Belowtrack

Two jobs, one line. Trains have to cross your section on time, and the track has to be repaired — and the crew’s work trolley runs on the same rails as the trains. Take possession of a length of road and you close it: both directions now share the other road through the crossovers, and throughput halves. Only one direction may hold the single-line token, so the box will not clear a signal against it. Faults appear and get worse. A speed restriction becomes a blockage if you leave it. Send the crew out and you work the job yourself — strike an arc and hold it in the band, pump a jack, keep a pump primed, pack a ballast bed. Sloppy work holds for a fortnight and then it doesn’t. Fit out the trolley, book renewal against the Creep, and read the timetable before you spend the road.