SimSig:Chester

Welcome to Chester signalbox.

The Chester 'box covers the Chester area, to the border with Wales, and a number of smaller boxes in the area.

You can find an overview of our control area below.

Signalboxes

• Chester is the main signal box in the area. We control as far out as the east throat of the station, and as far as Capenhurst on the Merseyrail line towards Liverpool, and as far as Shotton and Wrexham in the west.
  • We've got a little bit of third rail electrification in the Chester station area - both the Merseyrail lines in and out of the station are electrified, as is platform 7, but there's no further third rail in our area.
• Hooton covers the Hooton station area of the Merseyrail network, from Spital in the north to Overpool and Capenhurst in the south. It's quite nice being here, just pushing Merseyrail trains backwards and forwards!
  • All lines at Hooton are electrified with third rail, with the exception of Hooton Long Siding.
• Ellesmere Port covers from Overpool station as far as Ince & Elton station, on the line down to Hooton. We fringe at Ince & Elton with Helsby signalbox, using Absolute Block.
  • Only platform 1 at Ellesmere Port, and the lines towards Liverpool are electrified.
• Beeston Castle is on the main line between Chester and Crewe. It's a simple box, with one running track in each direction, with a trailing crossover available for emergency use only. We fringe with Crewe here, using Absolute Block.
• Mickle Trafford covers a very short section of the Chester to Warrington line, where the line towards Manchester via Altrincham branches off. This box covers as far as Delamere on this branch, fringing with Cheshire Lines after a short section of single track. The line to Warrington fringes with Helsby, using Absolute Block.
• Helsby covers the Helsby station and the junction area, and as far as Ince & Elton in the Absolute Block section of line on the Up & Down Hooton lines. We fringe with Mickle Trafford and Ellesmere Port signalboxes to the west, and with Frodsham signalbox in the east, all using Absolute Block.
• Frodsham covers a short section of the Chester to Warrington line, and the Frodsham Junction area, which contains the junction onto and off of the single track Halton curve, which fringes with Edge Hill PSB. Continuing towards Warrington, we fringe with Norton signalbox. All fringes, except the Halton curve, uses Absolute Block.
  • The layout at Frodsham changes with different eras of the sim. The 2006 layout only has a line onto the Halton curve, and is worked Absolute Block, whilst the 2018 layout includes a crossover on the main line to allow bi-directional operations, and has been resignalled requiring the use of a slot instead of Absolute Block.
• Norton covers the fringe with Warrington PSB, from Runcorn East at the Chester end of the box. The fringe with Frodsham works on Absolute Block, whilst the fringe to Warrington is fully track circuited.