Thames Valley Branches Discussion

People make scenarios up in their heads to suit their narrative I suspect, especially if it means being able to have a go at DTG. Maybe Johannes simply doesn't want to merge them with GWE, but it is easier to think that nasty DTG won't let him.

I've been called a fanboy in the past often by people that then buy the next add-on and moan about it whilst I held off from it, but apparently I'm the enabler! Just because I don't get bitter over everything. It's a past time at the end of the day not something crucial to ones existence.

Anyway I am looking forward to how this turns out and having a drive of the routes as it sounds like he's put a lot of effort in.

 

This made me giggle, considering the tutorial I wrote on reskinning stock in RailSimulator a month or two after its release in 2007 was the go-to thread for beginners in RS / RW / TS / TSC and spent something like 14-15 years pinned at the top of the help forum on UKTS...

The "amount of time and effort" I put into building a route in TSC well over decade ago or so ago led to one of the longest ever route-building threads on the UKTS forums, up there with the Trans-Pennine Route. The route I was building happened to be a full remaster of the ancient Paddington-Oxford GWML, which Keith Ross had initially worked on to upgrade and include the Heathrow Airport branch. I then gave this a full scenic remaster, deleted and rebuilt everything between Old Oak and Paddington to put it onto the right alignment, and then bolted on parts of the Hammersmith & City, Acton-Northolt, West London and North London lines, then added the branches to Greenford, Colnbrook, Windsor, Marlow, Henley, Reading West, the Didcot Railway Centre and then started extending it northwards to Banbury.

I was simultaneously building new 3D models of Paddington Station, Trellick Tower, various scenery items and also rolling stock such as the 95 stock, a static Eurostar and a Class 332, whilst also sourcing various existing buildings from the community, all of this over literally thousands of hours of my spare time which eventually I could no longer contribute alongside my work commitments.

But do go on to explain I'm not qualified to discuss the topic...

Little blast from the past for those who remember it.

 

One point that needs to be made is if the route is set in 2017, then both Slough and Maidenhead will need to be electrified.

The GWR route is nothing like it was in 2017, by then the wires were pretty much up everywhere, and in May 2017, the first Maidenhead-Paddington 387 services started and in late 2017 they started to Reading.
And they were testing for a quite a while before as I can remember standing on Slough station a few times seeing an 8-car 387 race through, only to then have to get on a 2 or 3-car DMU, which invariably would be rammed!

If anything, the GWR route is 2015 at best.

As I posted here or on the other thread, I really feel it was an opportunity wasted, but of course, that's just my opinion. It doesn't matter if you agree or disagree, it's healthy we all look at things from different perspectives.

It would have been great to set it late 2017 or even 2018 and have the line between Slough and Reading Traincare included and fully wired. That way you can still run some IET/HST services between Slough and Reading (They still had the Worcester/Hereford services back then) and the Oxfords used to stop at Slough all the time as well. And you can use a GWR-branded 387 on services as well. Plus ECS runs for the DMU and some extra services, making for extra playability.

And I say that for 2 reasons...
1) Because I think Johannes would do an excellent job of a more-modern electrified-mainline.
& 2) My favourite topic - cross-sales. Give me a chance to run an IET fully electric even if only 20 minutes, I'll take it. Drive a 387 on GWR route, yes please!

That's all I got to say. As the route is, I'll reluctantly give it a miss even though it includes two local stations.
But... as I also said on one of the threads, I'm excited for the Richmond extension on Mildmay, which I have now picked up in a sale.

 

This!

That’s exactly how I feel, if anything it’s limiting the overall fun and journey of what could’ve been.
I’m really starting to hate now that the GWML isn’t fully electrified.

 

Lack of joined up thinking all round really. The remaster should have moved the period forward, if the TVB was known about built into the remaster (from the long ago demo by Matt of the full editor it was my understanding different people can work on different sections which can later be bolted together) along with the GW liveried 387, the 165 conversion and the Class 802 (though really needs the 800) sold at an appropriate price, some nice plunder for all involved.

 

Do you have any plans to release this or has it been binned? The screenshots look absolutely fantastic!!!