Hello all,

I am writing my 2012 TT for Bristol and I am trying to come up with something a bit different. I keep looking at St Philips Marsh at the west end where the short track goes to Victoria Road Stabling sidings. Do HST sets stable here and exit the facility via the back road or the shed to Temple Meads? I notice in the quail that the shed only has 4 roads so I assume they stable there. I have been to Marsh Junction at night at a vantage point and before they used to have HST sets there, but recently I have seen it empty!

I notice the carriage washer is on the track to Victoria road so I guess they have a wash whilst leaving the depot maybe...

Also the road labelled 'Fuel', the Quail states there is a repair and flush facility but not a fuel point, I would guess the fuel pump is in the shed itself or is it actually on the road labelled Fuel...or does it mean that is where the fuel tanks come in to unload?

I am wanting to add the fuel tanker trip in from Fawley anyway so would like to know if this is the right road, and how long it might stay there for whilst it unloads, which would take a good few hours I would have thought?


If anyone knows any info on operations in the depot it would be highly appreciated, as I haven't seen any other parts of the depot used in the other TT's I have played.


James.

Hello all,

I am writing my 2012 TT for Bristol and I am trying to come up with something a bit different. I keep looking at St Philips Marsh at the west end where the short track goes to Victoria Road Stabling sidings. Do HST sets stable here and exit the facility via the back road or the shed to Temple Meads? I notice in the quail that the shed only has 4 roads so I assume they stable there. I have been to Marsh Junction at night at a vantage point and before they used to have HST sets there, but recently I have seen it empty!

I notice the carriage washer is on the track to Victoria road so I guess they have a wash whilst leaving the depot maybe...

Also the road labelled 'Fuel', the Quail states there is a repair and flush facility but not a fuel point, I would guess the fuel pump is in the shed itself or is it actually on the road labelled Fuel...or does it mean that is where the fuel tanks come in to unload?

I am wanting to add the fuel tanker trip in from Fawley anyway so would like to know if this is the right road, and how long it might stay there for whilst it unloads, which would take a good few hours I would have thought?


If anyone knows any info on operations in the depot it would be highly appreciated, as I haven't seen any other parts of the depot used in the other TT's I have played.


James.

Interesting. Having read your post, I checked out the area on Google Maps and it seems that Victoria Road Sidings is actually 6 roads, although I wonder if it is simplified to 4 roads in the simulation. Looking at the rest of it actually confuses me and I can't identify which part is which within the simulation.

Regarding your questions, whilst I do not know of any depot operations, I believe it is up to timetable writers to create whatever trains they like. If you want trains to use Victoria Road Sidings then do so. If you want to create a "fuel tanker trip" then do so. As you say, you haven't seen other parts of the depot used in other timetables so perhaps by including them you will find that people would appreciate that and find it interesting too.

Go on, go for it, you know you want to!

Thank you UKTrainMan, you are right...I think I am trying to avoid nitpickers but I should get off that track!

You obviously didn't read my post if you answered a bit wrong! No, joking aside what I said was there is 4 roads in the shed shown on the quail map not Victoria Sidings (both depot and sidings have unlimited space in the sim)

I will work on it and improvise some ideas


Thank you very much!
James.

Hi Underwood. Your are right that the hsts pak up in the victoria road sigings and night. there are 6 sidinging there in real life so only 6 hsts park there. the HST shed is the mantainance shed for the HSTs. this shed has 3 lines going through it.
Finally marsh jn depot has a very large number of sidings there and i believe that they store a 1 maybe 2 hsts there aswell as all the bristol based dmus with the dmu mainatnce shed located there too
in sim the marsh jn depot isn't show well as it just shows there is only 1 turnoof for the yard where in real life there is at least 4.
i also know that there used to be a hst that spent the night outside on the bedminsder cl back in summer 2010, don't knwo if that still happens though. Hope that helps
Nath

Just seen this about SPM... "Normal" procedures for the depot are as follows;

Arriving via North Somerset Jn - Set will enter the Shed (A, B, C or D* roads) for service then move down to Victoria Sidings. There are normally between 11 - 13 HSTs on depot for servicing each night. The first arrivals will often head from Vic Sdgs to Marsh Jn to stable out the way, with the last sets staying in the shed.

Departing SPM - sets are timetabled to depart from 0245 (forms 0600 Pad), 0315 (ECS Hfd), 0345 (ECS Hfd), with 15 mins between departures. But in reality you will find sets sent back to the station anytime from 0245ish to start clearing the depot and freeing up space for all the local units and other HSTs on shed [all depending on sets being fit for traffic/fuelled/maintained].

Local Units - should all arrive via the West end and what is on the sim as the Spur Road, which now houses a maintnance shed for the local units, where their fuelled cleaned and split (if in multiple formations), then sent to Marsh Jn.

Just remember in real this is controlled by the "mini panel" within SPM.

* D road was constructed for the cl.180s and is the fuel road on the sim

Matt,

This is most useful information indeed, thank you.

Out of interest, on the basis you know, where do the DBS 6V62 Fawley-SPM-Tavistock Jn TTA tanks go at SPM?
(I have tried to track on the train describers at work, but in my experience P2 isnt really so good for such things!).

For my Summer 2011 TT, I have simulated it to utilise the "fuel" road, but reading what you have posted, I have my doubts.

Cheers

Paul

Yes thank you very much Matt!

I have done it now however it will be useful for future reference. Thank you for taking the time to type that out!

Officer Dibble - Don't use my fictional TT as a reference for 6V62 tanks, as I had to guess what it does though what I did was put it into the SPM centre via West Reverse (running around in the Cwm Siding, drop the rear tanks off there in SPM Centre, then exit via North Somerset Junction and loop round to BTM and head off to Plymouth with the rest of the tanks.

If it helps I have a video of 6V62 here:



You'll need to skip in a bit, but it should give you a reference to the full load it has in regards to length etc!


James.

Thanks James,

I think in real life it runs round somewhere about West Jn/Bedminster (looking at the schedule I was able to obtain),
before heading into the SPM complex. From SPM it runs as 6C62 to Tavistock Jn.

I remember the days when it was a Class 37 and Tanks, and the 08 came off SPM to trip the tanks accordingly.

The video is most useful, I have it down as DBS 66+25 TTA tanks, with no division (as the return 6O34 returns via
Castle Canary and Westbury), but as you are more local to the area than I, I bow to your knowledge

Paul

Where's Castle Canary?

Anyway I thought the portion was a lot less but I'm sure I found a picture of a shorter version but they all seem to be like this:

www.flickr.com/photos/southwestrailways/5613490779/

Not only that it appears to be both 6C52 and 6V52, depending where I look!

Don't fill Barton Hill up too much either, that can only hold about 4 Voyagers if I recall correctly, y10g9 would know more about that.


James.