SECTIONAL APPENDIX - PAR


General and History

As early as 1835, proposals were made to build a railway line from London to Falmouth. The main incentive for these proposals was to safeguard packet traffic which was handled at Falmouth, as it was feared this traffic might otherwise be lost to ports further east along the Channel coast, in particular to Southampton, when these ports were connected to the railway system.
A company, the Cornwall Railway, was set up to promote the route which would run direct from Falmouth to London, following the old road, roughly via Launceston and Okehampton. But a decision by the government in 1842 that all packet traffic would run via the port of Southampton deprived the Cornwall Railway of most of its expected income. Plans for the through route to London were abandoned, and instead a new route was proposed from Falmouth to Plymouth, where it would connect with other routes under construction, which would create a through route to London. However, the original plans put to the Parliament in 1845 were very poor, proposing a route with very sharp curves and steep gradients, and this plan was rejected. Isambard Kingdom Brunel was asked to set up new plans.
These were put to Parliament later in 1845 and were approved, allowing the work to start. The line was completed between Truro and Plymouth in 1859. At Truro, it connected with the West Cornwall Railway to Penzance, and in Plymouth with the South Devon Railway to Exeter. The route was built as broad gauge to allow through traffic to London. It was converted to standard gauge in 1892, but by then it was part of the Great Western Railway, into which it had been amalgamated in 1889.
Another company, the Cornwall Mineral Railways, was approved by Parliament in 1873. It took over a series of horse-drawn tramways in the part of Cornwall, which mainly ran from mines and quarries to mills and ports. Apart from converting these lines to engine operation, it was also planned to connect these lines and build some new lines as well, resulting in a network between Newquay, Par, Fowey and Lostwithiel.

Par station was opened by the Cornwall Railway in 1859. The Cornwall Railway passed over the Cornwall Mineral Railways just west of the station, but on a viaduct so there was no physical connection. It wasn’t until 1879 that a connection was built from Par station to the Cornwall Mineral Railways. However, through traffic between these two companies was not possible until the conversion of the Truro to Plymouth line in 1892.

Both routes are still operational today. The line of the Cornwall Railway is now of course the main line to Penzance. The line of the Cornwall Mineral Railways to Newquay is now promoted as the Atlantic Coast Line.

Par signalbox was opened in 1879, and extended to about twice its original length in 1913. It was one of the last mechanical signalboxes in England, closing only in 2024 as control was switched to Exeter. The box still stands.

Adaptations
             
The simulation shows the layout as it was during the 1950s.
Some adaptations were required.
Lever 10 operated on two signals, depending on the state of switches 11 and 19. In the simulation, this requires two levers, 10 and 10A.
Lever 25 also operated on two signals, in the simulation these signals are operated by levers 25 and 25A.
The points at No. 2 Spur, at the Western exit of the Goods Shed and from the Refuge Siding to the Carriage Siding were manually operated. In the simulation these are operated by levers 71, 75 and 81 respectively.

Local instructions
               
General information

Note that signal 9 can only be cleared after ‘Line Clear’ has been received from St. Blazey, and only for the direction of the Down Branch. It is not possible to clear this signal for shunt moves reversing at signal 39, nor can a route be cleared to the Up Branch.
Shunt moves are possible to the Up Branch, reversing at signal 53/44/46; these moves must be routed through the Loop.
All freight trains from West of Par to St. Blazey and v.v. must reverse at Par. Some trains will stop and reverse on the Up Main, at signal 51, with a replacement engine being attached. This engine can be signalled to the Up Main using calling-on signals 45 (from Branch Platform) or 50 (from Up Platform).

Shunt locations

At many signalboxes there were a number of locations in the area where trains could reverse for shunt workings, with permission to proceed to reverse provided not by signals but by instruction from the signalman, usually by showing a green flag. At Par, this applies for a number of locations as shown in the diagram. Permission for trains to proceed at these locations can be given through a series of buttons, displayed next to the levers. When a button is selected, a green flag is shown at the signalbox. Available routes from these locations and the related locking details are shown in the locking table. Note that these permissions operate in the same way as for signals, in that when permission is granted, all related switches are locked and other routes which would conflict with the permission are also locked.
Shunt locations at Par are the exit of No. 2 Spur, and the West exit of the Goods Shed.

Fringe boxes

Distance to fringe boxes:

Treverrin	: 2m 71c
Par Harbour	: 0m 63c
St. Blazey	: 0m 37c

General instructions

Rules to caution trains.
For semaphore signalling, the rule (rule 39A) applied that for a sequence of signals which had no intermediate or combined distant signal, if the last signal in this sequence could not be cleared, all preceding signals had to be kept at 'danger' at the approach of the train and could only be cleared if the speed of the train was sufficiently reduced. For the simulation, the speed must be reduced (to about 10 mph on approach). The speed while passing the signal must not exceed 15 mph.
See the locking details for the list of signals and conditions where and when trains must be cautioned. Note that the cautioning does not always apply for shunt moves which are wholly within the station area.

Locking rules.
For locking rules please see locking table.

FPL.
Facing Point Locks (FPL) have been provided where these were installed - see Locking information for details.
FPL's normally stand 'out', i.e. the normal position of these levers is 'reverse', in this position the linked switches are locked. To operate the switch, set the FPL lever to 'normal'. Once the switch is thrown, return the FPL lever to 'reverse'. FPL levers are locked in 'reverse' if a route is set over the switch on which they operate, or when this route is occupied. If an FPL is in 'normal' position, all routes over the related switch are blocked and signals can not be cleared.
Note that if an FPL operates on a switch which is part of a crossover, these rules generally also apply to the other switch of this crossover even if the FPL does not work directly on this switch; some shunt moves are exempt from this rule.

Notes on shunting
The 'shunt' command must be used if a train is to reverse at a particular signal. It is good practice to issue the shunt command before clearing the last signal which leads to the location where the train is to reverse, this in order to avoid 'overshoot' when the shunt command is issued too late for the engine to brake in time, which will result in the engine running past the reversal point up to the next signal.
The 'shunt' command can be issued for a train waiting to depart as issuing this command does not affect the timed departure of this train. However, the shunt command must NOT be used for a signal which is beyond a booked station stop before the train has come to a stand for that specific station stop. Setting the shunt command before the train has stopped will cancel out the station stop, and will lead to an error on missed station stop.
 
If an engine is to be attached to a train, it has to be terminated before it can do so.
If the engine is terminated in the same location as the train to which it is to be attached, it will stop short of this train. After the engine has terminated and is redescribed to a 0Z** number, it can be moved onto the train using the 'proceed' command, and can then be coupled to the train using the 'couple' command.
If the engine is terminated in another location and is moved onto the train while it already has a 0Z** number, it will move up to the train and can then be coupled using the 'couple' command.

Special locations

A number of additional timetable locations have been defined to allow better control of trains and shunt movements.
These locations are :

Refuge Siding
Carriage Siding
No. 1 Spur
No. 2 Spur

Section lengths

The list below details the lengths of platforms and sidings etc.
The length is defined in units, each unit equals an engine, a passenger coach, or 3 wagons.
             
Down Platform	: 12 units
Up Platform		: 12 units
Branch Platform	:  7 units
Loop			:  6 units (between sigs. 25 and 26)
Down Goods Loop	: 18 units
Refuge Siding	: 12 units
Carriage Siding	:  9 units

Shunt locations :
Down Main between LoS and sig. 3/7	: 14 units
Down Main between sigs. 34 and 6	:  6 units
Up Main between sigs. 51 and 10	: 17 units
Up Branch ahead of sig. 53/44/46	: 10 units (to LoS, not shown in diagram)

Speed Restrictions

Main lines		: 60 mph (but 45 mph for 18c east of signal 3/7 and 10)
Up/Down Branch	: 25 mph
Branch Platform	: 15 mph
All other points, sidings etc. : 10 or 15 mph
                                                  
Train Reporting Numbers

Train reporting numbers only came into use in later years, and also changed over the years. See timetable information for details.

Opening Picture

The opening picture shows class 43 D848 “Sultan” on a down Penzance express in May 1965.                                                            
The picture was obtained through Colour-Rail (colourrail.co.uk).

Acknowledgements

Thanks to PCRail-Test team for their help in testing this simulation, and as ever to John Dennis for providing the basic program for the heritage simulations.





             
