Saarstrecke is roughly 90 km long route between Saarbrücken and Trier, at the border of federal states Saarland and Rheinland-Pfalz. It is somewhat reminiscent of the Rheinstrecke, with winding character following river Saar where the new LIDAR tech could shine with the environment detail. However, it differs by being very close to French border, which brings a lot of international traffic; and by presence of Dillingen Steelworks, which dominate the freight traffic in the area. Setting There are many interesting periods to set the addon to, including the current time, but it could be ideal opportunity to revisit time when heavy industry was at its prime, 1980s. That brings a whole new setting before the reunification and some fresh vibes with old railway stations without modern platforms, equipped with mechanical semaphores, and everpresent brown tone of industrial regions before any sort of green policies. Passenger traffic An opportunity to bring a whole pile of new repaints, with beige/oceanblue and beige/winered long distance cars, unpainted Silberlinge for local traffic, or some first blue Interregio wagons. BR 110 would accompany these very well, together with BR 103 on most premium D-trains and expresses. Optionally, BR 141 would add a new variety to slower local traffic, with era-appropriate Indusi version. Freight traffic The main fun starts with the freight timetable, as the Dillingen Steelworks have heavy demand that is difficult to fulfill with regular train operations. BR 140 should come as a standard freight loco for lighter trains in the area, serving other industries along the river and finally filling the gap of freight einheitslok already missing now in other released addons. For true freight enthusiasts however, comes the BR 151 and superheavy ore trains. Since 1976 these strongest versions of einheitslok were equipped with C-AKv automatic couplers that allowed them to haul trains much heavier than what traditional screwlink would handle. These trains run as 2xBR151 with heavy six-axle Faals 150 wagons, hauling up to 6000 tons of iron ore at once, about three times as much load as average freight trains around Europe. These trains run at high priority, because you really don't want to be stopping this monster very often. Dillingen (Saar) station then offers a variety of shunting operations, with resource trains being sorted out and mainline locos being exchanged for industrial ones. One thing that would be amazing addition specific to the site would be Soup trains, trains carrying liquid metal between the various buildings in the steelworks. These run at the highest priority before all other trains, as the metal must not get cold along the way. But they have to travel from Dillingen to Völklingen on opposite track, which creates interesting chaos in train sequencing! Route map (Wikipedia) Taben-Rodt (Wikipedia) Ore train with 2xBR140 (klawitter.info) D-train (klawitter.info) Soup train wagon (sk-lehrte.info)
This sounds amazing. Lots of heavy freight trains, passenger services, and some interesting operations. The 1980s version would be my preference.
Fantastic! It would be appropriate if it were set in the 80s, with heavy freight trains and delivering and picking up operations from steel mills and other factories along the route. A heavy switcher would also be needed!
Oh, yes! This would be such an amazing route! The steel(-related) traffic in Völklingen and Dillingen was and is absolutely incredible. Instant purchase from me.
Excellent idea and speaking of the DB Baureihe 140 it can also pull N-wagen like the 110.3. Here's a video of N-wagen DB BR140 combination at Bad Bentheim the Border station on the Amsterdam Hengelo Hannover Helmstedt Marienborn Berin Railway DB BR140 N-wagen on the Main Spessart Bahn Hösbach DLC loco DB BR141 Knallfrosch
If it would be happen, this track and locos are a must have, after release. The huge BR150 would be nice, for coal transport: Also the BR141 Regio loco: And the modernized BR151:
We totally need this route! Seeing as the UK have gotten a mainly freight route(TVL) and most US routes are based on freight operations, a german freight line would be just neccesary in TSW. Let's hope DTG or an other Dev agree with this idea...
This would be a spectacular route for sure, and very versatile! Would be an instant buy for me. Although I doubt it will be added because of its similarities to Linke Rheinstrecke, and the huge amount of new rolling stock that would be necessary to populate it. A compromise could be to let it take place in the early 90's, so a bunch of rolling stock from the other 90's routes could be used. That said, I'd greatly appreciate having a cargo loco from this era, be it a 140 or 150, or even 151. This could also layer into Linke Rheinstrecke, where the 110.3 feels a little bit out of place in the cargo services. Not unrealistic, it happened... but it happened rarely.
I found an interesting video with the Suppenpendel trains in action.. Just look at those bogies, absolute monsters
Correct and by the way in this time period you need to have another version of DB Baureihe 151 yellow warning triangles that means they are equipped with C-Akv couplers Falnqqs Falrrs wagons
