At first glance the Romsey and Salisbury area seems quite simple to operate, with light traffic throughout the day. However, the complexities of Salisbury depot and the number of trains joining and splitting here will cause a real challenge!
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| Description | The lines in the Salisbury area, from Chandler’s Ford and Romsey to Warminster. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country |  United Kingdom | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Time period | 2022 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Train Operating Company | South Western Railway, Great Western Railway | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Simulation difficulty |   | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Author | Oxalin | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Website | Romsey & Salisbury | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Timetable
A timetable for spring 2022 has been included, running from 04:00 until the last train of the evening, at approximately 2am. The standard services are given below.
| Romsey & Salisbury Services | |||
| Train Operating Company | Origin | Destination | Frequency (tph) |
| South Western Railway | Salisbury | Romsey via Southampton | 1 |
| Basingstoke | 1 | ||
| Exeter St Davids | London Waterloo | 1 | |
| Great Western Railway | Cardiff Central | Portsmouth Harbour | 1 |
South Western Railway also operate an infrequent service between Salisbury and Yeovil Junction via Westbury throughout the day.
Several additional services operate during peak hours, and some freight services scattered throughout the day.
Plenty of shunting takes place at Salisbury - the depot can only be accessed with a minimum of two reversals, and most trains to/from Exeter split and join here during the day.
Operational Tips
Chandler's Ford
- Take care not to route services along the single track stretch too far in advance - a freight train may come along and mess up your plans!
Romsey
- Salisbury to Romsey services first run through Romsey towards Southampton, then re-enter from Eastleigh and terminate at Romsey. They then form a service that does the same in reverse.
Salisbury
- Recommended platform allocations have been provided in the train descriptions. It is suggested you stick to these, as it is very easy to block up the station and make it so trains can't get to where they need to go. This is particularly important where the platform is "R" - this is the reversal line not in passenger use at the top of the station, and is the only line with direct access to the depot reception lines.
- Plenty of joins and splits occur at Salisbury, so always be prepared for one train to suddenly become two!
- Where trains are scheduled to join, you may wish to move the first train to arrive one element forward under signaller control to get it to the end of the platform. This will mean the train doesn't overhang the back of the platform after the join takes place.