Hiya everyone, I have re-emerged to make a route suggestion on the SWML. Basingstoke to Poole via Salisbury, an 81-mile long route along the SWML, based in 2014 so it would be in the era of both South West Trains & First Great Western, i understand that it is a long route overall and the devs (if they decide to even look at the suggestion and like it) may not build the full length so not everything in here may be implemented but i hope you enjoy reading.: Stations: **Bold text shows stations with staff working at them such as dispatchers or an onsite ticket office** Basingstoke - Salisbury stretch: (36 miles) Basingstoke Overton Whitchurch Andover Grateley Salisbury Basingstoke - Southampton Central Stretch: (31 miles) Basingstoke (already listed above) Micheldever Winchester Shawford Eastleigh Southampton Airport Parkway Swaythling St Deny's Southampton Central Salisbury - Eastleigh stretch: (23 miles) Salisbury Dean Mottisfont & Dunbridge Romsey Chandlers Ford Eastleigh Southampton Central - Bournemouth stretch: (28 miles) Southampton Central Millbrook Redbridge Totton Ashurst (New Forest) Beaulieu Road Brockenhurst Sway New Milton Hinton Admiral Christchurch Pokesdown for Boscombe Bournemouth Bournemouth - Poole stretch: (5 miles) Bournemouth Branksome Parkstone Poole Brockenhurst = Lymington Pier stretch: (5 miles) Brockenhurst Lymington Town Lymington Pier Rolling stock: The route has areas that are diesel only (Basingstoke - Salisbury, and Romsey - Salisbury is unelectrified) so there is a mix of DMU's and EMUs from a range of operators such as CrossCountry, South West Trains & First Great Western. Class 158 (SWT variant) Class 158 is a 2 car commuter train manufactured by British Rail which is used in this route on routes such as the Lymington branch and the Wessex circular (Salisbury - Salisbury Via Southampton and Chandlers Ford) Class 158 (FGW variant) class 158 for FGW is a different variant to the original as it is formed of 3 coaches, with a driving end located all of the coaches, with the middle coach having one face into another coach which is never detached, this is for added capacity and is used on the Cardiff Central - Portsmouth Harbour route and would feature between Salisbury and St Deny's, with occasionally going as far as Eastleigh to go via Hedge End, this could also be used to add the 159 for SWT only without the driving coach in the centre carraige Class 450 "Desiro" The class 450 "Desiro" train, manufactured by Siemens, is a 4 car commuter train operated solely by South West Trains, it is powered by 750 Volt DC 3rd Rail, it is used all over the network and can be seen pretty much on all routes, no matter whether they are express or commuter, it is also used occasionally on the Lymington Pier line on weekends (during this period) Class 444 "Desiro Express" The class 444 "Desiro Express" train, also manufactured by Siemens, is a 5 car express train, often paired up with another 444 to form 10 car variants, it operated on direct trains to and from the capital, only calling at certain stops along with the network until it reaches Bournemouth, where it will detach the rear 5 coaches before continuing on towards Weymouth, while the rear 5 coaches would wait at Bournemouth for a 5 car train to come up from Weymouth, and attach to the rear of that one, and the cycle would continue. Class 220 "Voyager" (Pictured in the comment below) The class 220 voyager is a 4 car express train operated by Virgin CrossCountry, operating trains from Manchester Piccadilly to Bournemouth. (continues in comment below)
Class 220 ^^ Key Stations: Basingstoke: Basingstoke station has 5 platforms, 4 for services passing through, and a terminating platform on the north end for terminating FGW trains from reading, all services call here. Salisbury: Salisbury is a station with 6 platforms, however only 4 are used, Platform 1 is used as a reception siding from the depot, Plats 2-4 are for regular trains, Plat 6 is a terminating platform located at the north end and Plat 5 is a siding for trains not in service or waiting on their unit to attach to. (Track diagram explaining below) Winchester: Winchester is a 2 platform station with a siding at the north end for terminating trains at the station, all trains stop here and have the occasional early and late morning trains operating for university students attending the University of Southampton, to get to and from the facilities at Winchester. Eastleigh: Eastleigh is a major freight hub, with commuter trains and a large portion of the rail freight that comes through the area down here, during this era there would be services from the Fawley Branch Line (Now disused), carrying oil, fuel, Rubber and Chlorine in & out of the refinery, up to Eastleigh, and then either towards Cornwall or up to Holybourne, with some tankers unloaded at the works to be then taken up to Salisbury to be used as fuel for the 158 and 159s. Southampton Central: Southampton Central is the major station in the entirety of the route, not only is it a through station but a terminus for other services, such as FGW services from Great Malvern and Southern Services from Brighton and London Victoria. The station has 5 platforms, with platform 5 being a disused terminus, used for stabling ECS units or track cleaners, with Platforms 2-3 being separated into A and B to allow 2 trains on the platform with different destinations at a time. Brockenhurst: Brockenhurst is a station in the heart of the New Forest National Park, with 4 platforms, with the Lymington Branch Line service operating from platform 4, while fast trains stop on Platform 2-3 with slow trains often waiting on platform 1 to let a fast train pass-through and overtake them, During the period set, there is also an old MK1 coach used as a railway café opposite Platform 4, however, this has closed the year before in the period set. Bournemouth: Bournemouth is a terminus for both SWT and CrossCountry services, with this station being as far as Crosscountry goes on the network, it is also home to a vibrant network of sidings and a depot further down the line at Branksome. Poole: The last station along the proposed route, with all trains calling here, whether it is the terminating services from London Waterloo that enter into the sidings just beyond the station or a train bound towards or coming from Weymouth, it's also home to a level crossing in the middle of a city center and is renowned for people quickly running across the barriers instead of using the stairs provided when the barriers are either lowering or even already down Depots: There are 3 depots along this line with a large number of sidings also used as depots, these all service different rolling stock. Bournemouth T.M.D: Bournemouth depot sits on the site of the old Bournemouth West station and, until 2007, was used to store class 442's, nowadays (in the era) it is used to store 450's and 444's, but not for maintenance. Northam T.M.D: Located just after the junction for the branch off towards Southampton docks, Northam T.M.D is the main depot for the Desiro fleet as part of the 20-year maintenance program, all desiros are based from this depot. Salisbury T.M.D: Salisbury maintains all of SWT's diesel fleet as well as allowing FGW to store their units there as well. Eastleigh Depot: In 2001 CrossCountry and DB Schenker (at the time in the middle of the rebrand from EWS) made a deal to service the 220 fleets at depots across the country, Eastleigh was one of the chosen depots, nowadays Eastleigh is used to hold the majority of the DB fleet for maintenance, with some 220's stabled here.
Excellent idea and if made this route takes the Sherman Hill as the longest route in game due to it being 81 mi (130-131km) Sherman Hill 76 miles 121 km length.
Freight services and branches: Southampton is a major hub for maritime traffic, as well as army resources coming in from the naval port located at Marchwood along the Fawley Branch Line. Freightliner is the major player in the freight traffic, having a depot located at Redbridge and multiple loading sidings for Intermodal and DB having their depot, of course, up in Eastleigh, as well as Eastleigh being used to load Aggregate traffic and stable wagons for other trains to take across the country. Waterside Branch: The Waterside branch (Better known as the Fawley branch line) Was a branch used to access the military port in Marchwood and the Fawley Refinery, the entire section is single-tracked and electrified, with a maximum speed of 30 MPH along the line. Southampton Docks branch: The Southampton docks branch starts at Northam and heads down into the docks, originally used for the "Boat Trains" which were direct services from the London terminuses straight to the boat, Famously, the boat train for the titanic used this line and broke down due to poorly maintained track, nowadays it's used to bring cars and other vehicles up from ships towards Eastleigh and further afield. Freight Units: Class 66 EWS and Freightliner Livery (required most likely from either the GWE pack or ECW pack as an extra layer) Class 70 Freightliner Class 08 shunter: Freightliner at the Millbrook depot ONLY 1 unit still in service, 08624, famously named Rambo (most likely required with TPE) Thank you for reading and considering this suggestion.
yea they would also work on the Lymington branch but in the era set they aren't in use anymore it would have to be set in 2010 at max
The last slam door units to run on the Lymington branch were a pair of 3-car Class 421 4-CIG units, not thumpers.
UPDATE: just thought i should add some related cab ride clips of the entire line suggested, only one I cant find is the section for Salisbury - Millbrook/Southampton or the chandlers ford side
well, I'm sorry I didn't get them right but still, thumpers would work, plus there is the Fawley forester rail tour done by hastings DEMU that could utilize the thumpers.
The Class 411 or Class 423 would work too, potentially substituting in for the Class 450. Some units wore a SWT livery during their final years in service, with most other units still wearing the classic NSE 'toothpaste' livery. Seeing those would be fantastic.
in my opinion you cant have a 444 without a 450 seeming as they both often run services formed 0f 9 cars joined together
I chose for the "shortened route" section. Personally as I think its a bit too long. However you have done a great presentation of it and I like it. Personally I would have done the route from just outside Eastleigh, Say about Shawford Natural 4 track running and to give the AI trains plenty of time for the non stop runs through Eastleigh or the long Freights into the yard. Where to stop Just passed Poole is a suburb called Hamworthy where there is a branchline at the moment disused that leads down to Poole quay and where the Hamworthy Stone used to go. Plus you get to gawp at Holes bay as you go across it and just passe Hamworthy is the AI run off area portal to Wareham and Weymouth. Trains involved will be practically the same Class 450, Class 444, mainly Class 66 (freightliner, GBRF, Colas and DB / EWS). Most Intermodal trains have driver swaps at Eastleigh so that can be the start and end of your runs. local freight from the docks at Southampton will mainly originate or terminate in the yards at Eastleigh or like the Gypsum go straight through to the docks or sometimes they stop at Eastleigh. Intermodal traffic from Southampton Maritime and Millbrook can see upto 42 trains a day.. Bear in mind not all trains run though. So there could be be less than half of those 42 that run. Most of the time trains will run from Maritime and @Eastleigh drivers will stop and change (end of the service) Other local freight services around the Eastleigh will be sent to the yard and once there shunted around into trains ready for their off. So shunting services would be a plenty. An assortment of Modern Freight wagons would need to be built. Yellow Network Rail JNA Falcon wagons, OBA 4 wheeled wagons. The JNA Stone wagons from East coastway can be used as well for Stone trains to Eastleigh and Hamworthy. Passenger services that stop at Eastleigh would be Waterloo - Portsmouth services that go via Basingstoke, Eastleigh, Hedge End, Fareham and Portsmouth. Waterloo - Poole Services, and the Romsey Rocket. (Salisbury - Salisbury usually a Class 158 or Class 159). There are 12 coach 8 coach or 4 coach Class 450 diagrams, there used to be a 12 car 3x450 ecs run to Northam Train Care depot from Clapham Jcn) every morning and a return to clapham for the evening peak. Also the occasional Class 377 will work a service, but cant remember what service it does. Old age setting in. Depots along the route would consist of Eastleigh Arlington (The old British Rail Engineering depot), The Voyager* / DBS depot (other side of campbell road. Northam Train Care Depot (services the Class 444's and Class 450's and Bournemouth T&RSMD (Traction & Rolling Stock Maintenance depot). Services to and from the depot at Bournemouth would primarily for ECS services to and from Poole sorting sidings and from Bournemouth as well. Also as well as Class 220 services to Southampton from Bournemouth there are ECS moves from Eastleigh to Bournemouth starting around 3 Am in the morning for a few hours and then some at night up till about 1am. Freight South of Totton - currently as of 2018 there is literally no freight past Totton bar engineers trains. Unfortunately the brief spell in which the Hamworthy Stone train started up in lasted about 18 months and that was it. The stone train service could be put in seeing as it was left out of the Train Sim Bournemouth - Southampton Route. On the route between Eastleigh and Poole (Hamworthy) there is a fair amount of Scope and playability for Freight, Passenger and the odd special types of train that I think the player would enjoy. Cheers Hentis
A great suggestion, but I do have to agree, it is HUGE! I could see the route being split up in at least two, the SWML itself, West of England Line (Basingstoke to Salisbury and if it's its own route, it could be extended towards Exeter) and Wessex mainline (Salisbury to So'ton). Would love SWT to come into the game though