Adelaide Metro is the logical choice for our first Australian passenger route. It has 4 lines (plus two passenger branches and one freight branch), all of which begin at the same terminus station. There are two train types operating on the network (not counting freight as there's countless different freight locos which move around Australia constantly), those being the Pantograph electrified Bombardier A-City 4000, and the diesel Clyde Engineering 3000/3100 (3000s have a cab at each end, 3100s have a cab at only one)(to save time, I'm going to collectively refer to both as 3000s) There are a number of consist combinations with the 3000s. Single carriage trains do operate, almost exclusively on the Belair and Grange lines. Most common are 2 or 3 carriage trains. 2 carriage trains are usually made up of two 3100s coupled together to have a cab at each end, or two 3000s. 3 carriage trains are made up of two 3100s with (usually) a 3000 at either end. Non-revenue trains may use a third 3100 at one end but this is uncommon. 4 car trains are used for morning and afternoon peaks and may be made up of any combination of double 3100s or multiple 3000s The Gawler line's heavy patronage allows for economically efficient locomotive handling. Trains before and during the morning peak will often be 3 and 4 car trains, both to assist with the heavy passenger loads, but also to deliver single and 2 car trains for use on the Belair and Outer Harbor/Grange lines out of Adelaide. There presents two DLC opportunities with our old 2000/2100 trains and/or heritage redhen railcars, similar to the M3 on LIRR. The last of the 2000s were demolished a few years ago, barring some museum donations, but operated for many years as relief trains and could easily do the same again as a loco DLC. The redhens could provide relief service, but this would be unrealistic if they ran in this time period, and would be more suited to railtours and scenarios on any line Gawler Central Line The Gawler Central line (more commonly just called the Gawler line) is the northern suburbs line, and is the busiest* line on the network. 42.2km/26.6mi long. It features 27 stations (one of which being used only on race days), the main storage and maintenance depot, an overnight storage depot, and 3 distinct service types. The Gawler line currently only operates 3000 class trains, though pending completion of the Gawler electrification project, will switch to near exclusive use of 4000s Most trains operate from either Gawler, which or Gawler Central, with 2 each direction each day operating from Salisbury. All trains begin at one of these three stations heading to Adelaide, and terminate at one of the three coming back from Adelaide. There are express trains, which begin at Gawler Central (plus two begin at Salisbury), stopping at Gawler oval, Gawler, Smithfield, Elizabeth, Salisbury, Mawson Lakes and Adelaide. The main grunt work of the timetable is the criss crossing stopping pattern of weekdays. There are a number of Hi Frequency stations, which all non express trains stop at. Trains will stop at all stations between two Hi Frequency stations, before missing the stations between that and the next one An example of that is the following Smithfield, Elizabeth and Salisbury are high frequency stations. Most trains will follow one of the two stopping patterns Smithfield Express through Broadmeadows Express through Womma Elizabeth Elizabeth South Nurlutta Salisbury Or Smithfield Broadmeadows Womma Elizabeth Express through Elizabeth South Express through Nurlutta Salisbury The Gawler line (in conjunction with the Outer Harbor line) presents the only opportunity for freight services on the Adelaide Metro network. The Gawler line has three freight depots along its length. These being Dry Creek North and South yards which are primarily storage yards, plus the Adelaide Rail Freight centre, which handles train loading and unloading for Adelaide The main train storage and maintenance depot at Dry Creek. This depot is the primary storage depot for all 3000 DMUs and 4000 EMUs. This presents a number of opportunities for scenarios and services. Until the ongoing electrification work is completed, 4000s have to be towed to and from Dry Creek and Adelaide with a pair of 3000s. A number of services throughout the day can be created involving 3000s starting at Dry Creek, coupling to another (if not already coupled), coupling to a 4000, towing it to it's required platform at Adelaide before bringing the 3000s to another platform ready for a service or back to Dry Creek. I would also have a scenario where you collect a pre coupled double 3000, couple to a 4000, drop it to a platform, collect a broken-down 4000 and bring it back to dry creek * the Gawler line is currently in a full shutdown to allow for electrification works Outer Harbor & Grange The Outer Harbor line (and it's Grange Branch) is a 26.4km/16.4mi combined route between Adelaide and north-western suburbs. Comprised of the 21.9km Outer Harbor line and the 12km Grange branch, the two lines share a corridor and stations between Adelaide and Woodville, before the Grange line branches off with 4 exclusive stations, and the Outer Harbor continues with 15 exclusive stations. A 16th station is/was planned, but remains up in the air pending the next election These lines both exclusively operate the 3000s. There are two additional peak frequency termini, these being the U shaped Glanville, and Osborne. Services are mostly all stops, with some services running express between Adelaide and Woodville on their way to or from Glanville, Osborne or Outer Harbor. Outer Harbor is located opposite the Adelaide Cruise ship terminal, providing opportunities to emulate existing cruise ship services (particularly if Dovetail does introduce the 2000s, as this allows for current service levels to be maintained) Freight The opportunity for freight service exists within the Adelaide Metro network, either as a standalone freight only (which is operated by Pacific National or OneRail Australia). As dovetail has yet to provide more than one freight operator in any route, unless that changed with this route, they would have to choose one of these two operators, and whoever they chose would shape which yards and spurs they introduced. Pacific National (PN) owns and operates the Adelaide Freight terminal in Dry Creek, which is the primary loading and unloading point for containers in Adelaide OneRail operate the two Dry Creek yards, Dry Creek North and South, though these are stabling yards, as OneRail mostly operates grain trains which load in regional centres before unloading at export facilities. These are the following yards and spurs along the freight corridor, and which operator i would have as using them • Dry Creek North yard (OneRail) • Dry Creek South yard (OneRail) • Adelaide Freight terminal (PN) • Bluescope steel spur (PN) • Inner Harbor container berths spur (PN) • Viterra Inner Harbor spur (OneRail) • Mobil oil spur (PN) • Outer harbor container berths spur (PN) • Outer harbor grain spur (OneRail) I believe PN to be the better choice, particularly for the freight terminal at dry creek, you may believe differently, and it may be easier to get licences etc. from one company or the other. Both are national operators. The Pelican Point (inner harbour) and Outer Harbor freight facilities are roughly 16km long (from the furthest point), with the Dry Creek Yards approximately 5km north of the Dry Creek Triangle, and the Adelaide Freight Terminal approximately 5km south of the triangle. The freight line can operate as a branch from either the Gawler line or the Outer Harbor line. The freight network is standard gauge, while the entirety of Adelaide's passenger network is broad gauge, so it isn't a branch per se. Either option allows for AI passenger trains to operate, however if Dovetail elects to have passenger and freight, I believe that the Gawler line is a better choice. All three Dry Creek yards are immediately adjacent the Gawler line, and the standard gauge line which can have AI freight trains north and south runs along the line from just north of Adelaide to Salisbury I havent included the Seaford/Flinders line or the Belair line as that took way longer to type than i thought
Excellent, well considered, and detailed overview! I also agree that the Adelaide lines are of a reasonable density and scale to be a reasonable introductory Australian route for a developer (despite being not being from that state). I support the addition of images just to grab peoples attention because the post is worth the attention. I've added it to the list of Australian proposals found here: https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/australian-proposal-suggestion-master-list.41526/
I say they should do the adelaide metro network as a route but it should have the flinders line that goes to the university near south road as it would be iconic going on the bridge. Also if they do make this a route please add a dlc that makes it set in the 60s or 70s as it would be great to see the old extension to semaphore and some other iconic locations.
