User Announcement: Sleaford East

We are pleased to announce our first partner for bringing openSignalBox to life - Sleaford East reproduction signalbox! This private project by Alastair Larter is a recreation of a busy 24-lever signalbox on the GN & GE Joint Railway as it existed in the 1970s. openSignalBox was started as a result of development work for this signalbox, so it is closely involved with the project.

In addition to comprehensive electrical locking and accessories inside the signalbox, Sleaford East includes a large array of connected signalling hardware outside in the garden area, including wire and motor worked semaphores, banner repeaters, searchlights, multiple-aspect colour light signals, route indicators, shunt discs and GPLs and a ground frame. There are fringes to Sleaford West, Boston, Spalding and Bourne, with the latter a single-line branch to Billingborough worked by tablet, for which the machines are present and connected.

There is a full signalbox setup for Billingborough, with a fictional IFS panel, level crossing barrier pedestal and CCTV controls, and telephone connection.

The project has also just acquired an original diagram for Sleaford West signalbox, and the intention is to connect the diagram to openSignalBox to be driven by a virtual lever frame (or perhaps a model frame - a future openSignalBox hardware project!).

To summarise, the Sleaford East project requires the following features from the simulator:

• Interfacing to BR930, polar and shelf-type relays at multiple voltages.
• Interfacing to relay contacts for lever and block circuit detection.
• Interfacing to block bell lines.
• Interfacing to IFS panel for Billingborough.
• Interfacing to York telephone concentrator for Rule 55 call ringing (still allows regular calling).
• Simulation of busy 1970s timetable, including station working and run-arounds.
• Basic rules to simulate Sleaford West and Billingborough signaller when “switched out”.
• Random traction allocations based on pools and probabilities of swaps.
• Spatial sound effects based on traction and train type.

To facilitate this, openSignalBox has specified a compact hardware setup featuring:

• Intel NUC single-board computer.
• 64-channel Modbus input board.
• 32-channel Modbus relay output board.
• 8-channel Modbus changeover relay board for telephones.
• openSignalBox 4-channel Bell Interface Board.
• Modbus to Ethernet adapter.
• Network switch.
• Wifi router with external antennas.
• Audio amplifier.

Below are a few photos detailing this equipment inside the simulator cupboards.