CORNISH ASHLEY GREENUP CHINA RAILWAY COMPUTER CLAY SIMULATIONS The main Railfreight activity in Cornwall is associated with the movement of industrial china clay from the mining area north of St Austell for both export from the local deepwater port of Fowey and for distribution to outlets in the Midlands and Scotland. The simulation here is set in the mid-1980s when the Fowey traffic was still carried in the famous tented "clay hood" wagons prior to the introduction in 1987 of modern CDA hoppers. Long-haul traffic had already gone over to high capacity air-braked stock, which meant that local Speedlink trip workings between china clay dries and the main assembly yard at St Blazey had to be operated completely independently from the trains of vacuum-braked hoods. Your task here is to control china clay operations on two successive days, dealing with both hood and Speedlink traffic demands notified to you by the English China Clay company and Regional Control as best you can. TRAFFIC MOVEMENTS ----------------- The Cornish China Clay rail system centred on St Blazey is shown schematically in Figure 1, and details of the traffic associated with each location are given in the accompanying Table. Traffic is essentially of two types: SPEEDLINK --------- Long-haul services arrive at St Blazey yard and, after splitting, there are consequent distribution trips of empty wagons as required to Goonbarrow, up the Drinnick Branch, to Burngullow, and occasionally to Ponsandane (just outside Penzance, calling en route if required at Truro and Chancewater). A reverse flow of trips to collect loaded wagons precedes the Speedlink departures from St Blazey and 0930, 1530 and 2150 hrs. Information about Speedlink traffic is given in the top box of your operating console, with symbols of # and * used to denote when distribution and collection trips are required. Because of interconnections, it is particularly important to collect loaded wagons and to transport them to St Blazey for outgoing train assembly as soon as possible after telephone notification from ECC headquarters. These instructions are generally received at 0740 hrs (targeted for the 0930 hrs departure), 1200 hrs (targeted for the 1530 hrs departure) and 1600 hrs (for the 2150 hrs departure, but requiring assembly at St Blazey before the end of the afternoon shift at 1800 hrs). Note that although Speedlink trips to and from the Drinnick Branch and Burngullow are treated as common workings (ie a Drinnick trip will automatically drop down or pick up traffic at Burngullow should traffic be required there), trips to and from Ponsandane are treated as independent workings from St Blazey. Carbis Warf has only occasional traffic, and if a trip working is required a locomotive will automatically be commandeered at Goonbarrow in the early afternoon. The yard at St Blazey has limited capacity and if a Speedlink long haul arrival is shown on your screen as "waiting", you will have to send off an overdue outgoing departure before the new arrival can be accommodated. CLAY HOODS ---------- On a busy day up to eight trains of local clay hoods are required to be dispatched from the clay dries on the Drinnick Branch, from Burngullow, from Goonbarrow, from Moorswater and from Marsh Mills to the shipping facility at Carne Point (Fowey). Reversal is required at Lostwithiel from the first three locations, and because of possible conflicts on the single track branch between Lostwithiel and Fowey all hood traffic in the game must be staged in the loops or yard at Lostwithiel before onwards despatch. There is additional optional staging at St Blazey/Par loop where both loaded and empty sets of clay hoods can be dropped and collected if operationally convenient (although note a restriction that empty sets are not allowed to return eastwards again to Lostwithiel). The norm however is to run straight through between Lostwithiel and the clay dries. Because of the distance involved workings to Marsh Mills (beyond Plymouth) are operated as out and back exchange trips, and in order to get there and back in a single shift trips must be despatched from Lostwithiel not later than 0820 hrs in the morning or 1420 hrs in the afternoon. Loading times at the clay dries vary between the locations but are typically 1-2 hours, your information console indicating when the status of a set of clay hoods changes from BL (being loaded) to LD (loaded, collect when convenient). If there is not a ready loaded set available when you arrive at a location with empties, you obviously have the choice of either waiting for loading to occur or to undertake other duties and return later. All hoods are assumed to be in interchangeable sets of 40 tented wagons, and one consequence of this is that loaded sets from Moorswater must be taken up the steep incline from Coombe to Liskeard in multiple trips, the load limit for this section being 22 hoods. This activity will automatically occur behind the scenes, but due allowance for the additional time involved should be made in your scheduling. During unloading at Fowey individual hoods have to be uncoupled for end discharge on the tipper at Carne Point, the typical turnaround time for a complete set being around one and a half to two hours. The number of hood trains requiring despatch from each of the clay dries is given on your console at the start of each day, along with information as to which loads should be assigned the highest priority. MOTIVE POWER AND OPERATIONAL RESTRICTIONS ----------------------------------------- Motive power for both the hoods and local Speedlink distribution and collection trips is primarily provided by a fleet of four resident Class 37 locomotives, the flagship of which is 37207 named William Cookworthy after the pioneer of the china clay industry. Sometimes one or more of these locomotives may be recalled for major maintenance at St Blazey's parent depot of Plymouth Laira, and if this occurs a replacement is generally provided in the form of a mainline Class 50 locomotive restricted to local duties whilst awaiting the repair of some minor defect. Long-haul Speedlink workings were in the mid-1980s powered by either Class 47 or Class 45 (Peak) locomotives. Between booked workings these locomotives are available to help out with local Speedlink distribution and collection trips, and even if necessary the occasional clay hood working. Shunting and train marshalling in St Blazey yard is performed as required by a Class 08 shunter, and this will also undertake local trip workings to Ponts Mill and Par Harbour should the need arise. Access restrictions mean that only Class 37s must be used to Moorswater, and Class 37s should preferentially be used on Goonbarrow workings to avoid the resident ECC shunter having to bring out stock from the Rocks plant. If a Speedlink trip is required to Ponsandane then this must be powered by a mainline Speedlink locomotive, as must of course be all Speedlink departures. Only one locomotive is allowed on the Drinnick and Moorswater branches at any time and in the game you will not be able to despatch a second locomotive to these locations until the locomotive already there has left and cleared the branch. This applies even if the second locomotive has some distance to travel, and in this context you may find it useful to use St Blazey/Par as an intermediate staging point for empties en route from Lostwithiel to the Drinnick Branch whilst waiting for other traffic to clear the branch. Since you have control of all traffic on the single line section between Lostwithiel and Fowey, it is your responsibility to avoid conflicting movements on this branch. The single line running up the Luxulyan valley from St Blazey to Goonbarrow Junction is however shared with Newquay passenger services, and from time to time you may have to delay the departure of a clay working until after a passenger train has cleared the section. Other interaction with passenger services may occur if there is a failure in the area, when Regional Control may well commandeer one of your locomotives to provide emergency cover. The local fleet gradually comes on stream after 0600 hrs as drivers clock on for the morning shift, and from this time you have control of all locomotives in the St Blazey area through to the end of the afternoon shift (and generally the day's activity) at 1800 hrs. The game then gives you the option of continuing control for a second day. On both days the local fleet locomotives must all return to St Blazey for a lunchtime shift changeover between 1230 and 1330 hrs, and a special symbol after the locomotive number on your operating console acts as a reminder when a shift change is due but has not yet occurred. By the end of the afternoon shift at 1800 hrs at least half of the local fleet must be back at St Blazey (and other locomotives should be on their way there) to avoid excessive overtime payments to drivers. To this end you will find restrictions which inhibit new traffic movements towards the end of the afternoon shift. PLAYING THE GAME ---------------- Control is via the direction of individual locomotives, so that you must first specify the locomotive number requiring direction, then in response to prompts the type of movement required: CH-China Hood, SP-Speedlink or LE - Light Engine; and then the next destination using the following abbreviated codes: PD - Ponsandane, DR - Drinnick Branch, BG - Burngullow, GB - Goonbarrow, BZ - St Blazey, LW - Lostwithiel, MW - Moorswater, MM - Marsh Mills (actually Tavestock Junction), FY - Fowey or DP - next Speedlink long haul departure (allocatable up to one hour in advance). Time during the day is advanced in 20 minute increments by pressing the RETURN key directly after the locomotive prompt when all directions in a particular time slot have been completed. We hope that you enjoy being in charge of the area china clay movements, and that your customer (English China Clay) and Regional Management are happy with your performance. LOADING INSTRUCTIONS -------------------- On BBC or AMSTRAD, tape or disc: CHAIN "CCC" FIGURE 1: CORNISH CHINA CLAY RAIL SYSTEM ---------------------------------------- Please refer to the image file cornchin.png for a layout of the Cornish China Clay rail system. TABLE 1: CORNISH CHINA CLAY LOCATIONS AND TRAFFIC ------------------------------------------------- CLAY DRIES DRINNICK BRANCH Parkandillach, Treviscoe, Kernick, Hoods & Speedlink Trips (Drinn) Drinnick Mill Hoods Only BURNGULLOW Burngullow and Crugwallins Hoods and (Burng) (ECC Blackpool & Burngullow) Speedlink trips GOONBARROW ECC Rocks Plant Hoods & Speedlink Trips (Goonb) Carbis Warf Speedlink trips only MOORSWATER Moorswater (Past Coombe Junction Hoods Only (Moors) on Lowe branch from Liskeard) MARSH MILLS ECC Marsh Mills (tripped by local Hoods only (Marsh) shunter to Tavistock Junction) OTHER LOCATIONS --------------- ST BLAZEY/PAR St Blazey Yard and Depot (St Bz) Par holding loops, Class 08 LOSTWITHIEL Lostwithiel loops and sidings (Lostw) FOWEY Carne Point Shipping and Storage (Fowey) Facility (Sidings & Hood unloading tipper) PONSANDANE Penzance Goods Yard - Speedlink trips (Ponsd) calling at Truro & Chancewater en route OPERATIONS MANAGER: CORNISH CHINA CLAY (C) COPYRIGHT 1991 ASHLEY GREENUP