CLASS 50 FLEET MANAGER

Introduction

The fifty class 50 locomotives, with their 2700hp English Electric 16 CVST engines geared for 100 mph running, are the most powerful express passenger diesel locomotives in current service with British Rail. Derived from the Deltic - bodied DP2 prototype, the locomotives were transferred to the Western Region from the Midland on completion of the West Coast electrification to Glasgow in the mid 1970's. In reputed very run-down condition, the locomotives underwent major refurbishment at Doncaster works to emerge as the flagships of the Western Region loco-hauled fleet, assigned to most principle non HST workings.

In this simulation, set in the summer of 1984, you are a controller in Western Region headquarters at Swindon charged with the task of allocating weekday duties to a fleet of 15 class 50 locomotives (at weekends most of the class are commandeered for Saturday West of England holiday traffic, with Sunday spent getting locomotives and stock back in position). A set of priority workings should be rostered for class 50 power, with other workings used to amass the highest possible weekly fleet mileage bearing in mind the constraints of fuelling and maintenance.

Available Workings

A timetable of available workings is given in the Appendix, and a schematic plan of principal locations with route mileage is shown below. Throughout the simulation workings are referred to by 4-character reporting codes: the first digit being the train category, the next letter a region or area destination code, and the final two digits the train working number. Prime workings which should be allocated to a class 50 if at all possible are denoted by an asterisk, and footnotes give details of named trains and other special information.

Operational Constraints

The nominal fuel range of your locomotives, with allowance for contingencies, is 850 miles, and hence a number of multiple workings can be scheduled between refuellings. Locomotives should preferentially be fuelled at either Old Oak Common (the local depot for Paddington) or Laira (Plymouth), although on special request the necessary arrangements can be made to take fuel at Longrock (Penzance) or Saltley (Birmingham). Fuelling generally takes between 45 and 90 minutes, and hence there is a management directive discouraging un-necessary 'topping up'.

Class 50 maintenance is based on actual engine running hours rather than elapsed time, with an A examination of duration approximately 2.5 hours needed every 53 to 57 engine hours and a more thorough B examination lasting 10-20 hours due in lieu of every fifth A service. A examinations can be carried out at either Old Oak Common or Laira, but B examinations must be undertaken at whichever of the two is the locomotive's home depot (see the codes OC and LA on the status summary). Failures in service occur from time to time and these are generally rectified at the nearest convenient major depot with appropriate control arrangements made for getting the locomotives there.

All depot attenuation automatically includes refuelling, and hence sets the fuel miles to zero.

Control Monitoring Information

Running reports communicated to control are passed on as you request an information update every 3 hours ( 6 hours overnight). Current and allocated duties are available continuously in a TOPS style listing, whilst the operational statistics of locomotives (ie miles since last refuelled, hours since A and B examinations, and accumulated weekly mileages) are detailed in an end of current working status summary (with special coding used to denote locomotives which are already allocated or which will not reach their destination in the current time slot).

Allocation of Workings

The major locations of Paddington, Birmingham, Plymouth and Penzance may be paged on your computer console. At each you are given a list of possible workings in the current time slot, with priority 'prime' services indicated by either a coloured reporting number or a 'p' prefix depending on your computer system. Also listed are Class 50s available or expected to arrive at the associated stabling point or depot during the currency of the time slot. Arrival times are times on depot after release from the previous working, whilst 'expected ok' is the time when a locomotive should become available for further duties on completion of booked fuelling or maintenance.

On nominating a locomotive you will be given its full status report, and can then either 1) exit without penalty by pressing the RETURN key, 2) specify fuelling or examination by entering F, A or B as appropriate, or 3) allocate the locomotive to a working departing at least 20 minutes after the loco available time by entering the desired train working code. The latter can be followed directly by F, A or B (eg 1C02F) to instruct fuelling or examination to be carried out on arrival at the destination depot (note for this purpose the 1Fxx Paddington - Oxford and return duties count as single workings).

Whilst trying to accumulate the greatest possible fleet mileage it should be emphasized that the highest priority is to ensure Class 50 allocation to prime workings, and as such it may be desirable to hold locomotives over for workings in a subsequent time slot or to allocate for contingencies. Workings not allocated a Class 50 when you update to the next time slot will be assumed to run with substitute Class 47 motive power so that coaching diagrams are correctly maintained for future workings.

Management Assessment

An end-of-duty report on your management of the fleet is given on Friday at 1200 hrs on your handover to the weekend duty controller : an interim progress report being available at other times by selecting the appropriate option on the main menu (press ESCAPE to access). In running the simulation you will rapidly appreciate some of the complexities of the task of locomotive control, and we can only wish you luck in avoiding having to cope with too many out of course events.

Appendix : Available Workings


            3C24 1C02 1C04 2C68 1C11 1C27 1C31 2C72 2C74 1V85 1C44 1C76
            (1)   **  (2)       (3)   *    *             (4)       (6)
PADDINGTON       0005 0030           0940 1027                1340 2225
PLYMOUTH    0300           0823 1027           1500 1635 1730 1734
PENZANCE    0544 0839 0654 1043 1236 1535 1623 1710 1858 1935      0625

            3A27 1E91 1E25 1A53 1A60 5C02 2C85 3S15 1C82 1A85 1C85 1A01 1A02
            (1)  (4)  (5)   *    *   (7)       (1)  (3)   *   (3)  (6)   ** 
PENZANCE         0853 0918 0932 1050 1120 1135 1200 1354 1615 1815 1922 2135
PLYMOUTH    0615 1056 1120           1314 1345 1446 1606      2038
PADDINGTON  1253           1529 1647                     2209      0345 0605

            1M10 1E54 1M61 3M15                     1V10 1V16 1V19
            (8)  (9)  (10) (1)                      (10) (11) (11)
PADDINGTON  0550 0650 1740 2050         BIRMINGHAM  0645 1917 2059
BIRMINGHAM  0848 0936 2011 2350         PADDINGTON  0911 2204 2340

            1S71  1M83                              1V76 1V81 1V90
            *(12) *(8)                              *(8) (5)  *(12)
PENZANCE    0730  1024                  BIRMINGHAM  1130 1202 1540
BIRMINGHAM  1357  1632                  PENZANCE    1755 1809 2230

            1F04 1F06 1F14 1F16 1F22 1F26 1F30 1F38 1F52
            (2)  (2)
PADDINGTON  0325 0400 0850 0950 1310 1450 1610 1730 1903
OXFORD      0500 0537 0950 1050 1412 1550 1716 1920 2007
RETURN
WORKING     1F13 1F11 1F29 1F31 1F41 1F45 1F47 1F49 1F51
OXFORD      0653 0710 1030 1140 1625 1730 1835 2130 2305
PADDINGTON  0827 0839 1127 1237 1722 1830 1932 2227 0045

FOOTNOTES

            *   Priority Working            ** Night Riviera
            
    (1) Parcels              (5) From/to Leeds        (9)  From/to Hull
    (2) Newspapers           (6) Mail                 (10) From/to Wolverhampton
    (3) From/to Bristol      (7) Empty coach stock    (11) From/to Manchester
    (4) From/to Newcastle    (8) From/to Liverpool    (12) From/to Glasgow

                  All times refer to the public timetable

 Locomotive release times on arrival are generally 35 minutes at Paddington
 and 15 minutes elsewhere

this Software

Converted from a BBC BASIC file to a RISC OS application, complete with sprites file and this help file, for use with !Graphtask by Ewen Pring 2005-03. CAPS LOCK must be on.

Original software by:

Dee Kay systems
18 Salford Close
Woodrow South
Redditch
Worcs.
B98 7UN