St. James Metro station

[142094]

Hopefully someone will have some knowledge of workings before my time! St James is the terminus of the Yellow line, and has two platforms. Normally, a train will arrive from Monument and sit in platform 2, going out the same way. However I'm sure I have seen at least once, a train continuing down the tunnel (opposite direction to Monument) and using a cross over (I think) to get to platform 2 (when it could have just used the points at the entrance of the station to get there). Now my memory is hazy, and this was a good few years ago now, so I think there may have been a problem with the points at the entrance, so this movement was needed to ensure the train was on the right side when going back to Monument.

 

[flymo]

Nope, absolutely not. No crossover beyond St. James. If you go about 50M beyond St. James Station there is rather a large wall.

The only crossover is an 'X' on the Monument side of St. James so a train from Monument into St. James is able to arrive into either platform and hence depart from either platform to Monument. When the North Shields shorts were running, the original blue line, both platforms were used but now maybe only one is I guess.

All the signals from Monument to St. James, apart from the starter from Monument are approach release. The 'clear' from Monument heading to St. James is yellow and then slow running is required to allow the (2 I think) signals in between to release from red to yellow. The last signal has a '1' or '2' above it to indicate to the driver to which platform at St. James (s)he is signalled. Even after passing the last yellow there is a (again I think, although I may be a bit off) 20 km/h speed limit over which an alarm goes off in the cab and the driver MUST reduce the speed below the alarm trip speed otherwise the brakes WILL apply. This is all to do with various regulations brought into being after Moorgate. If you have the time or inclination please take the second man's position at the front and it will tell you all you wish to know.

Many moons ago I was in the second man's position and we had a red light beyond Benton heading for Shiremoor. There was no intermediate stations then. Anyway after standing at the red light for a minute or two and contacting control the driver was given permission to pass the signal at red but because of the safety systems the whole trip from Benton to the next signal was at 20 or so km/h with a little alarm going off if the driver exceeded that speed. A swift brake application brought the speed down so the alarm went off but the whole section took a bit of time and was very interesting.

Lastly. I have seen in my time a Metro train beyond St. James but I seem to remember this was when they used single Metrocars in evenings and on Sundays and one unit was kind of nudged up to the friction buffers beyond the platforms. I have absolutely no proof if this or photos to back it up but I remember seeing it a few years ago, maybe 1990 or so.

 

[142094]

That may be where I'm getting confused - instead of using a cross over past the platform it just ran into the tunnel, possibly to allow another train in. I can't remember if both platforms were full or if there was a problem with the points and that's why it was used to double them up. I seem to remember it was a match day as well, could have been the Tyne-Wear Derby, which would explain why more services were running.

Many moons ago I was in the second man's position and we had a red light beyond Benton heading for Shiremoor. There was no intermediate stations then. Anyway after standing at the red light for a minute or two and contacting control the driver was given permission to pass the signal at red but because of the safety systems the whole trip from Benton to the next signal was at 20 or so km/h with a little alarm going off if the driver exceeded that speed. A swift brake application brought the speed down so the alarm went off but the whole section took a bit of time and was very interesting.

The same thing was happening recently on the approach to Central from Gateshead. At the last signal before the tunnel mouth, just at the end of the QEII bridge, this was set to red for all trains (due to engineering work I think in that area at the time). Driver stopped at the red, phoned signal control, got permission to pass it and sounded a warning blast on the horn and proceeded slowly until at the platform.

 

[Frankfurt]

Nope, absolutely not. No crossover beyond St. James. If you go about 50M beyond St. James Station there is rather a large wall.

The only crossover is an 'X' on the Monument side of St. James so a train from Monument into St. James is able to arrive into either platform and hence depart from either platform to Monument. When the North Shields shorts were running, the original blue line, both platforms were used but now maybe only one is I guess.

Yep there is no crossover as Flymo states. Both platforms are still used, during peak periods and evening there will often be a train in both platforms due to the timetable and driver turnaround time.

All the signals from Monument to St. James, apart from the starter from Monument are approach release. The 'clear' from Monument heading to St. James is yellow and then slow running is required to allow the (2 I think) signals in between to release from red to yellow. The last signal has a '1' or '2' above it to indicate to the driver to which platform at St. James (s)he is signalled. Even after passing the last yellow there is a (again I think, although I may be a bit off) 20 km/h speed limit over which an alarm goes off in the cab and the driver MUST reduce the speed below the alarm trip speed otherwise the brakes WILL apply. This is all to do with various regulations brought into being after Moorgate. If you have the time or inclination please take the second man's position at the front and it will tell you all you wish to know.

Yep, correct with the signals and the 20km/h speed limit. The 20km/h speed limit is in entrance to the station, this then reduces to 15km/h at start of platform and 10km/h half way along platform. There is no alarm in this case if a driver is overspeeding, any overspeed causes an emergency brake application.

The alarm you refer to may be the drivers safety device. A driver is required to re-make the lever/handle every 45 seconds. For example if a driver was unfortunate to collapse whilst driving train and he collapsed on lever causing the train to continue in power after 45 seconds an audible beeping happens and if handle is not dropped and remade a full disc brake application is applied.

Many moons ago I was in the second man's position and we had a red light beyond Benton heading for Shiremoor. There was no intermediate stations then. Anyway after standing at the red light for a minute or two and contacting control the driver was given permission to pass the signal at red but because of the safety systems the whole trip from Benton to the next signal was at 20 or so km/h with a little alarm going off if the driver exceeded that speed. A swift brake application brought the speed down so the alarm went off but the whole section took a bit of time and was very interesting.

Whenever passing a signal at danger with permission, you have to override. -Over-riding causes trains to be limited to 30km/h until passing the next signal capable of showing a danger/red aspect. Speed limit indicator is illuminated on desk, if a driver were to go above 30km/h then an audible warning is given with a few seconds to reduce speed, if not reduced emergency brakes apply.

Lastly. I have seen in my time a Metro train beyond St. James but I seem to remember this was when they used single Metrocars in evenings and on Sundays and one unit was kind of nudged up to the friction buffers beyond the platforms. I have absolutely no proof if this or photos to back it up but I remember seeing it a few years ago, maybe 1990 or so.

Not used in recent times, or as much. They used to run trains upto buffers for extra pick ups because of special events like concerts or matchdays when St.James station would be very busy obviously.

Hope that helps
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Hopefully someone will have some knowledge of workings before my time! St James is the terminus of the Yellow line, and has two platforms. Normally, a train will arrive from Monument and sit in platform 2, going out the same way. However I'm sure I have seen at least once, a train continuing down the tunnel (opposite direction to Monument) and using a cross over (I think) to get to platform 2 (when it could have just used the points at the entrance of the station to get there). Now my memory is hazy, and this was a good few years ago now, so I think there may have been a problem with the points at the entrance, so this movement was needed to ensure the train was on the right side when going back to Monument.

Could possibly have been a points failure like you said, or maybe there was a failed train on monument or manors platform. If any of them were the case then with permission a train could go facing road through to Monument and Manors whilst picking up passengers. There is a crossover prior to Manors (between Byker viaduct and Manors tunnel entrance), a train could then be signalled and put through onto correct road and continue onto Byker as normal.

Regards

 

[142094]

Could possibly have been a points failure like you said, or maybe there was a failed train on monument or manors platform. If any of them were the case then with permission a train could go facing road through to Monument and Manors whilst picking up passengers. There is a crossover prior to Manors (between Byker viaduct and Manors tunnel entrance), a train could then be signalled and put through onto correct road and continue onto Byker as normal.

Thanks for that Frankfurt. Funnily enough I've only used St. James a hadful of times, as my nearest station is Manors, so not much point getting the Metro two stops when I can get a bus straight there from around the corner. If memory serves me right, it was a match day around '97 and we had gone for a drink at the New Bridge, so got the Metro in. The Metro we arrived on went into the tunnel and another one came in on the same platform, but for some reason I can remember being told that it was due to a points failure. I've never seen this happen since so guessing it is quite rare.

I know those points well at Manors! At night I can usually tell which way a Metro is going due to the sound and vibration of it passing over the points. Also been on a few late night Metros that terminate at Manors, so run wrong line into the station to get access to the ECS line to Jesmond. Never seen a train run wrong line from St James to Monument (yet), but will be on the system a lot over the summer so it might happen.

Any ideas if track plans are still available for the Metro system? There used to be some on the Tyne and Wear Transport Group on MSN but the files have disapperared.

 

[flymo]

I have those maps from the MSN group which I saved a while back. As these are not mine I feel I cannot post these on this forum without the permission of the mods here or the owner but as I have no idea where or who (s)he is I'm not sure what to do with regard to copyright etc.

There are 6 maps in all covering the whole system from Airport to South Hylton and all points betwixt and between.