RULES GOVERNING OPPOSING AND FOLLOWING MOVEMENTS OF TRAINS OR ENGINES BY SIGNAL INDICATION

261. On portions of the railway, and on designated tracks so specified in the time table, or by special instructions, trains or engines will be governed by block signals whose indications will supersede superiority of trains for both opposing and following movements on the same track.

262. Special instructions as may be necessary to govern this method of operation may be issued. Except as affected by such instruction and Rule 261 inclusive, all Operating, ABS, and Interlocking Rules remain in force.

CENTRALIZED TRAFFIC CONTROL RULES

Note: wherever the words “train dispatcher” appear herein, they apply to the employee performing the duties

263. Rule 261 applies in CTC. The movement of trains and engines will be supervised by the train dispatcher who will issue instructions as may be required.

The train dispatcher must be advised in advance of any known condition that will delay the train or prevent it from making usual speed.

264. When a train or engine is stopped by a signal indicating STOP and no conflicting movement is evident,
a) a member of the crew must immediately communicate with the train dispatcher, stating his name, occupation, location and train or engine number
b) If there is no conflicting movement, the train dispatcher may authorize the train or engine to pass the signal, but before doing so must provide protection against all opposing movements. The train or engine so authorized must proceed at restricted speed to the next signal and be governed by Rule 104A at spring switches, Rule 104B at dual control switches, and Rule 672 at automatic interlockings.
c) Instructions received from the train dispatcher must be in writing and repeated before being acted on, and train dispatcher must make the proper record immediately.

265. When a train or engine is stopped by a signal indicating STOP and all means of communication have failed, such signal may by passed under protection of flagman but only to enter the siding or clear the main track governed by the signal. Rule 104A must be complied with at spring switches, Rule 104B Paragraph 2 at dual control switches, and Rule 672 at automatic interlockings.

266. A train or engine may be given exclusive occupancy of a track or tracks within specified limits and specified times to perform switching or other work when authorized by the train dispatcher in the following manner: “(train or engine) may use (track or tracks) between … and … (or at …) …m until …m”

When requesting track and time limits, employee will give his name, occupation, location, train or engine number and specify time and work limits and track or tracks to be used. When such authority is granted, the instructions must be in writing and repeated to the train dispatcher before being acted on, and no movement may be made under this rule until the engineman has been advised and understands the track and time limits granted.

After the train or engine has entered the limits specified, the train dispatcher must block all levers controlling signals governing movements into such limits at Stop and must not remove lever blocks nor permit any other train or engine to enter the limits until track and time limits have expired unless the train or engine is reported clear or the track or tracks specified.

During the period track and time limits are authorized, the train or engine may use the track or tracks specified in either direction without flag protection.

The train or engine must be clear or the track or tracks specified, switches restored to normal position before expiration of the time specified, and the train dispatcher so advised. If not clear by the time specified, protection must be provided as prescribed by Rule 99. If additional time is required, authority must be secured from the train dispatcher before previously authorized time expires.

268. A train or engine may not enter nor foul a main track, nor re-enter a main track after having cleared it, except by signal indication or until permission has been received from train dispatcher.

269. In CTC, protection of rear of train on the main track between switches of a siding, and at such places as may be designated in special instructions, is not required.

270. Unless otherwise provided, train displaying signals will continue to display them through the territory.

272. When CTC operation is interrupted or suspended, trains and engines will be governed by instructions from the train dispatcher.

273. Special instructions as may be necessary to govern this method of operation will be issued. Except as affected by such instructions, Rule 261 and Rules 263-272 inclusive, all Operating, ABS, and Interlocking Rules remain in force.

Though our layout is essentially shut down each year over the summer months (from mid-May to the end of August), it is hardly a quiet time for the CP Sudbury Division. The summer season is when layout expansion work, heavy construction and miscellaneous major projects can occur without the interruption of club operating sessions or open houses to get in the way.

The summer of 2024 was particularly busy with a number of major projects including; a complete change-out of the turnout ground throws for Tortoise switch machines within our Copper Cliff / Creosote industrial area, CTC signaling and logic programming at Stinson siding, fluorescent to LED valence lighting replacement over many aisles, and the construction of a maintenance platform within our ‘sky helix’ that spirals between floors connecting Sprecher and Larchwood.

The ‘sky helix’ spiralling between floors connecting Sprecher and Larchwood. Preparations to finish the mainline required a maintenance platform be built to climb into this helix from the main floor.

Possibly the most exciting project of the summer was a complete clean-out of all the stuff we’ve stored for many, many years now on the top floor. Well, the actual cleaning part sucked as it was tough and took what seemed forever, but it was done to clear the way for our Cartier Sub mainline to finally be completed. As August ended, we had already begun the benchwork for Sturgeon Falls, and planning for the huge 14-track staging yard (representing the entire CPR west of Cartier ON) that will be built above it. That is the exciting part.

Autumn and colder weather also marks the beginning of another operating season for the CP Sudbury Division layout, with five op sessions and two dates where we’re open for the public. A number of operational projects also occurred prior to the operating season beginning, mainly involving the addition and preparation of new equipment (weathering rolling stock, DCC programming of locomotives, etc.) along with any modifications or updates required by our car-forwarding/waybill system.

Two strings of our new Rapido NSC reefers form a backdrop behind recently retired stand-ins. The three reefers in the middle are the first Rapido models we weathered. Though they served faithfully for nearly two decades, these old stand-in ‘foobies’ were never accurate models.

In addition to the usual operational projects, this summer also saw us replace an entire fleet of cars, and even a piece of office furniture. Replacements of car fleets are not common, as the vast majority of our rolling stock are high-quality models which fairly accurately represent their prototypes. But some of our freight cars are ‘placeholders’ so to speak. These are cars too important or iconic to not have within our operations, and so we utilize inaccurate models or ‘foobies’ (to use modeller’s jargon) that appear close enough. If or when accurate replacements become available then these foobie fleets get replaced, and we have blogged about this topic in the past.

Duelling CP 286381’s. Only a minority of CP’s 400+ fleet of 50ft mechanical reefers were ever repainted into the CP Rail scheme, so it shouldn’t be surprising that a road number Rapido selected would conflict one of our old cars. Rapido’s accurate model (left) versus an old Athearn ‘blue-box’ repainted version (right).

The mass replacement which occurred this past summer was our CP mechanical refrigerated boxcar fleet. These reefers were staples on CP’s hot transcon freights through the 1970s, with large blocks appearing right on the head-end of freights like #952. Our operations wouldn’t be right without them. So with the exception of a single 40ft kitbashed model of a CP 285600-series car, our entire fleet of mechanical reefers were stand-ins consisting of Athearn ‘blue-box’ models, and some Accurail outside-braced 50’ boxcar bashes. These were all retired thanks to a club bulk purchase of brand new Rapido NSC-built CP reefers.

Side-by-side comparison of an old Athearn ‘blue-box’ reefer (left) with a new Rapido NSC model (right). Though the Athearn cars represented another prototype (the Hawker-Siddeley smooth-sided reefer) they were all retired thanks to the Rapido car being a 100% correct model of an NSC-built outside-braced reefer.

Replacing office fixtures is even more uncommon than rolling stock retirements, since there are so few that we utilize in club operations. In fact, we believe this to be the first instance. Our venerable and iconic Crew Call Board, a grid-marked whiteboard employed since our first operating sessions began well over 20 years ago, had to be replaced.

As the layout expanded and new freights continued to be added to our operations over the decades, we’d been stretching the old board past its original capacities. Three additional rows were squeezed in over time. We even saved room by listing both the Montreal and Toronto sections of “The Canadian” within one line. However, we broke the board after our first nickel ore train was inaugurated (INCO Job 2), and had no room left when the time came to add hotshot transcon freights 901/902 to our operating scheme.

Comparison of our old Crew Callboard (as photographed in 2021) with the new replacement board ready to go for our 14 September 2024 op session. After adding transcon freight 949 and INCO Job 2 to club operations a few months ago, we ran out of room for trains 901/902.

With our resent summer work beginning the push to finish our Cartier Sub mainline from North Bay to Cartier staging, it wasn’t hard to think of building towards the future. So, we acquired a very large whiteboard and grid-marked it with 40 rows. All those rows will allow us to list every mainline freight and local that was ever run on a daily basis over the CP Sudbury Division, with accommodation for a few extras and second sections too. Our only worry now is will we have enough operators to run them all? Thinking back to our lean beginnings during the WRMRC’s fledgling years, that is actually a remarkable thing to have to worry about.

Waterloo Region Model Railway Club

Modeling CP Rail's Sudbury Division in the 1970s

1962 Uniform Code of Operating Rules – Centralized Traffic Control

RULES GOVERNING OPPOSING AND FOLLOWING MOVEMENTS OF TRAINS OR ENGINES BY SIGNAL INDICATION

CENTRALIZED TRAFFIC CONTROL RULES

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