         BUXTON                                             ASHLEY GREENUP
       RAILFREIGHT                                         RAILWAY COMPUTER
         MANAGER                                             SIMULATIONS


   The Buxton Division of British Rail is responsible for the annual movement
of well over 3 million tons of stone aggregate from the Peak District to
destinations not only in the North West, but as far away as London and South
Wales. In this simulation, set on an exceptionally busy day in the early 1980s,
you are the local controller responsible for Railfreight traffic and must
organise the allocation of locomotives and ensure the smoothest possible
running of all trains and light engines in the area. Not an easy task with over
40 train movements in your turn of duty lasting almost 15 hours, particularly
as your every directive is being carefully monitored by Divisional Control for
optimum efficiency.

THE BUXTON RAILWAY NETWORK
--------------------------
   Completely independent of the passenger route to Buxton via Stockport and
Hazel Grove, freight traffic for the Peak limestone quarries leaves the
Manchester-Sheffield Hope Valley line at Chinley and heads south along the
northern remnant of the old Midland main line to Derby. After climbing past
Chapel-en-le-Firth and through the one and three quarter mile length of Dove
Holes tunnel the line emerges at Peak Forest, which is the pivot of railfreight
operations in the area with its connections to Staveley Lime Products quarry at
Dove Holes and the busy ICI Tunstead workings further south at Great Rocks. The
then single and tokenised Buxton freight line descends through Great Rocks Dale
past what is reputed to be the longest quarry face in Europe, and then turns
west into Wye Dale via the sharp curve which is all that remains of the Midland
triangle north of Millers Dale. Passing Tarmac Roadstone's Topley Pike quarry,
the line climbs through Ashwood Dale to reception sidings just outside Buxton
station. Reversal is necessary here to reach both the headshunt of the small
locomotive fuelling and service depot adjacent to the passenger terminus and a
five mile spur of the old Cromford and High Peak railway through Hindlow to
ICI's siding at Briggs.

TRAIN WORKINGS AND MOTIVE POWER
-------------------------------
   The day's traffic begins with the early morning arrival of overnight
long-distance block trains, two of which from Washwood Heath and Bletchley have
already arrived by the 0320 hrs start of the simulation. The basic daytime
pattern then centres around a set of eight double out-and-back company workings
to destinations in the Greater Manchester and Northwich areas (with reporting
codes J/H and F respectively), the afternoon rounds of which are intermingled
with the return departures of the now loaded long distance trains. At the time
of the simulation Tarmac's Topley Pike quarry is assumed to be working overtime
to provide materials for an urgent construction project at Widnes, and two
night-time and three early morning extra trains are being run. Additional
traffic is in the form of trip workings between Ashburys and Briggs sidings,
and Healey Mills and Dove Holes.
   There is considerable light engine movement throughout the day, with
locomotives from all arrivals other than the Ashburys workings requiring to
journey to Buxton diesel depot between duties for crew change and/or a
check-over examination. Crew working hours are important, and to make optimum
use of a precious resource there are restrictions on how early you can allocate
a locomotive to a particular departure working. In addition to providing motive
power for the stone aggregate workings, Buxton depot is also responsible for
servicing locomotives working to Earles Cement works on the Hope Valley line,
and must provide a banking engine at Peak Forest to give starting assistance to
all loaded northbound departures.
   The long distance trains are rostered for Class 45 or 47 haulage, whilst the
local workings are predominantly in the hands of Buxton-based Class 25 and 40
locomotives. These latter types are nearing the end of their working lives, and
the first examples of their eventual replacements in the form of pairs of Class
20s have already arrived for trials on selected Tunstead-Oakleigh workings.
Other locomotive types may appear from time to time, particularly Eastern
Region based Class 37s on trip workings and as light engines from Earles.
Motive power for the Widnes specials is provided by the Class 20s overnight but
for the morning departures it will be necessary to utilize the lay-overs of the
locomotives from the long distance workings, and loadings for these trains are
planned accordingly. The locomotive used for banking duty at Peak Forest may be
of any available type, and can if desired be swapped for a replacement on one
of the periodic returns to Buxton for crew change purposes.
   A list of booked workings is given in the Appendix, where arrival times are
the scheduled times at which trains are due at Chinley Junction. Actual
arrivals may of course be affected by operating delays, and an update of the
expected arrival time of the next working is given as part of the monitoring
information on your control console. Footnotes to the Appendix give details of
workings rostered for particular types of motive power, this information being
colour coded in the simulation location displays for operator convenience. If a
booked type of locomotive is not available, a substitute may be assigned but
you will be penalized in the end of game assessment since train loadings and
other control arrangements may well have to be adjusted.

TRAFFIC CONTROL
---------------
   Your control console is laid out as a schematic panorama of the area, and
trains and light engines must be directed through the system step by step
between adjacent locations. Moves are initiated by entering a locomotive number
after the input prompt (five digits such as 45036 for a single engine or eight
digits such as 20172/73 for a coupled pair of Class 20s), checking the returned
status ("a" for available or allocated to a departure working; "c" if required
at Buxton for crew change or checkover), and then with intervening track free
typing the abbreviated code of the next location. There are various operating
constraints, the main ones being:

CHINLEY JC (CJ)
   Code used for all departures, including light engines returning to Earles.
Arrivals at Chinley can be signalled to Peak Forest only after notification
that the working is approaching Chinley signals. Failure to take any action
will result in the working being held at the junction awaiting further
instructions.
PEAK FOREST (PF)
   Limited capacity for both light engines and trains - arrivals being
distinguished from departures by a final destination code in brackets after the
train working number. Banking assistance must be provided for all north-bound
departures - if temporarily unavailable try again after the next update. At
0800 and 1300 hrs the current banker must be returned to Buxton (BH) and the
banker is then redefined by getting a suitable available locomotive (if you
like the same one) to one of the Peak Forest loco slots and typing BA. If you
attempt to use the previous shift's banker without returning it to Buxton you
will obtain the "no banker" caption even if the banker slot is apparently
occupied.
DOVE HOLES (DH) & TUNSTEAD SIDINGS (TS)
   Accessed by single track sections from Peak Forest. Capacity for dealing
with only a single arrival at a time, the locomotive from which must be
released and returned to PF (en route to Buxton) before the next arrival can be
accepted. Light engines can only be sent to these locations. If the next
departure is waiting a train engine, the loco status is available, and there
are no more than 60 minutes to the scheduled departure time of the working.
Time must be allowed for coupling up and brake tests, and if necessary the
departure must then wait until the booked time before despatch.
TOPLEY PIKE (TP)
   Similar restrictions to Dove Holes and Tunstead Sidings, plus the constraint
that accessing the location prohibits other traffic on the busy Peak
Forest-Buxton single track sections. Light engines are normally sent directly
to and from Buxton depot.
BUXTON HOLD SIDINGS (BH)
   Code used for both the motive power depot and the reception sidings used by
trains in transit to and from Briggs. Light engines generally have a turnaround
examination time on depot of between half an hour and an hour, although repairs
to defective locos may of course take longer. If the depot headshunt is
temporarily occupied when directing an outgoing movement to PF or TP try again
after the next update (an incoming movement will always be accepted since even
if the blockage has not cleared by the time the locomotive arrives, it may be
held on the access road awaiting admission).
BRIGGS SIDINGS (BS)
   Used only by the Ashburys trip working, locomotives shunting the yard on
arrival before being automatically assigned to the return working. Journey time
from Buxton approximately 30 minutes.

   Any number of non-conflicting directives may be issued in a particular time
slot, each setting a red coded path on your console display. The next update is
obtained by pressing the RETURN key directly after the locomotive prompt. The
simulation beat period is 10 minutes, during which interval all movements will
be completed with the exception of those between Buxton and Briggs (and vice
versa). A full end of shift operations assessment is given at 1800hrs, although
it is possible to quit early and get a basic summary by pressing the ESCAPE key
at any time.
   To load the simulation type CHAIN "BUXTON". Even experienced operators will
find that there are bad days when circumstances conspire to do their worst, so
all we can do is wish you GOOD LUCK.

                           APPENDIX: BOOKED WORKINGS

ARRIVALS                                DEPARTURES
0300   6M66   Margam-TS                           0400   7J18   TS-Dean Lane
0420   7H22   Watford-DH                          0410*  6F90   TP-Widnes
0530   6H98   Widnes-TP                           0500   6J34   TP-Pendleton
0600   6H99   Widnes-TP                           0510   6F37   DH-Carterhouse
0930   7H18   Dean Lane-TS                        0530*  6F91   TP-Widnes
1010   6H90   Widnes-TP                           0540   6F38   TS-Carterhouse
1020   6H31   Collyhurst S-TS                     0610   6J31   TS-Collyhurst St
1040   6H37   Caterhouse-DH                       0640   6H57   TS-Portwood
1050   6H59   Portwood-TS                         0650*  6F92   TP-Widnes
1110   6H34   Pendleton-TP                        0820** 6F41   TS-Oakleigh
1120   6H38   Caterhouse-TS                       0950** 6F40   TS-Oakleigh
1140   6H91   Widnes-TP                           1140   6J32   TS-Collyhurst S
1210   6H92   Widnes-TP                           1230   6J46   DH-Hope St
1230   6H41   Oakleigh-TS                         1310   6F42   TS-Oakleigh
1410   6H40   Oakleigh-TS                         1350   6J35   TP-Pendleton
1440   7M30   Healey Mts-DH                       1410*  7A12   DH-Bletchley
1610   6H32   Collyhurst S-TS                     1440*  7A22   DH-Watford
1710   6H46   Hope St-DH                          1530   6J47   DH-Hope St
1740   6H42   Oakleigh-TS                         1600** 6F43   TS-Oakleigh
                                                  1630*  7M15   DH-Washwood
                                                  1720*  6V23   TS-Margam
                                                  1750** 6F44   TS-Oakleigh

Trip workings (7T82 and 7T83)            Note that it is important to get local
Ashburys-BS may run according to         departures away on time, otherwise the
traffic demand. During the day there     booked return workings (generally with
are scheduled to be 3 light engines      the same last two digits of the train
from Earles requiring servicing on       reporting number, but with destination
Buxton depot.                            code H) may run with scratch stock and
* Denotes departures rostered for        undiagrammed locos, creating possible
haulage by Class 45/47.                  motive power imbalances for subsequent
** Denotes departures rostered for       workings.
haulage by two Class 20s.

          BUXTON RAILFREIGHT MANAGER (C) COPYRIGHT 1992 ASHLEY GREENUP
