Reposting this as I mistakenly posted in the TS 2021 suggestion forum... I think the Monon railroad in Central Indiana, specifically the section from Monon to Indianpolis would be an awesome route to play on. It is short enough to create in a reasonable amount of time with enough detail, about 60 miles, but includes a good mixture of "high speed" running and scenic, hilly, and challenging terrain. Many high bridges over scenic valleys and lakes, and plenty of flatland cornfields. Plenty of small towns with tiny industries to switch, large grain suppliers and a special midwestern Americana charm that people far and near could enjoy. The Monon railroad is also extremely unique as far as equipment goes, F3's, BL2's, Alco's, and U-Boats. Semaphore signals were prevalent in the diesel era, up until abandonment. Really any leg of the Monon during any era would be a treat. All 4 legs of the railroad were less than 100 miles, and being a class l it was quite busy in it's day. Today, only one leg of the Monon is still in use, much of the original lines have been abandoned and torn up during the CSX era, so being able to run this line with detail of TSW would truly be a treat for any American Railfan. The "Hoosier Line" would truly be a unique railroad to include that would be drastically different from anything any railroad simulator has ever done. There is plenty of info and photos to be found at Monon.org
I think some of the old signals are still up near Lafayette. Love the idea especially with a more variety of diesels and services to do.
I believe all signals in the Lafayette vicinity have been replaced in the last decade with modern "darth vader" style signals. The massive car shops that used to stand adjacent to the still busy yard were just torn down last year though. The only semaphores that still stand are along a long-out-of-service stretch of line from Bedford to New Albany. There's only a couple left and I believe only one set still retains it's blades, the others stolen. As for services in the Monon era I think there's a great variety to be modeled. The L&N years could be interesting too. There were entire unit trains dedicated to transferring cars the 20 miles from Monon to a grain facility in Delphi and back. Phosphate in and corn out. Loads both ways. That could make for cool visuals having the inbound cars dumped, waiting for them to be cleaned and loading them again to take back north. There were also dedicated locals for serving all the "straggler" one car industries along the line. Monticello would keep you busy for hours. Then there's the high-speed passenger service which was prevalent along the whole Monon system up until the end. I think that could be integrated similar to the existing Cal-Train route on TSW. Another interesting idea if a different leg of the Monon appeals more to the developers would be Lafayette. With the large classification yard, transfer table and car shops to switch out and 2 mile section of downtown "street-running." I think that in itself would be different enough to draw a lot of attention.
The hard part for the developers would be to retrace the trakage down the street as there are now housing developments in the way.(all of this info comes from an Amazon Prime Video titled "The Trains Of Lafayette")
https://www.historicaerials.com/viewer This site has aerial imagery dating back to the early 60's for the area in question. Even the 20's in large cities. Should make research considerably easier for any route really.
