Route Cornish Mainline - Penzance To Plymouth (set Present Day)

Discussion in 'Suggestions' started by MrSouthernDriver, Aug 10, 2025.

  1. MrSouthernDriver

    MrSouthernDriver Well-Known Member

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    Hello, today I am going to be suggesting the Cornish Mainline, a 78 mile long route running from the Furthest West Town of Penzance, to Britains ocean city of Plymouth.


    IMG_1036.png

    A considerable chunk of this route is already in Train Sim World, with rivet games’ West Cornwall Local route, which is set in BR era, however, this route definitely had its flaws, with it ending at a questionable location.

    This Suggestion is Suggesting the Full Route, set in present day,



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    What Are the Locos Included in this Route?


    BR Class 800 “IET” (GWR)

    IMG_1038.jpeg


    The BR Class 800 is the staple of GWR traction, these trains run a majority of the services on the Cornish Mainline to places such as London, Exeter and Plymouth.



    BR Class 43 “HST” Castle Set (Sliding Doors)

    IMG_1039.jpeg


    The Good old HST makes a return for this route, doing stopping services along the route, these trains were converted to Castle Sets and used to make up Regional services in the West Country, however, these are soon to go.


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    What Are The Stations Along the Route?



    STATIONS;


    PENZANCE, ST ERTH, HAYLE, CAMBORNE, REDRUTH, TRURO, ST AUSTELL, PAR, LOSTWITHIEL, BODMIN PARKWAY, LISKEARD, MENHENIOT, ST GERMANS, SALTASH, ST BUDEAUX FERRY ROAD, KEYHAM, DOCKYARD, DEVONPORT AND PLYMOUTH.

    DEPOTS;

    PENZANCE LONG ROCK DEPOT

    PLYMOUTH LAIRA T.R.S.M DEPOT






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    What Makes This Route so Unique?


    IMG_1041.jpeg


    The Cornish Mainline has a variety of tight turns, and steep ever changing gradients, which adds a lot of challenge for the Player.

    IMG_1044.jpeg

    The Cornish Mainline also has a lot of Heritage Value, for example the semaphore signals at St Erth, which is a rare feature at Train Stations Nowadays in the UK.

    What are the Services?



    PENZANCE - LONDON PADDINGTON (9/10 CAR IET) (SEMIFAST)

    LONDON PADDINGTON - PENZANCE (9/10 CAR IET) (SEMIFAST)

    PENZANCE - EXETER ST DAVIDS (5 CAR IET) (STOPPING)

    EXETER ST DAVIDS - PENZANCE (5 CAR IET) (STOPPING)


    PENZANCE - PLYMOUTH (CASTLE SET HST) (STOPPING)

    PLYMOUTH - PENZANCE (CASTLE SET HST) (STOPPING)


    ——————————————————————————————————————————

    PRICE:


    Due to the Complex Countryside Scenery, Extensive Route Milage and a service length runtime of 2 Hours, this route would be priced at the standard, £29.99






    Thank you all for Reading this Suggestion :)
     
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  2. Concorde9289

    Concorde9289 Well-Known Member

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    Lovely route, but it'd definitely need the class 158, as they run some of the Penzance to Plymouth services, and maybe the 150 as well.
     
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  3. operator#7940

    operator#7940 Well-Known Member

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    1) Too long for a TSW route
    2) Penzance-St Austell has already been done and they won't remake a line that already exists.

    Now St Austell to Plymouth (or Truro, whichever makes the more insteresting stop crossover) would be a respectable 50 miles, it would add onto an existing route, it would feature some new territory and from there you could connect on down the line to say Exeter (and from there people can drool over the Riviera line to the south)
    So on that basis I can see it working.

    However, you still need to flesh it out a bit more with what landmarks and what new would run on it and how. He already have the 43 and 800 in game, so would it just be existing rolling stock?
     
  4. steve08

    steve08 Well-Known Member

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    1. Why is it too long ECML is 80 miles and this is 78 miles

    2. What about the island line and LIRR they’ve been remade.
     
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  5. THM334022

    THM334022 Active Member

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    The only thing I would say, if its made by DTG it would likely be a core route for a new title.
     
  6. rhwinner#3952

    rhwinner#3952 Active Member

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    80 miles with only 5 stations and very non-demanding scenery.

    Island Line was not remade it was resold with the same scenery, the only change being the addition of the 484. Also, this route is 8 miles long…

    LIRR commuter was remade yes but in the same era as the tsw 2 route. Without the need for extensive scenery alterations. Moreover its extension was just a further 14 miles, not 34 (practically double the base 44 mile WCL route). And development would’ve likely been made easier given the area around Penn Station had already been made with TOD4 in NYT for TSW 3.

    I’d much rather see the route redone in its current era and see a modern GWR route elsewhere, Riviera line is a good shout.

    WCL had great potential but Rivet seriously did a right job of messing things up and then never looking back after the fact. A shame really given the attention JT has since had with their releases which just highlights the popularity and profitability of BR era routes when done right.
     
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  7. steve08

    steve08 Well-Known Member

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    I had that in TSC quite a good route Exeter to Plymouth I wouldn’t mind though if it was Paignton to Exmouth via Exeter either.

    Trains should be 800 GWR voyager XC HST GWR.

    If a license comes for SWR then as ai traffic at Exeter St David’s or playable if Exeter Central is included
     
  8. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    No doubt the Cornish main line needs doing in its entirity but modern era with near silent overpowered IET's would be dull as dishwater. Done properly in the era Rivet set their version would give Paxman HST's and various Sprinter classes maybe even Class 142 Pacer. BR Classic even better with many of the classes already in the game, just need a Class 50 and a DMU more suited to the Western than the 101.
     
  9. operator#7940

    operator#7940 Well-Known Member

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    Agreed. It's already started in 1990s era. Redoing all of that for no reason would be silly. If someone wants to do the whole bit from St Austell to Paignon and include the Riviera line... that'd be ambitious but doable (for a price) The issue I could see would be that it'd immediately be a fight between the "era" fans over when to set Riviera. And then being the forum people will randomly start complaining about routes in totally unrelated places they want to see and "why are you wasting all your time in Cornwall? No one likes Cornwall! Do X, Y and Z places instead because I live near them or worked near them or my cousin once had a wedding near one of them!" =-)
     
  10. elarthur

    elarthur Well-Known Member

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    Island Line had multiple changes beyond the Class 484 units as it was rebuilt to reflect all of the infrastructure changes that took place after the retirement of the Class 483s.
    As for the original subject of the post, it would be nice to have a version without the flaws of the WCL route. However, it really should include the St Ives Branch as well as the ignored Falmouth branch for completeness.
     
  11. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    While it would be a massive undertaking, for completion sake any Cornish main line ought to include all the branch lines, including Gunnislake.
     
  12. 85hertz

    85hertz Well-Known Member

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    I understand WCL is a (quite frankly) terrible route, but as a baseplate how workable is it? Is it a case of ripping up everything and starting fresh, or could the main tracks and stations be used - thus only requiring a scenery upgrade to a smaller extent and allowing the route to be extended to Plymouth on the master copy. Would ideally like to see a full Plymouth to Penzance rather than it being cut off, but I also understand that it would result in some really long runs.

    I'd also hope whatever HST they use (be it modern day MTU or yesteryear Valenta) they update the physics to a similar standard to the AP 43 pack. I especially would like the brakes to be redone as I feel they are the best bit when driving the 43.
     
  13. bob#5089

    bob#5089 Well-Known Member

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    In other words. A remaster of the west Cornwall local. I like the idea. Plus it would be better as a modern route.
     
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  14. rhwinner#3952

    rhwinner#3952 Active Member

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    While yes I believe it would be better as modern image (and I think rivet did a botched job of the original). WCL is the only 90s era UK route in the game currently, and I’m still begging for another sectorisation route.

    A remaster (if done) should keep the era. There’s plenty of other areas for modern image GWR representation.
     
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  15. azzax333

    azzax333 Well-Known Member

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    If this was done or a modernised up-to-date route I'd prefer if the branch routes on this are included.

    Not that the route is terrible or anything but when I was playing this on West Cornwall local it's fun of some extent but I believe if we had more possibilities to explore the branch launch lines at; Newquay, Falmouth, Looe & keep St.Ives.
    Gunnislake is far too much ask for, but without the branch lines it wouldn't be "amazing in my eyes"

    I honestly believe it would be work creating with the branch lines and it develops a new element of adventure as we've as had west Cornwall before but I think it's a good suggestion but the line personally needs more areas to explore as it isn't that busy (I've played the modern timetable mod too for this it's okayyy) but to get more fun and use out of the DLC I strongly believe that this route would be a great benefit for DTG to adventure off branch lines off a mainline route.

    It might be a lot to ask for but this might give that wow factor to players with the branch lines attached to this line

    (Gunnislake branch is far too much to include though) But it would be great to explore the GWR network by use this route to explore the Cornwall!
     
  16. elarthur

    elarthur Well-Known Member

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    The original WCL seemed to be a rather half hearted affair. If I recall correctly, it was originally planned as a GWR era route but the licence had expired, hence the 90s throwback with Regional Railways 150s. It was and still is a common theme to leave out branch lines. This creates the problem that we will likely never be able to explore these interesting sections of lines as many are too short to be a standalone route. In WCLs case, Falmouth was ignored, just as the Thames Valley branches were left out of GWE. St Albans branch on last year's WCML South proves that old habits die hard. As for WCL, the fact that no additional dlc was ever created is disgraceful with no Class 50s for regional services and no InterCity services using the correct Valenta HSTs. WCL should be started again from scratch.
     
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  17. Double Yellow

    Double Yellow Well-Known Member

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    Maybe that was their plan all along with extending Riviera line to Plymouth. If DT don’t do this route in the foreseeable future it will be a wasted opportunity, no excuses now that they have the GWR brand.
     

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