Welcome to the South Devon! Rolling hills, plenty of fields and hills and hills x10. Today I will be suggesting South Devon Railways, since the return of the GWR License announcement back in the May roadmap. I was tempted to make a suggestion for a perfect route to be made with GWR (this is saying they already haven't been making one already - which is probably the case already) However I will roll with it anyway. Now you may be thinking what lines are include in this name of "South Devon Railways", well the routes in this suggestion are the Riviera line (Exeter -> Paignton), Avocet Line (Exeter -> Exmouth) and the South Devon Mainline (Exeter -> Plymouth). All together it is around 70 miles in length, which is shorter than ECML and has way more variety. Yes it is quite a long route and jam-packed and definitely all of this wouldn't fit. Maps: In this suggestion I will talk about 6 key topics: - Stations - Yards / Depots - Passenger Operations - Scenarios - Possible additions - Reasoning - Footage / Videos So without do let's get into the stations in this route: Stations: There are 24 stations on this route, with there being 4 main stations / spots. Principle Stations: Plymouth Plymouth is the biggest city in terms of population on this route and hosts 8 platforms, with 6 of them being for passenger use. There is 2 sidings beyond behind Platform 8 (right side of image), which are rarely used nowadays, there is also a through track between Platform 4 and 5 to allow for freight and shunts to pass. All services down here stop at this station and it being the terminus for some services. Exeter Exeter is the 2nd biggest city in population on this route and hosts 6 platforms. There is also the TMD (located on the left side of the image) which holds trains used on the branches. It is a key station and interchange for SWR trains to GWR & XC. On this route the station will be used for the 2 lines to Exmouth and down to Plymouth & Paignton (track over the bridge towards Dawlish, track curving around above the bridge towards Exeter Central & Exmouth). Newton Abbot Newton Abbot is a station between Plymouth and Exeter and acts as an interchange for the mainline to the branch down to Paignton. It hosts 3 platforms, with the 2 track being used for mainline services and the single track being used for services to & from Paignton. Paignton Paignton is the terminus for the Riviera line and the Dartmouth Steam Railway. It has 3 platforms, 2 of them being used for passenger services (the ones in the image above) and the other platform on the left side of the image for the steam railway. Paignton has a level crossing right at the station with the signal box being located next to it, now being disused for over 30 years. There is also other stations like Torquay & Torre, with Torquay being a stopper service for all services and Torre for stoppers up the Dawlish Sea Wall. Stations on the South Devon Mainline: - Plymouth -> Terminus - Ivybridge - Totnes - Newton Abbot -> Interchange - Teignmouth - Dawlish - Dawlish Warren - Starcross - Marsh Barton - Exeter St Thomas - Exeter St Davids -> Terminus & Interchange Stations on the Riviera Line: - Paignton -> Terminus - Torquay - Torre - Newton Abbot -> Interchange Stations on Avocet Line: - Exeter St Davids -> Terminus & Interchange - Exeter Central - St James Park - Polsoe Bridge - Digby & Sowton - Newcourt - Topsham - Exton -> Request Stop - Lympstone Commando -> Request Stop - Lympstone Village - Exmouth -> Terminus Total Stations: 24 Sidings / Depots: There are 2 main depots on this route, Laira TMD & Exeter TMD, and Goodrington Sidings. Laira TMD Laira TMD is located in Plymouth and is served for the Castle Class HSTS, 150's and IETs. Exeter TMD Exeter TMD is located in Exeter, right beside St Davids station, it is used for 150's & 158 Goodrington Sidings Goodrington Sidings is located south of Paignton station, and is used as a turn around point in busy holiday seasons when Paignton station is filled. Passenger Operations There are plenty of trains that can be re-used or new trains that can be added. We will start with fast services and make our way down to slow stoppers. Class 802 The class 802 is a BMU operated by GWR and is formed of 5 or 9 coaches, with the 5 cars being able to double up. This train would run services fast services between Exeter -> Plymouth and Exeter -> Paignton. The 802 is a very similar train to the class 800, however this train would be more suitable to this route as it provides a better engine output to tackle the higher gradients. Class 43 / HST This train needs no introduction, it would be layered in from GWE and would run services from Exeter -> Plymouth. Class 158 The Class 158 is already a used train in TSW, this train would also run services from Exeter -> Plymouth but on stopper runs, it would also provide a new variant of the 158 with it being able to have 3 coaches, and could also run 4 coaches (like the one in the image) Class 166 The Class 166 is also another train in TSW, and it can be layered onto this route like the HST, it runs services from Exmouth -> Paignton. Class 150 The Class 150 is again another train already in TSW (very repetitive), and it can be altered from Cardiff City Network with interior changes and other stuff I'm missing, it would run services similar to the 166. And of course for freight there can be the beloved 66, however there isn't much freight in this area so I haven't made a topic for it. Routes: Paignton -> Exmouth (Stopper) -> Class 150 & Class 166 (~ 1hr 20 -> 1hr 30) Paignton -> Exeter (Fast) -> Class 802 (~ 40m) Plymouth -> Exeter (Fast) -> Class 43 & Class 802 (~ 60m) Plymouth -> Exeter (Stopper) -> Class 158 (~ 1hr 10) (There are also some services that run Paignton -> Exeter and not all the way to Exmouth / Vice versa) Scenarios: In this topic I will talk about some scenarios that could be used on the route. Passenger Scenario 1 Time: 50 Minutes Difficulty: 3 Featured Trains: 43 or 800 Description: You are currently sat at Newton Abbot, with calls from ROC that there will be delays on the sea wall due to harsh conditions. You will run up to Exeter St Davids at normal pace, and when you reach Teignmouth you will be instructed to travel at a low speed and not stopping at any stops. Passenger Scenario 2 Time: 40 Minutes Difficulty: 1 Featured Trains: 150/2 Description: You are at Exmouth station and are operating the last service of the day, complete this run before terminating at Exeter St Davids and going into Exeter TMD. Freight Scenario 1 Time: 1hr 40 Minutes Difficulty: 3 Featured Trains: 66 & 800 Description: You are currently at Laira TMD and have been instructed to go down the line to rescue a train on the sea wall that has been broken down for the past hour. Drive the 66 to Dawlish then attaching to the 800 and stopping at Newton Abbot before halling it emtpy to Laira for repairs. Possible Additions: Dartmouth Steam Railway: The Dartmouth Steam Railway is a Steam Heritage Railway, which runs from Paignton to Kingswear. There is 5 stations on the line and the track is single track, with a loop at Churston. The Railway uses old GWR Class Steam Locomotives. The railway is mainly used as a summer line for tourists wanting to go the picturesque Kingswear and across the ferry to Dartmouth. Personally this would be a great DLC but would be hard to get licensing I would assume. Reasoning: And now we get to the most important part of this suggestion, why should it come? Of course previous suggestions would say "beautiful scenery", "dawlish sea wall" and all that, however I haven't actually made that much points to that, as I don't need to, this route is great even without that. It is a unique network and provides long, short, medium runs and plenty of depot shunts and custom scenarios, custom formations, custom railtours and well yes of course amazing scenery, and definitely a better addition than ECML, which is like similar length than this. Reasoning in key points: - Long mileage (70 miles is alot but isn't as much as some other routes, would be one of the longer UK routes though) - Long service length, with Passenger Paignton -> Exmouth similar to Freight on WCMLOS - Short service length, with Exmouth -> Exeter & Depot runs - Medium service runs, with Exeter -> Plymouth & Paignton - Already have all the models, just need some alterations, meaning it would be easy to have multiple routes. - Packed timetable - again going onto the length of service, with all the trains already made (as said above), it would provide alot of services to do. - Highly requested route, there have been plenty of suggestions about the Riviera line, both from modern era's and BR era - I know people would say a British Rail era with Hydraulics and Class 50s would be mega. However with the return of the GWR license this would be a fantastic route to do. Personally I would set this route in 2021 -> 2023 era as it allows for the HST's to still be in use, with modern stuff still around. So overall that is my suggestion! Again another packed and chunky suggestion from me, hopefully you enjoy reading that, or you just scrolled through to the bottom... Here are some videos and footage to finalise the suggestion! Thank you for reading and potentially supporting this suggestion! All videos and footage go to their original creators, I have not made any of these. ^ All videos credit to https://www.youtube.com/@StarlifeStudios ^ Credit to https://www.youtube.com/@GWRUK ^ Credit to https://www.youtube.com/@RailcamUKLive Also make sure to check out https://www.youtube.com/@CoastCams247 (despite people already know about him) And that is the end of the suggestion! I will regularly check up on this channel and not make it inactive (like my other ones) Thank you again!
Probably too much to hope for Exeter to Plymouth and the Torbay branch but, well, you never know. Despite my preference for this route to be set in the early 1970’s I think it does stand a very good chance of being towards top of the list for a crack at another Western route now the GWR licence is back. Only fly in the ointment is how the (roughly) hourly Cross Country services would be represented with no XC licence and therefore little possibility of getting a Voyager in the game.
Yeah but even some of it would be nice, would provide alot of variety. And yeah XC i didnt include as we all know the situation about it.
One thing that's worth mentioning is that the class 153 could be included since GWR used to have those, though I'd not sure when they went out of service. I also think this would be a good opportunity to add the class 150/1 (the version without the gangway) Great suggestion, I would love to see more GWR routes.
Yes they would be very nice and a good re-use, however they both went out around 2018 and i've decided to set this in 21 -> 23 so it could work if they date it back then.
