Moors Valley Miniature Railway

Moors Valley Miniature railway has sent us an article to publish which has been kindly written by Andy Wright. They are a great miniature railway with a fantastic signalling systemA series of electrical, electronic, electro-mechanical units brought together to form a system which controls the safe movement of trains.. Click here to visit their website.

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Introduction

The Moors Valley Railway is a 7¹⁄₄ inch (184 mm) narrow gauge passenger railway, in the Moors Valley Country Park at Ashley Heath, Dorset, England near Ringwood in Hampshire. There are 20 steam engines and 2 diesel engines, although one runs on petrol. The railway was constructed at its present location by Jim Haylock in 1985/86, and opened to the public in July 1986, after the closure in 1985 of its predecessor at Tucktonia in nearby Christchurch, which had run since 1979.

Moors Valley uses a narrow-gauge prototype to produce tank engines in which one may sit, allowing running during the harshest of conditions, so much so that it runs throughout the year. A further benefit of the style of locomotives built to this prototype is that, unlike models, and standardAn authorised document, including specification, procedure, instruction, directive, rule or regulation, which may set mandatory requirements. gauge 7​¹⁄₄ inch locomotives, the locomotives used on the Moors Valley Railway are considerably more powerful due to the increased boiler size that can be achieved through almost freelance prototypes.

Roger Marsh was a pioneer of this principle and built Tinkerbell; when this was spotted a tank locomotive, Talos, was ordered and so started the Tinkerbell-class of locomotives. Coincidentally, when Tinkerbell was seen for sale, it was purchased by the then Tucktonia Railway, becoming its second locomotive.

Moors Valley Railway owns approximately 12 locomotives and a further 7 are privately owned. Hartfield is the most recent addition, being purchased from an owner who rarely used the loco. ‘Hartfield’ follows the general idea of Jason (a Tinkerbell variation) as per many other private locomotives.

There are many other tender locomotives such as Offa, almost certainly the most powerful 7¹⁄₄ inch gauge locomotive in existence until recently.

The carriages at Moors Valley have no roof but have a bench in the centre to sit on. Each carriage is approximately eight feet long. There are four rakes of eight carriages, in green, brown, olive and red liveries. Trains normally run in three sets of twelve coaches, a luggage van behind the loco and a guard’s van at the rearAlternative term for Approach To. of the train. There is also a large number of freight wagons, forming trains consisting of skip wagons, private owner wagons, engineering trains and a train of covered coaches, which are used as demonstration trains on event days.

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About

There are two stations, the main station is Kingsmere (four platforms), the smaller one is Lakeside (one platform). The railway is fully signalled, with two signalA visual display device which conveys instructions or provides prior warning of instructions regarding the driver’s authority to proceed. boxes, one (Kingsmere West) in a Great Western Railway style and one (Kingsmere East) in a British Rail Southern Region style. The rails are made of aluminium and are set on wooden sleepers. Tickets available include rover tickets, return (one complete lap) and single (from one station to the other). A round trip, starting at Kingsmere, usually departs from platform three, the passengers having passed through the waiting room. It then goes “Down” the double track mainline, goes past Lakeside (no platform), into the spiral (a double loop with two children’s play areas alongside) and out into Lakeside and stops at the platform. It then departs onto the “Up” line back to Kings Junction where it diverges to go around by the lake and into platform four at Kingsmere. Platform four is an arrival platform, platform three is the departure platform, it has a waiting room.] Platform 2 takes eight coach trains, platform one only takes short passenger trains. All lines used by passenger trains are fully signalled and track circuited. There is a mixture of semaphore signals and colour light signals. With an overwhelming number of steam locomotives and a few diesels, it’s certainly reminiscent of the 1960’s.

There is a loco shed with a turntable and goods sidings at the back of Kingsmere, access to which is controlled by Kingsmere West box and a large ten road carriage shed at the front of Kingsmere, controlled by Kingsmere East box. There is a loop in the spiral, two footbridges (one at each station) and two level crossings.

There are three levels of signalling, depending on how busy the railway is and availability of qualified signalmen.

• The first level, which requires no signalmen, can be described as automatic. Trains can run all day without the signal boxThe building in which the Signaller(s) is/are situated together with the control and indication system for the signalling. See also Signalling Centre. being manned, shunting movements are controlled by the guard and makes use of air spring pointsUnworked Trailing Points which return under spring load to the NORMAL position after the passage of a train in the Trailing Direction. They may be used as Catch....
• The second stage is when a signalmanObsolete term for Signaller. is on duty in Kingsmere East box. He can control most movements over the entire system.
• The third stage is when the railway is at its busiest, normally galas, special events and Christmas specials. This is when Kingsmere West box is also manned. Signalling is now absolute blockA system of controlling rail traffic, where (under normal operations) only one train is allowed in the Block Section at a time. Proof of a section clear normall... between the two signalA visual display device which conveys instructions or provides prior warning of instructions regarding the driver’s authority to proceed. boxes, and Kingsmere West controls movements from and into the loco yard.

The signalling systemA series of electrical, electronic, electro-mechanical units brought together to form a system which controls the safe movement of trains. was installed and maintained by Neil Henderson with guidance from some professional railwaymen. He has been working with Jim Haylock since Tucktonia days. It is because of Neil, that the Moors Valley Railway has such an impressive signalling systemA series of electrical, electronic, electro-mechanical units brought together to form a system which controls the safe movement of trains.. The railway is constantly being upgraded

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Kingsmere West

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Kingsmere East

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Maintenance

There is an awful lot of jobs that need doing on a continuous basis. There is routine maintenance and refurbishment, there is an ongoing program of improvements, replacements and changes in track layout.

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Virtual trip

I now intend to take you on a virtual trip around the railway.

Departure is normally from platform three, but all platforms have similar signals, all semaphore and all air operated. On departure we have KE23 cleared, this will take us to KE7 which protects Kings Junction. With these two signals clearA Colour Light Signal that is displaying a Proceed Aspect or a Semaphore Signal in the Off position., we drive onto the Down line, consisting of a twin track sectionA portion of railway track having fixed boundaries and for which the Train Detection System provides information on its state of occupancy to the Signalling Sys.... The next two signals are both 3-aspect automatic colour lights, the signalmanObsolete term for Signaller. has no control over these two, they clearA Colour Light Signal that is displaying a Proceed Aspect or a Semaphore Signal in the Off position. to a proceed aspectAny Signal Aspect which permits the driver to pass the Signal. if the track circuits are clearA Colour Light Signal that is displaying a Proceed Aspect or a Semaphore Signal in the Off position..

The normal routeThe path along a section of track between one Signal and the next, along which an authorised movement is to be made. from KE139 is to go to signalA visual display device which conveys instructions or provides prior warning of instructions regarding the driver’s authority to proceed. KE141. KE141 allows trains to enter the spiral travelling in the ‘right direction’. After two automatic signalA Signal controlled by the passage of trains. It does not require any action by the Signaller or ARS. Automatic Signals are usually Passable. we come to KE118. Here the signallerA person responsible for the operation of the Signalling System, to safely control the passage and regulation of trains, usually located in a Signal Box. can put the train through Woolsbridge loop, to either pass another service, or to wait to be passed by a following service. This is used whilst driving experience trains are out or during event days. A few more signals and we emerge from the third of three tunnels in the spiral and come into Lakeside platform to set down/pick up passengers. When the guard is happy, they will blow the whistle and we depart. We are now on the Up line. Two more 3-aspect signals and we approach KE1. This signalA visual display device which conveys instructions or provides prior warning of instructions regarding the driver’s authority to proceed. protects the crossoverTwo Turnouts connected to form a continuous passage between two parallel tracks. See Facing and Trailing. ahead of us at Kings Junction. When clearA Colour Light Signal that is displaying a Proceed Aspect or a Semaphore Signal in the Off position. we proceed to KE2 & KE3. This will take us normally onto the Tunnel line towards the back of the station. A few more automatic signals and we arrive at the impressive gantryA Signal Structure spanning one or more tracks and having two or more points of support. situated just outside Kingsmere.

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Track Detection

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Track side Cabinets

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Projects