The introduction of Inter-City 125 High Speed Trains in the mid and late 1970s brought new standards of passenger travel, and radical changes in methods of railway operation. Fixed formation sets are diagrammed for intense utilization and rapid turnrounds by day and depot attention by night. Sets clocking up typically 800-100 miles of running in the course of a day require a nightly 'environmental' service supplemented by a comprehensive 'A' examination every other night. Major examinations are undertaken at progressively longer intervals, culminating in a complete works overhaul every few years. To service HST's depots were designed on a flow line system, and in this simulation you are the mid-week (Monday to Thursday) Night Production Manager at Bounds Green depot some five miles north of Kings Cross.

HST sets from Kings Cross and St Pancras arrive at Ferme Park reception sidings where they are checked and power cars are refuelled. Sets then proceed through a washing plant adjacent to the East Coast main line before crossing it on a flyover to reverse at Bowes Park and await entry to the depot. Up to six HTS sets may be accommodated at a time on four service and two maintenance roads, the latter having pits allowing access to underfloor equipment. Faults that cannot be quickly rectified generally have replacement modules fitted in situ. A seriously defective power car can be swapped for a fleet spare, hopefully to be repaired the following day in the repair shop. With scheduled work completed sets are allocated to their duties and are ferried to their starting locations or to stabling sidings at Hornsey.

One of the Bounds Green HST sets is assumed to be receiving attention at Derby works. With three 2 day diagrams this means that only five BN sets will return home each night. Three Midland (ML) sets are scheduled for overnight attention, and two from Neville Hill (NL) although Heaton (HT) or Craigentinny (EC) sets may occasionally substitute.

Bounds Green is additionally responsible for maintenance and repair of hauled coaching stock, in particular MKIII sleepers, nightrider and charter sets, and rakes of parcels, postal and newspaper vans.

You direct and oversee servicing and maintenance of HST's arriving at Bounds Green each night, ensuring that where possible mechanically sound sets are provided for the following day's workings. Your screen display shows the progress of HST's through the flow line system. Time is updated in 20 minute increments by pressing the RETURN key rather than inputing a set number. On each hour the supervisor provides updates, if HST work is outstanding you will be given the opportunity of diverting labour from the heavy repair shop to aid service and maintenance roads. Two men may be directed to one or more of the roads. Enter the required codes in response to the 'men' prompt, a direct pressing of the RETURN key will result in a result to normal working. Any such redeployment will obviously disrupt the scheduled workload and in practical terms this may delay a spare power car becoming available later.

Each shift begins with a TOPS listing giving the condition and expected arrival times of incoming sets. Having been informed of the staffing situation try to formulate a strategy for dealing with the night's work. From 2040 hrs onwards, coaching stock undergoing daytime servicing will vacate the depot, and HST's will begin to arrive at Ferme Park. As sets become available they must be directed through the washing facility by specifying the 'W' command, if the washer is free and no more than one set is waiting at Bowes Park Waiting sets are directed into a service or maintenance road in the shed by entering a road code (S1-S4, M1 or M2) ensuring the selected road is free. Sets requiring remedial attention (denoted by /R on the end of their service code) should, if possible, be dealt with in maintenance roads (M1,M2) with any spare capacity in the M roads being sued for A examinations (AEX) rather than environmental (ENV) servicing. If remedial (AE/R or EN/R) looks like taking too long you have the options of swapping to a spare, if available (type PS), or aborting the work (type PA) sending the set out with a single working power car as a last resort measure.

A set ready to depart should be allocated to a working listed at the top right of the screen. Enter the appropriate departure time code, the last letter of which is the starting station (K for Kings Cross, H for Huntingdon and S for St Pancras). If possible sets for Kings Cross should be despatched at least 1.5 hours before their required time, workings will be cancelled if no HST has been allocated 20 minutes prior to departure. Allow 2 hours for Huntingdon and 50 minutes for St. Pancras. Bounds Green sets can only be allocated to BN (one day) or BN* (two day) diagrams, and every effort should be made to allocate sets which have just had an A examination to the two day diagrams so that no more than an environmental service is necessary away from home. If a Bounds Green set has to be despatched with only a single power car operative it should be allocated to either the 0500K or 0750K workings. The set will then be replaced by a spare at Leeds, and the power car repaired at Neville Hill before the set is put back on diagram the following day.

Neville Hill provides sets for both its own (NL) and Midland line (ML) diagrams. Special seven coach formations are used for the latter, and whenever possible an ML designated set should be allocated to an ML duty.

Towards the end of the night parcels and coaching stock will begin to arrive on depot. Your shift ends when all HST work is complete or at 0700 hrs when the Day Manager arrives. He arranges for the completion of any unfinished HST work, and informs Control at York of any missed workings or outstanding allocation problems.

We hope that you enjoy this look behind the scenes at the operation of a modern Inter City depot. Clearly the job of Production Manager controlling today's by-and-large smoothly running flow line system is a far cry from the shedmaster role of the past, and in other games in this series we hope to give you the flavour of shed operations in both the traditional diesel and steam eras.

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