York Integrated Electronic Control Centre was a major signalling control centre on the East Coast Main Line railway between London and Edinburgh. The centre also contained the electrical control centre for the line and the LNE regional control office of Network Rail. Its responsibility for signalling across Yorkshire was transferred to York Rail Operating Centre in December 2018.
The centre originally opened in May 1989, [1] first replacing local boxes in the area, including the 1951 York power box.
The 1951 box was at the time one of the largest route-relay interlockings in the world, its relay room 46 metres long by 10 metres wide, containing nearly 3,000 relays. [2] It replaced seven mechanical boxes containing a total of 868 levers – the largest of which was Locomotive Yard, the largest mechanical signal box in the UK.
York IECC also replaced the LNER power boxes at Northallerton, Thirsk (dating from 1933) Tollerton and Skelton Junction
When the first stage of York IECC was completed in April 1990, its control area boundaries were Church Fenton, Low Gates, just south of Great Heck to just south of Darlington on the ECML.
In the early 2000s, the IECC was further extended to take in the 1960s Leeds PSB area, Church Fenton and the newly electrified lines to Skipton. The control area was further extended in 2011 with the closure of Moorthorpe and Hickleton signal boxes. [3]
At the time of closure, the York Integrated Electronic Control Centre had seven workstations: York North, York South, Leeds West, Leeds North-West, Leeds East, Leeds East Assist and Leeds Ardsley. The workstations were supplied with automatic route setting (ARS) to assist with the signallers' workload.
The overall control area was Danby Wiske on the ECML to north of Shaftholme Junction and from Gargrave (north of Skipton)/Bradford Forster Square/Ilkley/New Pudsey/Woodlesford/Cottingley/Bolton on Dearne/South Elmsall/Horsforth through Leeds station to York (via Church Fenton).
Leeds station handles around 1,000 train services per day, and York around 420.
The centre drove a number of solid-state interlockings (SSI) and older route-relay interlockings (RRI), for example some of the relay rooms provided for the 1983 Selby Diversion, which was controlled from a separate mosaic panel inside the old 1951 box before the area was controlled by the IECC. There was also a Westlock interlocking controlling the Moorthorpe/Hickleton area.
Part of the centre's overview screens are displayed in the National Railway Museum at York. [4]
The final update to York IECC was at Christmas 2011, when there were changes to the track layout at the south end of the York station to improve the capacity of the station by providing an additional approach track from Holgate Junction. [5] The updates required to the IECC and the SSI interlockings were undertaken by DeltaRail.[ citation needed ]
By the end of 2016, signalling controlled by York IECC was due be transferred to the Rail Operating Centre located adjacent to the IECC building. [6] However, most of this was delayed until the Christmas period over 2018/2019 and the IECC will then be decommissioned. The transfer was completed between 24 and 27 December 2018 [7] The IECC building may also be demolished to make way for more platforms in York station. [8]
On a rail transport system, signalling control is the process by which control is exercised over train movements by way of railway signals and block systems to ensure that trains operate safely, over the correct route and to the proper timetable. Signalling control was originally exercised via a decentralised network of control points that were known by a variety of names including signal box, interlocking tower and signal cabin. Currently these decentralised systems are being consolidated into wide scale signalling centres or dispatch offices. Whatever the form, signalling control provides an interface between the human signal operator and the lineside signalling equipment. The technical apparatus used to control switches (points), signals and block systems is called interlocking.
York railway station is on the East Coast Main Line serving the cathedral city of York, North Yorkshire, England. It is 188 miles 40 chains (303.4 km) north of London King's Cross and on the main line it is situated between Doncaster to the south and Thirsk to the north. As of June 2018, the station is operated by London North Eastern Railway. It is the busiest station in North Yorkshire, the second busiest in Yorkshire & the Humber, and the fifth busiest in Northern England.
The Wakefield line is a railway line and service in the West Yorkshire Metro and South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive areas of northern England. The Wakefield line is coloured yellow on maps and publications by West Yorkshire Metro. The line was electrified in 1989, between Leeds & Wakefield Westgate, as part of the programme to electrify the East Coast Main Line.
The Dearne Valley line is the name given to a railway line in the north of England running from York to Sheffield via Pontefract Baghill and Moorthorpe. The route was built over several years and consists of lines built by several railway companies.
The Integrated Electronic Control Centre (IECC) was developed in the late 1980s by the British Rail Research Division for UK-based railway signalling centres, although variations exist around the world. It is the most widely deployed VDU based signalling control system in the UK, with over 50 workstations in control centres that manage many of the most complex and busy areas of the network.
Moorthorpe railway station serves the village of Moorthorpe and town of South Kirkby in West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the Wakefield Line and the Dearne Valley Line, 18+1⁄4 miles (29.4 km) north of Sheffield and is served by Northern.
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Knottingley railway station serves the town of Knottingley in West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the Pontefract Line, operated by Northern, and is 16 miles (26 km) south east of Leeds railway station.
Plumpton railway station serves the village of Plumpton in East Sussex, England. It is 44 miles 42 chains (71.7 km) from London Bridge via Redhill.
Thirsk railway station is on the East Coast Main Line and serves the market town of Thirsk, North Yorkshire, England. It is 210 miles 56 chains (339.1 km) down the line from London King's Cross and is situated between York to the south and Northallerton to the north. Its three-letter station code is THI.
The Peterborough–Lincoln line is a railway line linking Peterborough and Lincoln Central, via Sleaford and Spalding. Between Lincoln and Spalding, the line follows the route of the former Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint Railway.
Church Fenton railway station serves the village of Church Fenton in North Yorkshire, England. It is situated where the Cross Country Route from Leeds to York meets the Dearne Valley line from Sheffield to York, just under 10.75 miles (17 km) from York.
Skipton railway station is a Grade II listed station which serves the market town of Skipton in North Yorkshire, England on the Airedale Line, which gives Skipton access to destinations such as Leeds, Bradford, Carlisle, Lancaster and Morecambe. The station is operated by Northern Trains and is situated 27 miles (43 km) north-west of Leeds.
SimSig is a mixed donationware and commercial Windows-based train simulator of modern railway signalling systems in Great Britain, from the point of view of a railway signaller. Users have also had success running SimSig on Linux using Wine.
Hellifield is a railway station on the Bentham Line, which runs between Leeds and Morecambe via Skipton. The station, situated 36 miles 17 chains (58.3 km) north-west of Leeds, serves the village of Hellifield, Craven in North Yorkshire, England. It is owned by Network Rail and managed by Northern Trains.
Doncaster PSB is a signalling centre on the East Coast Main Line (ECML) railway in the United Kingdom, principally covering the line from London to Edinburgh but also encompassing other lines diverging and converging to the ECML.
Weaverthorpe railway station was a minor railway station serving the village of Sherburn in North Yorkshire, England. Located on the York to Scarborough Line it was opened on 5 July 1845 by the York and North Midland Railway. It closed to passengers on 22 September 1930.
Solid State Interlocking (SSI) is the brand name of the first generation processor-based interlocking developed in the 1980s by British Rail's Research Division, GEC-General Signal and Westinghouse Signals Ltd in the UK.
A rail operating centre (ROC) is a building that houses all signallers, signalling equipment, ancillaries and operators for a specific region or route on the United Kingdom's main rail network. The ROC supplants the work of several other signal boxes which have thus become redundant.
York Rail Operating Centre is a Rail operating centre (ROC) located at the south western end of York railway station in York, England. The site is one of twelve that will control all signalling across the mainland of the United Kingdom. It was opened in stages from 2014 onwards, with responsibility for signalling becoming active in January 2015. The York ROC accepted the role of its predecessor, the adjacent York Integrated Electronic Control Centre (IECC), in December 2018.