Midland Mainline - Leicester To Derby & Nottingham

Ah okay, I believe the class 222's are mostly used on the Sheffield services? Maybe one of those will come as DLC.

Don't get me wrong it is nice to see a new route in a different area and especially see the class 158 developed. I suppose you always want a bit more and Leicester and Nottingham to Sheffield would have been epic for example, certainly for a TSW route.

 

Indeed they do, I did have a chuckle when I saw the 'should be x-y-z timezone'
But alas, I'm excited.

 

I hope so!
And I would love for it to be the Edin-Glas route, because the Tweedbank/ Falkirk Grahamston/ Dunblane/ Alloa lines would be epic to see in full.

 

It’s nice to see the Stagecoach livery on the HST. Looking forward to seeing more screenshots of this route.

 

Any freight services?

 

Yeah I don't think I've ever once seen an EMT HST at Sheffield. I have no doubt that they went there for peak services, and obviously the early morning/ late evening services that go on to Leeds, but the Meridians were far more common.

I agree that the best version of this route is Leicester to Nottingham AND Sheffield though. Doubly so if you could reverse at Nottingham and take the line to Chesterfield via Alfreton. That would be another 158 service to drive then, on a small section of their Norwich to Liverpool services.

 

We still haven't seen anything modular or joining up in TSW. Ever. So why people are already planning for this to be part of something bigger I am not quite sure. It is why expectations are never met.

The TSC modular way seems not compatible with the TSW game, we even have BML and ECW which share a common tile and they aren't joined up, even in a mod. I think the 24 hour timetable is most likely the issue, its hard enough to simulate it for one route, never mind make one that works for 2 separate routes and one combined one.

I know people want to get one big network together, but I don't see that happening in TSW unfortunately. Simrail with its 500km map seems much more likely able to do that.

 

Yeah I had hoped with New Street coming in it would be used as a hub for a creation of a network and then the same for Waverley but there doesn’t really seem to be any plan for these large stations to be populated with future routes, more of a random approach.

 

What did Midland Mainline run out of Sheffield back in the early 2000's? I seem to recall going to St Pancras on a HST but could be wrong.

A Class 222 would be a brilliant DLC, hopefully with a MML extension or layered from another unconnected section of the MML.

 

I think given South Eastern High Speed was initially made, then remade and extended, give people hope that one day we may see more routes added upon. Given Just Trains are the MML experts, people (myself included) are hoping that our wishes become reality one day.

 

In the early 2000s they had HSTs as well as their 170s, which were later replaced by the Meridians. They had a larger fleet of HSTs back then.

 

Went to London St Pancras from Sheffield in 2019 for a family trip.
Was definitely a HST, there and back. We went 1st class for about £25 each.

 

I just wonder if Skyhook can do this route justice. They don’t have a proven track record for accuracy, attention to detail or sound.

 

Another of my favourites in TSC, thanks to Just Trains so can’t wait for this.

Hopefully should be a fairly busy route too?!

2 tph Nottingham - Leicester express using HST
1 tph Derby - Nottingham stopper using the 158
1 tph Nottingham - Leicester stopper using the 158
2tph Derby - Leicester express using the HST

A nice triangle of services hopefully!

Class 66 might later on for Mountsorrel traffic?

The Derby runs would be more suited to a 222 in reality, but not a problem with the HST being used I’d say the route is set early 2010’s?

 

For anyone interested in seeing the route in its TSC form, here is a route guide from PTGrail, he does the Sheffield to Leicester run in a VP HST, our section from Derby to Leicester is at 35 minutes.

 

How do you feel about the length of the route, etc.?

 

Total length is decent, the only concern really is the logic, it’s a weird chunk of the route to do, considering the Northern Terminus of the route is only up the line.

The benefit to this though is that we get a 158, and if we got the Derby - Sheffield run rather than Nottingham - Derby, we wouldn’t have much to do with a 158, so for me ultimately I’m fine with it, I wouldn’t expect a third party to produce a 90 mile DLC. They struggle enough with 40 miles.

 

I hope it includes freight services bringing coal to Ratcliffe Power Station. It's a merry-go-round facility, so you could start at Derby, drive through the power plant while unloading coal, and drive back up to Derby, for example.

 

Or maybe Sheffield and Nottingham could be included? If we have one why are you excluding the other? Sheffield would have been very nice but I'm glad we're getting the core route between Notts, Derby and Leicester.

 

You can’t realistically have all 3, it’s a third party DLC, they aren’t about to give us 90 odd miles of track, 3 different start/ends & 2 trains.

If we had Sheffield then one of the lines would have been cut, and since each line is primarily serviced by only one of the included locos, the timetable wouldn’t have been great.

Skyhook are probably going to get about half of what you buy the route for after everyone else takes their publishing fee, so what we’re getting rather reasonable from the prospective.

 

I'm not being funny the section between Derby and Sheffield is only like 10 minutes... I just went to fact-check that now on Realtime Trains and it is in fact 30 minutes. It seems like it should be a lot shorter. I now withdraw my last statement.

 

Even if it was 10 minutes, it’s the distance that matters not the time, the section is around the same mileage as one of the lines currently in the DLC.

Hopefully we’ll see reworks of the route in the future like with SEHS, MML is a pretty popular & big network in TSC. Just Trains have a big thing for the Midlands so maybe we’ll see the Sheffield - Derby run with the Meridian.

 

Here’s Derby to Leicester in a 158…

 

Makes me wonder if this is going to be another dreadful release like the one we've just had.

 

Don't judge a book by its cover. What I mean by that don't judge this route is hasn't even came out yet it's hurtful to judge. It's like judging people by their looks give dovetail games and their game partner they rest. They're doing the best job they can

 

Like I said, every time the routes get the benefit of doubt from me, and every time it’s a letdown.

Not really sure what you mean with your judging people by how they look comparison, not really the same thing in the slightest - we are discussing virtual products here, not people.

The only judgments I made in my post was on routes that have already released.

They may well be doing the best job they can, I hope that they are, the problems arise when it turns out it’s a poor job.

 

This is why, as much as I want to thrash the 158 and the VP engined HST, I will probably take a more cautious approach to this route than some of the others and wait for the initial reviews. It would be nice if this explosion of content was accompanied by an application of additional oversight and QA from DTG for the third party stuff. Not just go "ooo" and "aahhh" on various streams and rubber stamp the release.

 

The route choice is completely fine, but to be a little pedantic the Class 156 would have been more common on Leicester to Lincoln and Matlock to Nottingham services during EMT operation (the Class 158 was primarily allocated to the Norwich to Liverpool route). To be honest, either would have been fine, and I'm mostly looking forward to giving the HST a run on another route (which has been sorely needed for a long time!).

 

Derby to Sheffield is approximately a 30 minute journey.

 

Quite excited for this one however, it’s a bit odd that they’ve left the class 222’s out. Maybe we’ll get that as a loco add-on

 

Since we haven't had a UK loco/unit add on in over 15 months (the 313 in October 2021) I wouldn't hold my breath.

 

These big terminal graveyards we have in Glasgow and new street are literally crying out for modular routes to connect to them and give them
More life

 

Every time a new route is announced, especially a UK route, some people lose their marbles and predict the beginning of a whole network covering half the country and anticipate a slew of add-on trains from their wishlist.

And then they realize that this just never happens in TSW, and likely never will. ECW, BCC, E to G etc and this upcoming route will be as they are for eternity. DTG has never extended a route in TSW and, except for a couple of isolated instances, has not released any stand-alone add-on locos.

If you want to go from Derby to Sheffield, you'll have to catch a real train.

 

SEHS was extended, no matter how you word it.

 

I agree that extensions in the sense of a ‘snap-on’ are unlikely, but there’s little chance that JustTrains won’t be releasing an MML section.

 

No one had really done it in TSC until Just Trains did it. It works for them (and ATS) in TSC, there’s no reason the same model shouldn’t work in TSW. ATS are currently in the process of bringing the whole TransPennine and East Anglian networks to TSC. Just because DTG effectively choose not to do it in TSW doesn’t mean it won’t be done. It’s just not properly been done yet.

In ATS & JT I trust.

 

158s were still somewhat common on the Lincoln to Leicester services. I have plenty of memories of seeing them at Lincoln. I've even had a trip on one at least once.

I feel like they chose it over the 156 to further set it apart from the existing 150. It would have the same engine and as such same sounds, so it wouldn't feel that much different from what's already in the game.

 

Wasn't..... wasn't SEHS EXTENDED..... extended?

 

Don’t/Didn’t EMT/EMR use 156’s & 158’s just depending on availability? I don’t think there’s any routes where it is just one of those units exclusively. Not that I’m against a 156, I’d love to see a 156&158 lash up.

 

I can't wait for this

 

Oh, that looks lovely! Cab view actually looks quite nice with the big window to the left. Makes me happy I didn’t buy the “I’m in a cave with a 3 inch window!” Class 385 route nobody seems to be talking about anymore less than 2 weeks after release. Means I’ve got more budget for future DLCs!

 

They did everything they could to keep their 158s on the Norwich to Liverpool services. If they had any free then they'd put them on some other services, such as the Lincoln to Leicesters.

The 156s did pretty much anything that wasn't Norwich to Liverpool or a mainline service. They were however known to sub in on Norwich- Liverpool trains if a 158 wasn't available. They sometimes worked in multiple with 158s on these services. I had a run from Manchester to Liverpool back in 2019 with such a consist, and I remember it because A. One of the engines in the 156 was dead, and B. We had an emergency stop outside Warrington due to a trespasser.

I'm beginning to ramble. To answer your question, they preferred to keep the 158s on Norwich to Liverpool services, but they weren't completely rigid with it.

 

156s very common on Liverpools and have been for years including in the time to be depicted. Looks like an interesting route but a little too modern for my taste so unlikely to be a day one but the concept is good. Have a network of lines although some are crowing it doesn't go to Sheffield. The strength of TSW is that timetable mode which to many of us long time train sim folk is something special. This route would be great for a 60 add on which would give us all something to sub on heavy freight elsewhere.

 

I wondered if a 156 wouldn't have been more suitable, plus they are my favourite Sprinter. However I do love class 158's too so happy with that.

 

158 in today's railway has a better coverage. 156s now are all pretty much Northern, EMR and Scotrail I think? 158s cover Penzance to Thurso with different TOCs.

 

EMR still use the same EMT roster for 156’s, technically they would of been more common on this route, but anywhere you could see an EMT/EMR 156, you could also find 158’s.

 

I'm thinking more for future DLC as it could be useful for quite a lot.

 

Absolutely, the Nottingham spur on this DLC is sprinter central, Northern 150/1’s can also be found here (if anyone can get the license).

I certainly won’t be objecting to any of the DLC stock that is possible for this route.

 

Definitely more appealing that the previous 2 UK offerings.

 

Exactly what I said further up mate, I fully agree.

Each to their own, considering I live roughly 10 mins away from Selly Oak, a certain DLC did appeal