Past simple and past continuous

The past simple (...did sg...) can express one-time events in the past, actions or states,
such as:
It started raining at five o'clock; Mary was sick last Wednesday.
It can also refer to habitual actions in the past:
My grandpa always went fishing on Saturday mornings.
The past continuous (...was doing sg...) has all the characteristic meanings of the
present continuous, just from the perspective of the past. So it can refer to an event
at a concrete point of time in the past:
At five o'clock my friend was working in the office; When uncle got home, his wife was
cleaning the house.
It can also refer to an event going on around a specific time in the past: When my
daughter graduated from university my wife and I were working on US-based business
projects.
It can refer to a concrete (one time as above or habitual) event in the past taking
place at a time designated by another event:
In my childhood when the postman delivered my grandparents' state pension they were
usually playing chess in the elderly chessplayers' club across the street.
It can also refer to an event taking place in the near future relative to a concrete
point of time in the past:
I asked David to help us, but he couldn't, because they were travelling to Iceland the
following morning.
The past continuous also expresses an event disliked by the speaker using the
word always:
The children in our street were always shouting very loudly in the afternoon when I stayed
with my grandparents in their village.

Past perfect (simple) and past perfect continuous

The past perfect (simple) ... had done sg... is used to
I. express antecedence in time as in: By the time we arrived at the cinema the film had
started, so we missed it. OR When I got to the railway station the train had left, so I
missed it.
Note the differences in the following three sentences:
A)When Peter got to the party Bob left.
B) When Peter got to the party Bob had left.
C) When Peter got to the party Bob was leaving.
In sentence A) Peter's arrival at the party precedes Bob's leaving, perhaps Bob does
not really like Peter and that is the reason why he leaves. But perhaps it is not
Peter's arrival that prompts Bob to leave, we do not know it for sure.
In sentence C) what we have in front of us is that the two men actually encounter
one another (just as in sentence A)), but Bob decided to leave the party before
Peter"s arrival. Maybe when Peter enters the place Bob is looking for his shoes or
coat.
In sentence B) the two men certainly do not see one another. At the time when Peter
arrives Bob is already away from the place. Consequently there is a huge difference
between sentences A) and B), so the past perfect and the simple past are not
interchangeable at all, just as in the two example sentences above, at the very top of
the section, where the past perfect is not replaceable with the simple past.
However, there are instances when the simple past and the past perfect are
interchangeable as there is no real difference of meaning. This is the case when we
use adverbals of time to express temporal relations. D) and E) are absolutely
interchangeable, just as sentences F) and G).
D)Before Peter went to the party he bought some bottles of beer.
E)Before Peter went to the party he had bought some bottles of beer.
F)After Bob left the party he called his girlfriend.
G) After Bob had left the party he called his girlfriend.
II.We also use the past perfect to refer to the beginning of a state or a repeatedly
ocurring event from the perspective of the past:
When uncle Steve died he had been ill for three years.
In 1976 my dad was nominated head of the committee. By then he had attended the
regular weekly meetings for almost five years.
The use of the past perfect continuous (...had been doing sg....) can easily be mapped
from the meaning of the present perfect continuous. The past perfect continuous
also has two meanings.
I. It is used to describe an event that had been around up to a point of time in the
past. For example: I spotted that the atmosphere was tense because probably they had
been rowing. My son's mouth was so dirty because he had been eating some chocolate.
Dan was tired because he had been working hard/had been playing tennis.
II. It is used to refer to the beginning of an action from the perspective of the past.
My neighbours moved premises last June. We had been playing chess for several years on
our shared porch.
My granny sold her last car when she was 95 and too old to drive. She had been driving
since she was 17.