Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining

Most of you will already have heard of the chaos yesterday morning which was announced as being due to vandalism of overhead wires at Broad Green.  I was otherwise engaged so unable to go out and about to see exactly what was happening, but I could see on the screens that the service was wrecked until about noon.

The silver lining for me was that trains were reversing down to up in Huyton platforms two and three, so examining the detailed logs from my live signalling system allowed me to learn how these uncommon moves work, and I have now been able to add the extra berths and signals to the diagram.

Admittedly, not much compensation for anyone whose journey was disrupted, but it made me happy, at least!

The signalled reversing moves available are:

• From the Down St Helens into Huyton P3, stopping at fixed red LL9592, and reversing to depart in the normal up direction towards Chat Moss or St Helens.
• From the Down St Helens or the Down Chat Moss into Huyton P2, reversing to depart under the control of LL9588 onto the Up Chat Moss.

I believe there's also the possibility of an UP train reversing on the Up Chat Moss east of Huyton and proceeding down into Platform 2, controlled by position light signal LL1577, but I haven't seen this happen yet.