Making the Leamington - Stratford Branch hourly

[MerlinRail 804]

Sorry if this is in the wrong forum, mods please move if needed.

So I’m doing a bit of armchair train planning, and I’m tryna sort out a branch line. It’s from a key station on the mainline (involving a shunt as the departure platform is not signalled for loaded arrivals) to a small station with no driver depot or anything, and I’m trying to get it to run hourly.
I have two options:

• A six minute turnaround at the end, resulting 45 minutes at the mainline end. However, due to the timings of mainline trains (both up and down) there is only 4 minutes to turn it around for the shunt, and that involves “squeezing” the timings of the next mainline service on that platform, having it a couple minutes later and then tighter timings for the rest of its journey, which isn’t ideal and has a knock-on effect for the trains behind it. This requires 2 units
• The other option involves adding the omitted stop back in, so that it departs the “outpost” end around 5 minutes before the next one arrives, meaning a 55 minute turnaround, but no conflict on the mainline and therefore a more generous turnaround before the shunt. I’m not too bothered about this requiring an extra unit (this is part of a wider armchair timetable I’m doing), but I’m kinda worried about the 55 minute turnaround from the drivers POV. It’s a small outpost and I’m worried that 55 minutes is a bit too long, considering they’ll also get around 30 mins at the mainline end after the shunt. Is it possible to have it like this or am I overthinking it?

Also probably worth noting I cant make the times be something in the middle because part of it is a single line.

 

[The Planner]

Are you saying 4 minutes for a shunt at one end? What sort of shunt is it? I can't see that working regardless. What station amd branch is this, as its clearly not hypothetical?

 

[MerlinRail 804]

Are you saying 4 minutes for a shunt at one end? What sort of shunt is it? I can't see that working regardless. What station amd branch is this, as its clearly not hypothetical?

4 minutes between arriving and starting the shunt. It’s Leamington - Stratford and I’m trying to make it hourly. I can’t use the current timings for the return because of the single line between Hatton and Wilmcote.
Essentially I can either have:

Leamington P1	xx.01 (shunt)	xx.39
Stratford	x+1.13	x+2.06
Leamington P3	x+2.43	x+2.50 (shunt)

Or

Leamington P1	xx.04 (shunt)	xx.35 (omit Warwick call)
Stratford	x+1.09	x+1.15 (omit Warwick call)
Leamington P3	x+1.49	x+1.53 (shunt)

With option 1 I’m worried about the turnaround at Stratford being too long from the drivers perspective, and with option 2 I’m worried about the reliability risk for the short turnarounds at both ends. The mainline Marylebone - Birmingham trains are at slightly different in my timetable (designing it for Mk5s) so down trains are at xx:28 1/2 -> xx:30 and xx:55 1/2 -> xx:57 and up trains are at xx:29 -> xx:31 xx:54 1/2 -> xx:56. The second one can be a couple minutes later to accommodate the Stratford arrival (just) but that would make things a bit tighter on the way into London and risk performance.
Also can’t use plat 4 at Leamington because a few minutes earlier a Snow Hill - Leamington stopper uses it, and then the Coventry - Nuneaton after that

 

[The Planner]

4 minutes between arriving and starting the shunt. It’s Leamington - Stratford and I’m trying to make it hourly. I can’t use the current timings for the return because of the single line between Hatton and Wilmcote.
Essentially I can either have:

Leamington P1	xx.01 (shunt)	xx.39
Stratford	x+1.13	x+2.06
Leamington P3	x+2.43	x+2.50 (shunt)

Or

Leamington P1	xx.04 (shunt)	xx.35 (omit Warwick call)
Stratford	x+1.09	x+1.15 (omit Warwick call)
Leamington P3	x+1.49	x+1.53 (shunt)

With option 1 I’m worried about the turnaround at Stratford being too long from the drivers perspective, and with option 2 I’m worried about the reliability risk for the short turnarounds at both ends. The mainline Marylebone - Birmingham trains are at slightly different in my timetable (designing it for Mk5s) so down trains are at xx:28 1/2 -> xx:30 and xx:55 1/2 -> xx:57 and up trains are at xx:29 -> xx:31 xx:54 1/2 -> xx:56. The second one can be a couple minutes later to accommodate the Stratford arrival (just) but that would make things a bit tighter on the way into London and risk performance.
Also can’t use plat 4 at Leamington because a few minutes earlier a Snow Hill - Leamington stopper uses it, and then the Coventry - Nuneaton after that

4 minutes before arriving as a passenger to ECS is probably too short. Have you factored in the Dorridge extensions from WMR in this too?
Where have you found the 3½ minutes for the xx.00 to Snow Hill to be earlier? Same goes on the Up, that is now 10 and 6½ minutes later?

 

[MerlinRail 804]

4 minutes before arriving as a passenger to ECS is probably too short. Have you factored in the Dorridge extensions from WMR in this too?
Where have you found the 3½ minutes for the xx.00 to Snow Hill to be earlier? Same goes on the Up, that is now 10 and 6½ minutes later?

Yup just seen there is a conflict with the Stratford - Worcester via Dorridge at xx:08, so according to the TPRs the next departure has to be xx:15 or later. I’m not about to start messing around with the WMR timetable on top of my Chiltern project. With the xx:15 option there realistically is zero time to turn around for ECS, and platform 4 can’t be used due to the hourly snow hill stopper I’ve added (3 carriages so having both isn’t possible).
Can’t make it too much later because of the single line conflict at Hatton and also useless connection time for trains to London (as well as there being a couple that would run through to London so need to be at Banbury by xx:10 at the latest to be overtaken by a Snow Hill - London and to join to a Banbury - Marylebone semi fast.

Also in terms of the timings of the mainline trains down to London, as it’s essentially a sort of recast with more services enabled by the Mk5s, they can have less stops and be faster, leaving Marylebone at xx:10 (BMO) and xx:40 (BSW) in the off peak. The snow hill leaves Wycombe at the same time as now but is nonstop Wycombe - Banbury and then all usual stops onwards.
Up trains leave Moor Street later (xx:20 ex Snow Hill, xx:51 starter), and the stater has longer dwells as it runs nonstop from Banbury (I’m debating whether it should also call at Bicester (has 2tph anyway but its slightly irregular, at a 50-10 pattern arriving to Marylebone on a 37-23, so maybe a third call would be helpful)


Sorry for the late reply btw!

 

[Pigeon]

Try reinstating Stratford-Honeybourne and run it through to WOS.