Background The Hope Valley Line is a railway line in the North-West to East Midlands of England. Running between the bustling cities of Sheffield to Manchester and suburbs, and a section in the Peak District National Park, this line has a lot to offer. **Please note that all images are taken by me unless otherwise stated ** The line and what I propose **not my image** The line starts off at Sheffield, which is famous for its beautiful roof and history. The line then calls at Dore and Totley, a small, idyllic station, where the Midland Main Line branches off. There are also plans to reinstate platform 2. Now the line passes through the 3 1/2 mile long Totley Tunnel, which is a landmark along the line, and ends up in Grindleford. Grindleford is a nice little station located on a sharp curve. There is also a nice signal box at the end of the recently extended platform 1. The line continues onto Hathersage, a very small but beautiful town. Along the way, you can admire the breathtaking scenery of the Hope Valley. After that, the line continues to Bamford. The station isn’t that interesting, but its platforms are dead straight. After that, the line goes to Hope, which happens to have the surrounding valley and railway line after! The station also has a nice footbridge, which I believe is listed and is one of the most scenic locations along the beautiful line. As well as that, just after the station, you have Hope Earles Sidings, where some freight trains terminate. Now we go to Edale, which is, again, one of the most scenic locations along the line. Again, there isn’t much interest of this location as it serves a pretty rural village in the middle of nowhere! We now enter the Cowburn Tunnel, another landmark along the route. This Tunnel is the deepest tunnel in England and is 3702 yards long. Once we have exited the famous tunnel, we pass a junction which freight trains use to go onto the Buxton branch line, before ending up in the Aggregate Industries site. We then end up in Chinley. This station is a weird one, that has an island platform, which is linked by a footbridge. If there are engineering works north of this station, Northern trains will terminate here. Also note the station is A LOT smaller than it used to be. The line now branches off in two directions to Manchester Picadilly- I will start off with the route via Stockport. This branch is the fastest section of the line, with a maximum speed of 125 mph. In order to get to Stockport, we need to pass over two canals, before going through the Disley Tunnel, which is the most expensive asset along the line. It has a length of around 2 miles and 360 yards. We then arrive at Stockport, which is a busy station. Here, you can interchange with other modes of transport and change trains to Avanti West Coast and Northern Rail electric services. If these trains are ever featured in game, it would be nice if we could have layered on, AI only services. We now move on to the slower branch of the line to Manchester Piccadilly, which has the bulk of stations along the line. Immediately after the line branches off, we approach New Mills Central. The station is located on what used to be the section of track the Hayfield branch and Midland line branched off. Apart from that and the nice footbridge and station buildings, let’s move on. We are now arriving at Strines. I don’t want to get into politics, but this station used to find itself on the boundary of Derbyshire, until in, 1994 after boundary changes. Now we arrive at Marple, which was rebuilt in 1970. Before we continue, I’m going to talk about the Rose Hill [Marple] spur, which would be criminal not to include. There is only one station on this short spur, but it will add a lot of gameplay variety. Rose Hill [Marple] only has one platform and a small sorry-looking station building, however the line used to continue to Stockport. We now continue to our next station along the line, Romiley. This station doesn’t have much to offer, however the station building is really grand and charming. The line now branches off to yet another route to Manchester Piccadilly, which I will go into detail once I’ve covered this route. The next stop is Bradbury, which was rebuilt in 1976. Apart from that, there isn’t much of interest, so I will move on. There is also a short freight only line to a rather facility here. We now approach Brinnington station. This station is relatively new, having opened in the 1970’s. We now arrive at Reddish North, which was originally called ‘Reddish’ and still had a traditional footbridge. After that, we arrive at Ryder Brow. This station is also new, having opened in 1985. The station only has basic ammenaties and the track is dead straight. We then arrive at Belle Vue, which comes in straight after a sharp bend. Unfortunately, all the station buildings have been demolished and only two platforms remain. As promised, I’m going to go in detail about the other branch to Manchester Piccadilly. The first stop along the branch is Woodley. There isn’t much in this station, and the old station building is now a house. Our next stop is Hyde Central, which was originally called ‘Hyde’. The station buildings were rebuilt in the 1980’s. We then arrive at Hyde North, which was originally called ‘Hyde Junction’. The remaining section of the Woodhead route does not stop here. Now we’re arriving at Guide Bridge, which is on the rebranding section of the Woodhead line. You can also see abandoned catenary and OHLE too. We then approach Fairfield station, Gorton. The stations don’t have much, so I’ll move on. We now call at Ashbury. There is no actual place of this name near this station. It was named after the Ashbury Railway Carriage and Iron Company Ltd. After that, we call at Ardwick. Plans to close the station were scrapped in 2006 and only receives a couple of trains each day. We FINALLY arrive at Manchester Piccadilly, the terminus of the line. TFW, Avanti and Northern electric services call here. In the future, it would be nice for 323 layers to layer, so we can drive the short section of electrified Railway. **credit- Network Rail** Depots There is one depot along the Hope Valley Line; Ardwick, where some Northern and TPE trains are maintained. Rolling stock I’m suggesting the following trains be featured in the route: . Class 66/4 in Freightliner Green livery, with associated wagons . Class 185 in TPE livery . Class 158 in East Midlands Trains (Stagecoach) livery . Class 150/1 in Northern Rail livery Possible DLC: . Class 142 pacer in Northern Trains livery . Class 195/1 and /0 in Northern Rail livery Layers- from other routes: . DB Red class 66 When is the route set? I’m proposing to set it the month before East Midlands Trains got taken over by Abellio. How many stations are there? Approximately 28 stations Conclusion Overall, this with be a great route to have in TSW2, thanks to the diversity services (express, stopper commuters and freight), large amount of stains and stunning scenery. Also note that most signals among these lines are semaphore signals.
Gallery: Cowburn Tunnel. Credit to Wikipedia. Disley Tunnel. Credit to Flickr. Class 185 DMU. Own work. Class 150/1 DMU. Own work. Class 158 DMU. Own work.
Class 66/6 diesel locomotive. Own work. Class 195 DMU. Own work. Stockport station. Credit to Wikipedia Ardwick depot. Credit to Foreman Roberts. Rose Hill Marple station and class 142 DMU pacer. Credit to Manchester Evening News.
Hope valley line drivers eye video (please click Like and comment on the youtube channel as all money earned goes to charity)
I was just travelling on this line last week and thought it would make a perfect addition to TSW. It's got great variety both in services and landscape and would be great to drive. Great work and cracking suggestion.
An absoluetly fabulous suggestion formulabee#1362, and it does sound like a wonderful route - especially with that mix of constant stopping around Manchester, and a more open route towards Sheffield. I can really tell how much effort has went into this - from my own experience, it's harder than it seems - and I'd love this for TSW
Excellent idea but for Northern Rail DTG can do Calder Valley Line Manchester Victoria to Leeds City via Halifax my suggestion then This One so that CVL give Classes 150/1 & 195 156 155 Northern Rail paint to this route. If this route were to be made Class 150/1 uses West Cornwall Class 150 base then repainted to Northern Rail for this route. In the future layered onto Calder Valley Line my suggestion for a Transpennine route assuming Class 158 & 155 Northern Rail Standard layers from your suggestion HVL Class 150 & 195 Northern Rail. Alternatively bundled together as Transpennine North and South.
So basically "my suggestion matters more". Your logic here (that the 150, 195 etc. Would have Northern paints thanks to CVL) could easily be reversed to say this route could do that to yours. Here's a tip: don't imply your suggestion matters more. No suggestions do. Edit: and again you like one of these posts by me and completely ignore the point.
This ^^^. driverwoods#1787 please stop blinding me with your annoying logic. You clearly have no idea how annoying it is and my poor brain Is struggling to comprehend your pointless posts. I did not spend ninety minutes this morning and hours photographing the trains for you to take advantage of me with a suggestion that had no effort put into it. Also remember the Abellio argument we had? edit: 150/1 and 150/2 are completely different.
That's what I pointed out in my Edit, they don't take anything on, they just ignore it, ah well, it's not as if it really makes a difference at the end of it, this is a fabulous suggestion (as I said), and really we shouldn't allow this to take away from it
This is another route I'd like to see in TSW. It will be coming to TS21 soon thanks to Just Trains extending their MML DLC. I have actually been on parts of this line but that was years ago. When I used to go climbing in the PD with my friend's dad, we always used to go to Grindleford as there was a lovely cafe there just above the station.
In my opinion this route would be the absolute pinnacle of train simulation. The opportunity for stunning scenery, two major cities and more than anything, a mix of old and new with locos. Because the Pacer train ran on this line it could be a 2 loco add on with potential for a livery pack for the 150 when it comes later this year. Also, it could come with both versions of the new fleet running on this line - the diesel Class 195 and the electric version in the Class 331. Huge gameplay opportunities for freight along this line too, it would be an absolute dream if this were added. A treasure trove of possibilities for sure, especially if the branches are added. ps. I may or may not be undertaking a real life journey on this line right now hence enthusiasm for it. I came here to post something lengthy but the OP did an unbelievable job at doing that for me. Let’s hope this gets made. There’s clearly a lot of enthusiasm for it.
If this was made then I'd hope they would do it in the project rio days with HSTs on crack expresses to London from Manchester. Project Rio for those not in the know was a timetable where MML ran services in London - Manchester across the Hope Valley line during the WCML upgrages.
10 points for your suggestion, there was certainly some time spent in creating it. I think it’s a great idea. I’d buy it! I’d be even more happy if it were class 158s in Express livery (could layer in almost everywhere) or in Northern Spirit livery! And of course class 142s lol
I would Hi there can you stop bullying others for the suggestions when they are doing there best. "Trainsimplayer is being so rude it hurt. Just chose kindness It's the best option".....
Don't worry about what Trainsimplayer thinks because he can be a bully. I really love your suggestion for the Hope Valley line I think it could come out at some point