if you have gone on foot at Retford you may have found your way along the passage to the two platforms that have no maps or other collectbles. A lot of work went into building these, but when will they find a use ? That would be on the Sheffield-Lincoln Line of Northern trains.
Yeah it's a bit odd how there is no ai for the lower platforms either. Maybe it'll be a route for the highly likely TSW6
They can't add any AI to the lower level platforms. The only Northern train in the game is the 323 and Sheffield - Lincoln is an unelectrified line
I meant using unbranded reskins like with Mildmay Line. To be honest, I'm not sure as to why DTG didn't add this seeing as the Athena pack came out a few weeks back
The OP is a little absurd. The line underneath at Retford is hardly busy like the NLL or one of the lines coming out of a London termini with trains every couple of minutes. The chances of seeing an AI train briefly even on a stopping ECML service let alone passing through at speed, are remote. I’m no fan of DTG cutting corners (as borne out by my withering criticism of Cardiff Central) but you have to know where to draw the line when building and detailing a route.
In a similar vein, are the Notts-Lincoln seevices represented at Newark? Was thinking of spawning at the flat crossing for some spotting but won't bother if it's just ECML services.
There is no obvious reason why the Retford lower platforms, and the link line in-between, can't be brought in to play for scenario creation. Ditto the Newark Flat crossing and the Sleaford 2 Nottingham line. It just requires someone to create a paths mod and then a few scenarios.
I can understand the flat crossing not being covered by Ai services as you shouldn't see anything there while running the mainline! However a Northern 158 (even unbranded) would be a useful AI addition to add more to Doncaster as well as working Retford services. Would be usable at Manchester on the Glossop/Airport routes too.
Set back a few years and platforms 3 & 4 had plenty of coal freight services between Maltby (and earlier also Harworth) to both Cottam Power Station and West Burton Power Station, see my earlier suggestion: https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/uk-freight-route-yorkshire-and-nottinghamshire.81457/ to see what i mean These freight services are on top of the hourly Sheffield to Lincoln passenger services, plus you could even add the rare Cleethorpes to Sheffield via Gainsborough Central service using a reskinned Class 153.. there's more potential with Retford Low Level than you might think!
I'd like to see Retford lower level being used either Sheffield to Lincoln, or Worksops colliery to Cottam or West Burton power stations with 80's coal wagons power by Class 56!
And if set at an earlier point in time you would also have Shireoaks and Manton collieries near Worksop and possibility of inclusion of the South Yorkshire Joint Railway lines with Dinnington, Thurcroft, Maltby, Firbeck and Harworth collieries. Although most of these collieries (except Firbeck) were operational in the 80s if I remember correctly.
