Loco and unit route restrictions – e.g. “Can a 158 go into platform 12 at Manchester Piccadilly”?
• Gradients: rising or falling and in which direction. • Loading gauges – less relevant to passenger trains but still pertinent to “wide gauge” stock like the 165/166 “Turbos”. • It is sometimes easier to remember which indications you CAN’T take on a signal with many route indications. • Signal box phone numbers (BT ones for when the NRN does not work, wonderful things, mobiles 🙂 ) • Lengths of platforms, e.g. “Which platforms at London Bridge can I take a 12 car into”? • It is often easier to remember signal locations at first by reference points – “It’s after the second overbridge”, etc. • I will get caned for this, but I always used to ask for braking points for stations when route learning…then after I had got used to it I would work out my own version of where I should start braking. • PNB points, nearest chip shops, etc.
