Wcml Preston To Crewe Discussion

Haydock Branch?? Surely that's the line that runs through past the racecourse just south of Ashton in Makerfield?

 

Yeah, until around 1983 it was still in use for petrochemicals though by 86 was cut back to the Lowton Metals scrap yard behind Ashton, a "new" flow of bitumen began though and ran until 2005. It's been cut back further since but the "Kelbits" aggregate branch is still in use (requires a double reversal to get in/out now though instead of just running across from St Helens).

Bitumen traffic 1991
https://flic.kr/p/2iKUXJ9

Bitumen traffic 1994
https://flic.kr/p/2pD16gM

The funny thing with the Bitumen, which would make for an interesting working in the game is that they couldn't run-round, instead they would have to propel the train back to Springs Branch, being waved on by the guard in a brake van. By the 90s though they'd just propel it back onto the WCML and head south to Parkside and across Chat Moss as the route had changed.

 

Yeah it is, we've included it as there's a few trains which use the branch.

 

Fantastic! Thanks

 

Great photos!

Funnily enough I was watching the train reverse from the nearby Driving Range a few weeks ago. (You'll have to zoom in to see)

I used to live a stone throws from Haydock Park as did my grandparents and other family members. I'm made up with this!

 

As i've just mentioned I used to live near Haydock Park, just the other side of Ashton Heath! I love that the line has been included!! I used to play on the old Haydock Park station bridge!

 

JT confirm a branch is included and railmaponline.com goes down, coincidence?

Edit: is railmaponline.com actually dead?!

 

That's exactly why I appreciate you. Playing your routes, I know that this little nook off the main line will definitely be used. A short or not so short trip there, off the main highway, to where some buildings are visible behind the trees - I will definitely go there and it will be a little adventure. I love your approach to building routes and timetables. On other routes, I'd deliver empty cars and pick up the same empty cars from another service, but with you, everything is alive. Cars and locomotives don't just appear out of nowhere and disappear into nowhere. Everything has a purpose.

 

It's completely down. Shame too as it's a great resource.

 

Found an update from yesterday on bluesky

"Website is down. The site has been attacked, so the hosting company has disabled it. Hope to find a solution soon."

 

I have a "rail map" android app which shows the disused lines as well as current. Unsure if it is the same but app is is working fine.

 

Oh my, is that Sega Rally 2? Maybe we need some Dreamcast devs on the DTG team to implement such modern features from 1999

JB

 

Trains don’t accumulate dirt in the same way that rally cars do, as they don’t go splashing through the mud - they run on rails. Dirt accumulation is slow - over days and weeks, rather than in the course of one curve. In the length of a 1-2 hour TSW journey, the train would not look noticeably different at the end compared to the start, so visible dirt accumulation during the journey would not be realistic.

 

I wonder what there'll be for the 101/142 to do.

 

Loads of stuff, including what they do at Preston in the other DLC they will be at Wigan, Warrington and Crewe stations working various routes. Also cross over the WCML at Newton Le Willows on the Chat Moss and at Warrington on the Cheshire Lines.

 

Thanks for your condescending post but funnily enough I think you'll find everyone here is aware trains run on rails (which apparently protect them from the elements). You have however accidentally revealed that you don't travel enough, as it's clear you've never seen how filthy a train becomes over the course of even a short journey in snowy conditions, where wet snow and dirty sludge are getting kicked up by the leading bogie or by the turbulence of trains coming the other way, or seen how dirty a clean TGV / ICE / AVE gets on a rainy day. It's never too late to broaden your horizons a bit.

JB

 

Plus older trains have the brown or yellow “explosion” every time someone flushes a toilet which empties on to the track. And if you think your car gets fly spattered in summer, that’s nothing compared to the sticky mess on the front of a train travelling at 75MPH plus!

I do vaguely recall back in the 90’s when Regional Railways aka Poverty Rail were, as always, trying to cut costs and decided sets didn’t need to go through the wash plant every time they went on a major depot. All that achieved was numerous complaints about filthy exteriors and passengers being unable to see out the windows. So the idea got overturned and even about faced as the management got quite paranoid about the exterior condition, to the point of even sanctioning hand washing at locations where sets would outstable on a diagram that took them away from Canton for two or three days.

 

LOL i don't think the class 31s got that treatment at preston, those things where rank LOL, even made the class 47s look clean

 

Is there a race course in the game yet?

 

Thanks. I'm wondering what will be drivable.

 

Newton Abbot wasn't modeled so I don't think so.

 

not a lot with the 101 or the 142 there will be plenty of AI, maybe a preston wigan run going to Manchester would be the longest or an ecs move crewe preston and vise versa, but not much. that said there wasnt alot in the shap route.

 

Really hoping we see a route map soon with all the branches

 

I would rather not hat all that "realism" thank you. I also don't want to have the smell of public transit added to video games.

 

LOL reminds me of going to the Jorvik centre in York when i was a teen they introduced realistic smells to the tour around the Viking villages man it stank

 

I have read a lot of the Bernard Cornwell novels, both the Warlord (Saxon invasion period) and Last Kingdom (Viking invasion period) books. Considerable reference made in the stories to the stench of “night soil” with little or no sanitation as once the Romans left, no one had the skills or inclination to fix the sewer network. It must have been foul, not to mention the added stench of everything being cooked on an open fire and the dead being cremated on a pyre in the open air.

 

For actual driving? That depends on both what lines/branches have been included and what they plan on using for substitutions, for example the Crewe-Liverpool AM10 (310) diagrams, are they going to be subbed in by a 101 or just left out? If included then that would be Crewe - Acton Bridge, as it seems that the Liverpool spur isn't included (which I do harp on about but we miss out on so much freight opportunity with Ditton, Halewood and even Runcorn).

If the Liverpool - Wigan line was included say as far as St Helens then the 101, 142, 108 slot nicely onto that but also continuing on from Wigan to Preston. I think however it's not included (fair enough) so it would be a case of taking over for the run between Wigan NW and Preston.

As for AI, well they would be seen in/out of Wigan Wallgate as well as lingering around Wigan NW and around Preston on the Ormskirk, Blackpool and Manchester via Chorley/Bolton services. Perhaps they will also be seen on the section of included Chat Moss line on "Liverpool-Manchester" services as well as the odd Warrington run.

Ah I do miss the days of trying to time my flushes just right to coincide with things like level crossings, or if at a particularly high speed and in the last vehicle, trying to time it for a station in time to hose the waiting passengers... Sometimes I'm not fit to be allowed out hahaha.

But yes, that used to spray alongside the train and onto the door handles, sometimes if you were window-hanging a bit too far back from the loco you'd end up occasionally feeling a light "spray" too, good times, built up your immune system...

 

I remember many many times I was window hanging, enjoying the thrash of the locomotive up front....when I'd suddenly get hit in the face by water that seemed to come out of nowhere lol.

 

AM4 units ruled the roost on the Crewe to Liverpool and Manchester stoppers. They were maintained in Crewe iirc.

 

Occasionally if you hit a tunnel wrong (or right) at high speed you used to get a shower if you were standing in the toilet. I wonder if we could add extra realism by having Richard the Third on the ceiling?

 

Yes my mistake, I was thinking of the Crewe-Brum run, that and I've been up since 2am and been to Berlin and back and really need sleep ;-)

I thought that was just the MkIV fleet when first introduced with their early retention tanks? Mostly an issue of if two 225s passed at high speed in a tunnel, the pressure wave would cause the "plastic" retention tanks to squeeze and voila, flushing meadows...

 

Thanks.

 

LOL that's a rabbit hole i didn't think i would ever go down, ended up reading up on physical limits of trains in tunnels, the Bernoulli effect amongst others, like the reason high speed rail uses single bore tunnels as opposed to dual bore, the pistoning effect and theoretical limits of train speeds in tunnels, which is about 600mph due to you needing an exponential amount of power to push the air out of the way, i never in a million yrs though tunnels needed that much thought before LOL, figured it was drill here, pop out here

 

i thought i was the only one, the first times i went to Switzerland and the geneva to brig just had a 460 on and no dvt i used to sit at the back and use the loo and look through the back corridor door when i flushed it though the small stations and see if i got anyone.

not grown up since, all them bottles under the seat of my courier van got emptied into my windscreen wash when it run out in winter, then forgot and sprayed all the school kids later when they were getting in the road....

 

Maybe you (and all the other people called Phil) should grow up. I’m glad this is a forum and I don’t know any of you in real life. I really have no time for brainless idiots who have no regard for other people just going about their day. It’s not something to brag about.

 

I would avoid telling people about the time you sprayed children with your urine, to be honest...

 

Some things are best left unsaid.

 

Hear, hear.

I imagine the chronological age spread is very wide on the forum, but the average mental age is about 10.

I've mentioned this obsession with toilets and associated behavior on the forum before and was ridiculed for my comments. Most posters seemed to be " yukking it up " with the rest of these morons.

I think this kind of " humor " should be subject to community manager sanctions.

 

Would that be a yellow card…?

Sorry, will go into exile for a few hours!

 

I think that'd require you to be trackside to throw a yellow card/flag, Vern =-)