Hi community, I’m looking to gauge interest in the Birmingham Snow Hill lines spanning the Birmingham to Worcester via Stourbridge line, Chiltern mainline as far as Leamington Spa and the Shakespeare line to Stratford-upon-Avon. This network forms what we all know as the Snow Hill lines. As part of that there are a total of 48 stations over approx 60 miles of track from the wilderness of the Warwickshire countryside, depth of the Birmingham suburbs and heart of the second city with Birmingham Moor Street and Snow Hill stations acting as the centre piece to this network. Route Proposal: Worcester Shrub Hill & Worcester Foregate Street to Leamington Spa and Stratford-upon-Avon featuring the largest rail depot in the Midlands, Tyseley! 48 Stations 60miles of track Era & Timetable: 2019 summer This provides 6 West Midlands Railway services an hour, with 2 a piece starting and ending at Stourbridge Jct, Kidderminster and Worcester in the west. The east again with 2 services an hour starting or terminating at Dorridge, Whitlocks End & Stratford-upon-Avon with peak time services to Leamington Spa Traction Class 172 mark 0 and 1 with turbostar style cabs Class 172 mark 2 and 3 with interconnecting gangway cabs Class 139 offering the Stourbridge Shuttle Midland Metro Tram (Ai Only) Midland Metro The Midland Metro would feature running from where the metro line and Jewellery line meet at The Hawthornes all the way to Birmingham Snow Hill, the tram would not be Drive able but would be useable as a passenger. Guard Mode This route offers a great chance to enhance guard mode with 2, 3,4,5 & 6 carriage formations used meaning SDO is used regularly on this line and with a mix of semi fast, fast and stopping sections along the route it offers a continuous role to carry out duties as a guard. Freight Freight does side the lines with Leamington to Bordesley carrying a variety of freight traffic to the Midlands and North primarily from Southampton docks. Freight is also used on the western section between around Oak north of Stourbridge and Worcester where the continues south bound. There are also plenty of rail cleaning services both early on in the morning and middle of the day. Future Improvements Class 168 Chiltern Railway Class 68 & DVT hauled Chiltern Railway Chiltern Railway timetable Birmingham New Street to Droitwich Inclusion to offer a Network feel on the western section So thanks for reading, be interested to know what your thoughts are, I am a serious route builder and take all feedback constructively as to how you feel the route could work and what would interest you. Eg would the New Street leg and having all three Birmingham Stations be key for you? How much of the Severn Valley would you want including at Kidderminster…? And how interactive do you want the tram to be? Are the kinds of feedback I’d absolutely love Thanks for reading
The 139 would be a quirk, it’s small and very basic to model etc and I think it’s key there are these things around a route, The 170 and 196 are the Birmingham Hereford route not the Snow Hill lines so that would require the line via Bromsgrove which right is unlikely to be included, plus the 172’s have operated these services the past few years whilst the 196’s came into service 6 months back on this route
Would love to see the Snow Hill lines, I live on the route and use it nearly every day. It would make a nice network and has some interesting features. Semaphore signals around Worcester for example, Moor Street which has been well preserved, the Stourbridge Town branch.
