VDL Depots - their use and operation

Ealing Common Depot (ECMDT) is a large facility located between Ealing Common and Acton Town stations at the west end of the line. Other depots are Lillie Bridge, in the central area of the line near Earls Count, and Upminster at the east end.

The depot has two ends -- the Acton end is to the east, and the Ealing end to the west. On shed roads, no train Operator is permitted to cross the halfway point (depot shunters can - but have their own approved procedure for this). On outside roads, train Operators may cross the halfway point - subject to following the correct procedures below.

Entering The Depot
Unless there is a reason (i.e. signal failure at Ealing Common, etc), ALL trains enter the depot from the west end at Ealing Common (ECM). A few trains will reverse wrong-road off Ealing Common's WB platform, but by far the majority will enter the depot from Ealing Common's EB platform, having run empty out of service from Ealing Broadway. A disc semaphore shunt signal provides access into the west end depot reception road off the Ealing Common WB (wrong-road) or (most usually) EB  platforms. The main line signal (WM5) will be red, but depot access is controlled by the shunt signals and you will not trip the train passing WM5 at red. Once on the depot access road there are 2 possible routes.

Route 1 will take you left to the stop board next to the west shunter's cabin - he will then (in real life) verbally (face to face at your cab door) instruct you on where in the depot the train will be stabled. It will be something like "14 Acton please" or "12 Ealing mate"...maybe even "can you put it on 8 Ealing, six car mark". That last one is important - 8 is a shed road, so there would be a problem if he said 8 Acton (can't cross the middle). The six car mark is also important - it means the back car is left "on juice" outside the shed. If they want it "off juice", they'll say "take it right in" or simply "leave it off juice". Note that road 17 Ealing can only hold a 3 car unit!

In the VDL there is a destination point at the west shunter's cabin so you can include it as a stop-at point in your scenario with instructions to mimic real-world procedures; the next (and maybe final) location being the stabling road - noting you cannot cross the center point on shed roads. You should include this west shunter stop point if you intend to use any roads OTHER THAN 19 AND 20, including the Alps and Museum roads accessed via Road A.

Route 2 will take you to the right side of the west shunter's cabin. No need to stop there - just continue to 19 or 20 roads. At the halfway point of each there are automatic shunt signals, which, when cleared (if no train already berthed ahead), will allow access to the Acton end. There are stop boards at the end of these roads.

Although it is possible in real life (although very unlikely) for a train to enter the Depot east end off the ACT platforms, we have not included the paths or signals to enable those moves in the VDL. All trains must enter ECMDT from the west (Ealing) end, and most typically off the EB platform.

Exiting The Depot - Going West (towards Ealing)
Trains cannot go west from 19 & 20 Acton, or shed roads at the Acton end (can't cross the middle line in a shed).

From 19 & 20 Ealing, a shunt signal will clear giving access to the outlet shunt on the left of the west shunters cabin. The outlet shunt has three possible routes - Ealing Common Westbound, Ealing Common Eastbound (wrong road), or to 31 & 32 roads (adjacent to Ealing Common's Eastbound platform). Route 3 is for depot shunters only and should not be used in scenarios. ECM WB is the most typical route.

Trains on "the Alps" (21 - 24 roads) and Museum roads will called by radio to the "first stop board" by the East cabin, then the West cabin will take over, calling the train to "the second stop board" and finally the outlet shunt (to the right of the West shunters cabin).

All other trains will be called straight to the outlet shunt on the right side of the West shunters cabin by the radio from the West cabin. The outlet shunt has three routes - the same as for 19/20 roads.

In the VDL we have included color light shunt signals at the start of every depot road, and at various merge points; and a disc semaphore shunt signal at the final exit road to the main lines. These color light signals are not present in real life, but are included in the VDL to create separate track sections and enable scenario pathing and use of AI trains on multiple depot roads. Note that some of the roads also have manual points which require correctly setting for a signaled path to clear.

Exiting The Depot - Going East (towards Acton)
In real life the East shunter's cabin will call all trains out by radio to the outlet shunt signal. Typically you'll hear something like "Train 20 on 12 Acton, proceed to East end outlet signal". Exceptions are trains on the Ealing end of shed roads (that middle line thing again) and trains on 19 or 20 Ealing, which will need a clear shunt signal to move onto the Acton end first. You can replicate these moves by including appropriate scenario instructions to the player Operator.

Again, color light shunt signals are present in the VDL at all road start points, the merge at the top of the bank, and two semaphore disc signals at the bottom of the bank and the merge onto the EB main line.

Once at the 2nd outlet shunt (note the max speed of 10 mph on the way down the bank!), the exit road merges onto the EB main where there are 2 possible paths to either the EB slow (District) or EB fast (Piccadilly) line platforms at Acton Town (ACT).

If your scenario includes a section going EB from Ealing Common (ECM) to Acton Town (ACT) the TS dispatcher, in its infinite wisdom but lack of route knowledge, will path the train through the ECMDT Depot rather than using EB slow main line. It's apparently a shorter path and TS feels this is more efficient - ignoring the 10mph limit through the depot.

To avoid this, there are destination points on the main line named "ECM EB Slow Road" and "ACTN EB Slow Road" that you should include as a "via" points between ECM and ACT. This will cause the train to correctly take the "slow Ealing" path, rather than visit the depot.

The Acton Town Engineering Works facility is located just to the south-east of Acton Town station, and is used for various maintenance activities and development and servicing of special stock such as the track recording train.

Trains to Acton Works must proceed WB on the District slow road, diverging at Acton Town via shunt signal WL14 onto 24 Siding. The train is then reversed and proceeds on the entry road as far as the STOP sign to await instructions from the Train Maintainer (Cabin Shunter). There are destination points in the VDL route that you can use as stop-at points to simulate this procedure - refer to the route map in the scenario editor. The train then continues to the desired Works road and comes to a stand close to the buffers.

There are 2 roads exiting the Works. The left path only goes to 27 Siding. To exit to the main line WB, take the right path, stopping at the STOP board to obtain permission from the Earls Court Service Operator. Once it has been determined that no conflicting moves are about to occur, permission is given and the train can draw forward to the exit shunt signal and wait for it to clear. On clearing, the train can merge onto the main line proceeding into Acton Town P1.

As with the entry procedure, there are VDL route destination points you can use as stop-at points to simulate the exit procedure.

As stocks maintenance is performed, you might work in an AI or player service using the Battery loco and various stock units as part of maintenance stock moves.