bothered with setting scenario-specific line-speeds for them (I'm happy enough just obeying the restrictions and don't need a tick on a score card to tell me if I've managed it) but I have placed destination markers so that they show up in the HUD for those who use it. For those who don't I'll put together a Weekly Operating Notice style list of what and where they are. Drivers should note that the TSR warning boards have been set up, as close as I can manage, at the correct deceleration distance from the TSR's for trains operating at the full line-speed which, of course, you wont be doing anything near.

Setting is a very loose late BR era and I'm not following any actual WTT. I hope however that I've managed to capture the feel of the time and place closely enough without making any glaring errors that will spoil the scenario. On which note, I'm well aware that Carlisle's avoiding lines were long gone by the era depicted but they're fun to drive so why not?

One small word of caution. Seems that the northbound mainline at Shap summit has a couple of ground signals that think they're full blown MAS signals. So depending on how you've been running you might find yourself suddenly bearing down on a red protecting the reversing ballast train without having had any cautions apart from the closely sited banner repeater.

ETA should be the weekend after next.

Cheers,

Derek

[Kernow]

I look forward to it Derek.
A couple of 20's working hard over Shap should be something to really enjoy
G.