The Working Timetable (WTT)

[43106]

Are there any railway professionals out there that can explain the WTT? Since I've come across it, I've found it to be a fascinating document. However, NR seem to use a whole raft of letters and/or symbols within times (e.g. "07*OP53"). Is there a look-up table somewhere that explains what they mean?
Secondly, why are there so many omissions? A lot of stations have a departure time, but not a corresponding arrival time. In general, these same stations don't have a time recorded when a train passes through it, without stopping. Similarly, there are a few junctions, which I would regard as important, which don't even get a mention in the WTT! The biggest 'culprit' I've found is Marshgate Junction, just north of Doncaster, where the lines from York & Leeds merge. To prevent a London to York train smashing into a Leeds to London train at this junction, surely the times there should be noted to prevent this? The times at a fly-over type junction (e.g. Cogload & Weaver Junctions) are recorded in the WTT, but as they're fly-overs, there's no chance of a smash! I find this perplexing.

 

[Tomnick]

There's an explanation of all the symbols and references hidden away somewhere in the WTT section of the Network Rail site. I've a feeling that it's in the first document in each WTT 'section' folder. Regarding Marshgate Jn (and others), collisions between trains are (hopefully) prevented by the signalling system, not simply by observance of the timetable. Given that Marshgate Jn is protected by the platform starting signals on the Down and by the last signals before the station on the Up, the times at Doncaster itself should be sufficient for regulating purposes.

In the absence of an arrival time (which would make the documents rather more cumbersome!), the default dwell time is a half minute, unless references within the departure time indicate otherwise.

 

[The Planner]

Are there any railway professionals out there that can explain the WTT? Since I've come across it, I've found it to be a fascinating document. However, NR seem to use a whole raft of letters and/or symbols within times (e.g. "07*OP53"). Is there a look-up table somewhere that explains what they mean? Secondly, why are there so many omissions? A lot of stations have a departure time, but not a corresponding arrival time.

As Tomnick has said, download a WTT off the NR website and they are all at the front. For example the following letters at a station stop mean the amount of dwell time they have:

a Arrives 1 minute earlier
b Arrives 1½ minutes earlier
c Arrives 2 minutes earlier
d Arrives 2½ minutes earlier
e Arrives 3 minutes earlier
f Arrives 3½ minutes earlier
g Arrives 4 minutes earlier
h Arrives 4½ minutes earlier
j Arrives 5 minutes earlier

In general, these same stations don't have a time recorded when a train passes through it, without stopping.

Quite simply you don't need to know where the train is at every gatepost to plan a timetable. If I know where a train is at say Didcot, I don't need to know where it is at Cholsey, Goring, Pangbourne etc etc. if they don't stop there.

Similarly, there are a few junctions, which I would regard as important, which don't even get a mention in the WTT! The biggest 'culprit' I've found is Marshgate Junction, just north of Doncaster, where the lines from York & Leeds merge. To prevent a London to York train smashing into a Leeds to London train at this junction, surely the times there should be noted to prevent this?

Again Tomnick has described that perfectly, it is too close to Doncaster where everything is timed to be important, you work off the Doncaster time.

The times at a fly-over type junction (e.g. Cogload & Weaver Junctions) are recorded in the WTT, but as they're fly-overs, there's no chance of a smash! I find this perplexing.

Yes, but you still need to know when a train is joining or leaving the main route otherwise you could plan a clash with consummate ease.

 

[306024]

Always made me smile that the first thing anyone did with the WTT was to draw up their own simplifier to suit their own location. After that the WTT was used to keep the door open.

These days with all the electronic systems the WTT is possibly most use to planners themselves rather than day to day operators. Drivers generally have their own schedule cards, so no longer carry these volumes around.

Unfortunately with the new NR software the quality and readability of the WTT has declined. A lot of manual edit used to be done to make it presentable, but today it is merely a collection of schedules.

 

[The Planner]

These days with all the electronic systems the WTT is possibly most use to planners themselves rather than day to day operators.

Doubt if many use it now, everything is done off the graph, there used to be a few that would validate off a line up but not now.

Unfortunately with the new NR software the quality and readability of the WTT has declined. A lot of manual edit used to be done to make it presentable, but today it is merely a collection of schedules.

you might say that, I couldn't possibly comment....

 

[306024]

Doubt if many use it now, everything is done off the graph, there used to be a few that would validate off a line up but not now.

I guess it depends on where you are, and the age of the planners

I find graphs good for single lines, and less busy routes, but not so easy to read for say Liverpool St to Shenfield.

 

[87015]

As Tomnick has said, download a WTT off the NR website and they are all at the front. For example the following letters at a station stop mean the amount of dwell time they have:

a Arrives 1 minute earlier
b Arrives 1½ minutes earlier
c Arrives 2 minutes earlier
d Arrives 2½ minutes earlier
e Arrives 3 minutes earlier
f Arrives 3½ minutes earlier
g Arrives 4 minutes earlier
h Arrives 4½ minutes earlier
j Arrives 5 minutes earlier

A lot of which are different in Voyagerplan for all TOC produced documents, just for extra giggles. And where schedule cards can't be justified, the entire STP job works off Voyagerplan produced WTTs which vary from the above codes

I can do graphs for platforms, nosebleed and lots of head scratching beyond that!!

 

[43106]

Thanks for that Tomnick & Planner - I found the list of abbreviation explanations in a different pdf file within the section folder. For some reason, I had it in my mind that it should have been at the begining of each and every pdf file.
The reason(s) for not including Marshgate Junction in the WTT seem (to me) a little odd, relying entirely on signalling. Going by the distances quoted in Quail maps, Marshgate Junction is a whisker under 1/2 mile north of Doncaster station. I don't know what the speed limit is on the fast line through Doncaster, but I'm guessing that it takes about 20 seconds to do this 1/2 mile, in either direction. For the WTT, I'd round that up to 1/2 minute. If a train is stopping at Doncaster, then the time taken for the same distance is (by my estimate) anything from 60 to 80 seconds, which should appear as 1 or 1.5 minutes in the WTT. Given these figures, plus the fact that the WTT shows 1/2 minutes difference between Newark North Gate and Newark Flat Crossing, surely the inclusion of Marshgate Junction is valid......or (more likely) what am I missing?

 

[Tomnick]

The passing time at Marshgate Jn isn't particularly relevant though - a Down train can't leave Doncaster until a conflicting movement on the junction has passed clear, so the minimum allowable margins over the junction (detailed on p113 of this fascinating document) are all specified relative to arrival and departure times at Doncaster itself, effectively treating Marshgate Junction as part of the station throat. Newark Flat Crossing would, I'd guess, have to be treated differently as trains running through on the Midland won't be timed at Newark Northgate (so you'd have a much harder job of working out the margins).

 

[The Planner]

Fancy a job in MK Tom?? No? thought not.....

 

[Tomnick]

Not in MK thanks . It's the sort of thing that appeals to me though, and mentally applying some of the principles to come up with a plan to make it work when the timetable's fallen apart is one of the most satisfying parts of the signalling job, I must say!

 

[BlythPower]

I found the list of abbreviation explanations in a different pdf file within the section folder.

Any chance you could post the link to this? Cheers!

I know, I'm lazy and should look for it myself...

Got it! It's in the index for every book. For example, book CY.

 

[Deepgreen]

The NR web site still has no WTTs for the December 2013 change, despite the public ones having been available there for at least a couple of weeks. Have they abandoned WTTs as we know them, or just their availability via their site?

 

[The Planner]

Bung them an email asking why, it is on the webpage.

NRT-WTT@networkrail.co.uk

 

[6Gman]

The times at a fly-over type junction (e.g. Cogload & Weaver Junctions) are recorded in the WTT, but as they're fly-overs, there's no chance of a smash! I find this perplexing.

History teaches us that a smash can easily happen at Weaver Junction!

 

[edwin_m]

Timings are needed at Weaver Junction to confirm, for example, that a slower train for Liverpool is timed far enough ahead of a following faster one via Warrington. Is it still possible to loop a train there? If so that is another reason for timings to be given, at least where trains stop in the loop.

 

[43106]

Timings are needed at Weaver Junction to confirm, for example, that a slower train for Liverpool is timed far enough ahead of a following faster one via Warrington. Is it still possible to loop a train there? If so that is another reason for timings to be given, at least where trains stop in the loop.

I now understand the logic of quoting a fly-over junction (like Weaver Junction) in the WTT, to avoid conflict (at, say, Hartford). However, my original query was that a significant junction like Marshgate, doesn't get a mention, which I found inexplicable. I fully understand that a train that doesn't stop at Doncaster will take (in WTT terms) an insignificant amount of time to travel between Doncaster and Marshgate, BUT a train that stops at Doncaster takes about 80 seconds between the same points, which IS significant. A similar situation exists between Northallerton and Northallerton High Junction. However the "Rules of the Route" document covers Marshgate, and probably other sites as well. It's gonna take a lot of reading! I'd be interested to see how they deal with Dunbar, due to the amount of wrong-line working for west-bound stoppers.

 

[The Planner]

Marshgate is not an issue as described before, you can calculate margins at Doncaster which do the same thing.

 

[edwin_m]

Indeed, Doncaster and Marshgate are so close together that the spacing between trains won't change significantly from one to the other. Dunbar will be included in the WTT because it's a station so all trains stopping will be timed there. The Timetable Planning Rules will tell you whether it is mandatory to time all non-stopping trains as well - I would guess it is.

 

[Deepgreen]

Oh, I've already tried that - their first reply told me that they don't run trains and therefore they don't include timetables on their web site - both utterly wrong! Then they apologised and sent me a link to what was supposed to be the new WTT, but which in fact turned out to be for the existing ones! Just as useless as the TOCs in their public communications, I'm afraid.

 

[Tomnick]

I wouldn't be surprised if they stopped bothering with them altogether: they seem to be next to useless nowadays, with some fairly important locations excluded (such as a loop where a number of trains are booked to stand every day, so it just shows them taking an hour or so to cover the few miles between the locations on either side) and the software that generates them making a real hash of those that get overtaken (or those where a single train that has three or four slightly different WTT paths for different days of the week keeps overtaking itself). Does anyone in the industry actually use them?

 

[edwin_m]

Does anyone in the industry actually use them?

Meeee! (for some reason I need to reply with at least five characters)

 

[The Planner]

I wouldn't be surprised if they stopped bothering with them altogether: they seem to be next to useless nowadays, with some fairly important locations excluded (such as a loop where a number of trains are booked to stand every day, so it just shows them taking an hour or so to cover the few miles between the locations on either side) and the software that generates them making a real hash of those that get overtaken (or those where a single train that has three or four slightly different WTT paths for different days of the week keeps overtaking itself). Does anyone in the industry actually use them?

Which loops are those?

 

[Tomnick]

Melton (Mowbray) - I think anything recessing there used to be simply timed to stand at the station, but the loops are treated as a location in their own right nowadays.

Meeee! (for some reason I need to reply with at least five characters)

There's always one . What do you use them for, if you don't mind me asking - purely out of interest, as I'm struggling to see much value in them!

 

[The Planner]

Was a running line not used at Melton to show the loop rather than a location? Been a while since I planned over that.

 

[edwin_m]

There's always one . What do you use them for, if you don't mind me asking - purely out of interest, as I'm struggling to see much value in them!

Various tasks in relation to consultancy, usually for local authorities and PTEs to investigate whether there is capacity to run extra services etc. I have used them on at least one Network Rail job this year, looking at whether the current timetable would work on a remodelled layout. I could probably do this via RTT but as far as I'm aware this is for non-commercial use only.

 

[Tomnick]

Ta, that makes sense I suppose - good to see that they've still got a use!

Was a running line not used at Melton to show the loop rather than a location? Been a while since I planned over that.

I think it used to be, but now they're timed at a separate location for the loops (and pass Melton). This is the first example that comes to mind, rather optimistically timed from Frisby!

 

[DarloRich]

I now understand the logic of quoting a fly-over junction (like Weaver Junction) in the WTT, to avoid conflict (at, say, Hartford). However, my original query was that a significant junction like Marshgate, doesn't get a mention, which I found inexplicable. I fully understand that a train that doesn't stop at Doncaster will take (in WTT terms) an insignificant amount of time to travel between Doncaster and Marshgate, BUT a train that stops at Doncaster takes about 80 seconds between the same points, which IS significant. A similar situation exists between Northallerton and Northallerton High Junction. However the "Rules of the Route" document covers Marshgate, and probably other sites as well. It's gonna take a lot of reading! I'd be interested to see how they deal with Dunbar, due to the amount of wrong-line working for west-bound stoppers.

Without wishing to seem rude so i phrase this carefully - Do you understand the basic concept and operation of railway signalling systems?

 

[The Planner]

I think it used to be, but now they're timed at a separate location for the loops (and pass Melton). This is the first example that comes to mind, rather optimistically timed from Frisby!

4 minutes from Melton into the loop but linespeed SRTs approaching? clever.....

 

[Tomnick]

Increasingly common at both sets of loops on the line, it seems - more of a problem with STP timings (some of which really don't make sense), but often proved to be unworkable either way!