Amtrak passenger Services
le : New York-Philadelphia-Washington
and Harrisburg-Philadelphia-New York.
There are no
direct services between Washington and Harrisburg.
On the layout,
the only other stop in addition to Philadeplhia is Wilmington Amtrak.
New York-Philadelphia-Washington
Service
|
Name
|
Train type
|
Maximum speed
|
Acceleration
|
Northeast Regional
|
ner
|
4
|
170 km/h
|
2 km/h/s
|
Acela
|
ace
|
5
|
150 km/h
|
2 km/h/s
|
altri
|
varie
|
6
|
140 km/h
|
2 km/h/s
|
The entry/exit points
for these services are ny1 and ny2 to the north, was1 and was2 to the south.
At Philadelphia station
these trains typically use platforms 4 and 5: occasionally they also use tracks 2, 3 and 6.
At Wilmington station
they stop at platforms 2 and 3; only one train uses track 1.
Direttrice Harrisburg
Service
|
Name
|
Train type
|
Maximum speed
|
Acceleration
|
Keystone Service
|
har
|
7
|
150 km/h
|
2 km/h/s
|
In this direction, the entry/exit points are har1 and har2. There are some
shunting trains that use the pyn point (Penn Yard north's exit for passenger trains).
At Philadelphia station
these trains use platforms 7 and 8, and occasionally 9.
Services
Septa
There are 2 lines in this layout
- Airport line, from downtown to the airport
(entry/exit point air)
- Elwyn line (Westcester line), from downtown to
Elwyn (entry/exit point: elw1 and elw2)
- Newark line, from downtown to Wilmington and Newark.
Line
|
Name
|
Train type
|
Maximum speed
|
Acceleration
|
Airport
|
air
|
3
|
100 km/h
|
3 km/h/s
|
Elwyn
|
elw
|
2
|
100 km/h
|
3 km/h/s
|
Newark
|
wil
|
1
|
100 km/h
|
3 km/h/s
|
The services type
is a typical regional transit, using high grip rolling stock and high acceleration.
Linea Wilmington - Newark
Among the three,
this is the most interesting for the simulation.
There are 3 terminus stations to the south:
Hook,
Wilmington and Newark.
There are 2 entry/exit points
for this line (30th1 and 30th2) coprresponding to the 30th Street station.
Moreover, there are 2 side tracks at Hook (hookside1 and hookside2). Finally
one train enters from amtr-mf (Amtrak maintenance facilities) close to Wilmington.
Between
Arsenal and Bell there are 4 tracks: the 2 outer tracks, numered 1 and 4,
are for Septa trains, and are serviced by passenger platforms, while the
2 central tracks are used by Amtrak trains for express trains.
At the Hook station, the Septa trains use tracks 1 and 4 both for trains that stop
as well as for express trains.
Between
Bell and Landlith there are 3 tracks, of which typically ony 2 and 3 are used,
while track 1 is only used occasionally by some Septa train; thereafter,
up to Wilmington, the Amtrak trains use only track 2.
At Wilmington station, Amtrak trains use platforms 2 and 3, and occasionally 1.
Septa trains use all 3 platforms for non-stopping trains and only track 1 for stopping trains.
Farther south, there are 3 tracks up to Newark, beyond which there are ony l2 tracks
up to the limit of the scenario towards Washington.
The notes
to each train describe when the train uses a different itinerary than usual:
they are also helpful, especially for Wilmington, to know the track numbers.
Freight Amtrak services
I added just some of freight train services in the early morning hours: their timetable
is totally made up, since there is no information on the Internet about their actual schedule.
3 trin types are used:
Train type
|
Maximum speed
|
Acceleration
|
8
|
70
|
1 km/h/s
|
9
|
70
|
0.5 km/h/s
|
10
|
40
|
0.5 km/h/s
|
Other characteristics
Late trains
For some
Amtrak trains I introduced random delayed entry. For Septa trains only for rush hour
and only for some stops.
Speed limits
I added general speed limits, without using the train types; for each individual train
I specified its speed limits, in order to match as much as possible the actual timetable.
Itineraries and switchboards
As usual,
itineraries are defined via the name of the signals at the start and end of the block.
For example, itinerary bal3S-hoo3s is southbound and starts at signal 3S for the Baldwin area
and ends at signal 3S for the Hook area.
Only in the Amtrak terminal area
the signal names have no N or S indication.
After having examined
images of a few switchboards for other lines, I determined that there are no linked itineraries.
Therefore, I decided to not use this itinerary type.
Obviously any user can make such changes independently.
There are 9 switchboards,
of which 4 are for the Philadelphia station and 2 for Wilmington:
Piladelphia North arrivals
|
Hook
|
Piladelphia South arrivals
|
Wilmington southbound
|
Piladelphia North departures
|
Wilmington Northbound
|
Piladelphia North departures
|
Newark
|
|
Perry
|
Pedali
I used pedals (triggers)
only when trains enter the scenario. In other places there seemed no need to use
pedals or scripts associated to the tracks, to avoid watering down the simulation.
Signal scripts
The signal scripts are 5:
norac_prot_2.tds
|
joined block and advance signal
|
norac_avv_2.tds
|
advance signal only
|
norac_12.tds
|
automatic block signal
|
norac_dwarf.tds
|
ground-level block signal (dwarf signals)
|
cross.tds
|
incoming train
|
All
railway administrations have other signals, of which there is no
mention in the blueprints that were used to create the scenario.