History: The Oxford to Paddington line is the main artery of the Great Western Mainline. The original goal of the Great Western Railway Company was to provide a double tracked line heading out of London in a westerly direction. The 27 year old engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel was appointed to oversee the construction in 1833 and the actual construction was officially started by an Act of Parliament on the 31st August 1835. Starting from Bristol, Brunel decided to take a route which passed north of the Marlborough Downs, through an area with no significant towns, while offering potential connections to Oxford and Gloucester. From there the line would follow the Thames Valley into London. Surveys of the entire route between London and Bristol were completed by Brunel himself. Many difficulties were met during construction. For example, in order to keep the speed of trains up, Brunel aimed to keep the gradients through the route as flat as possible. However, major obstacles to achieving this were crossing the Brent Valley, the Thames at Maidenhead and the hill at Sonning between Twyford and Reading. Where the railway had to cross the Thames, Brunel built a brick bridge with two main spans of 128ft. and a rise of only 24ft. The elliptical spans of Maidenhead Bridge are probably the most remarkable ever constructed in brickwork. The high ground between Twyford and Reading required the creation of a two-mile cutting, reaching 60 ft. in depth. The Oxford section of the line was not part of the original vision, but was purchased in 1844 and incorporated as part of the Great Western Mainline. Today the Oxford to Paddington line is managed by First Great Western, a division owned by First Group Plc. The line still remains one of the busiest in the country and forms a major connection between the capital and the West Country. Huge numbers of commuters use the route daily to get to and from work. Focus Time Period: This inter-city route has been built to represent its modern-day form. The route is, as accurately as possible, modelled on how the line operates and appears in late 2005. The rolling stock sports the very latest that First Great Western issued after their successful bid to operate the line for a further period of 10 years. The length of the route from Paddington to Oxford is 63.04 Miles Also potentially extend the line route to Bristol at some point in the near future. That would given a lot longer service times with the freight services as well as the passenger services. It would be also cool to include the sleeper services which run on this line. Here's some more information on the route: Heritage The route of the GWML includes dozens of listed buildings and structures, including tunnel portals, bridges and viaducts, stations, and associated hotels.[13] Part of the route passes through and contributes to the Georgian Architecture of the City of Bath World Heritage Site; the path through Sydney Gardens has been described as a "piece of deliberate railway theatre by Brunel without parallel".[14] Grade I listed structures on the line include London Paddington, Wharncliffe Viaduct, the 1839 Tudor gothic River Avon Bridge in Bristol, and Bristol Temple Meads station.[15] Route[edit] Communities served by the Great Western Main Line include West London (including Acton, Ealing, Hanwell, Southall, Hayes, Harlington and West Drayton); Iver; Langley; Slough; Burnham; Taplow; Maidenhead; Twyford; Reading; Tilehurst; Pangbourne; Goring-on-Thames; Streatley; Cholsey; Didcot; Swindon; Chippenham; Bath; Keynsham; and Bristol. From London to Didcot, the line follows the Thames Valley, crossing the River Thames three times, including on the Maidenhead Railway Bridge. Between Chippenham and Bath the line passes through Box Tunnel, and then follows the valley of the River Avon. A junction west of Swindon allows trains to reach Bristol by an alternative route along the South Wales Main Line. Other diversionary routes exist between Chippenham and Bath via the Wessex Main Line, although this involves a reversal at Bradford Junction; and from Reading to Bath via the Berks and Hants Line. Services Main line and local services are provided by Great Western Railway (GWR). The stations served by trains between London Paddington and Bristol Temple Meads are: Reading, Didcot Parkway, Swindon, Chippenham, and Bath Spa. Some trains between London and Bristol do not call at Didcot Parkway. Fast trains from Paddington to London Heathrow Airport are operated by Heathrow Airport Holdings as the Heathrow Express. Local services on this route are operated by TFL Rail. CrossCountry operate trains between Reading and Oxford, using the Great Western Main Line as far as Didcot and South Western Railway operate a limited number of trains between Bath and Bristol. Great Western Railway also operate a train between London Paddington – Cardiff Central every 30 minutes, with hourly extensions to Swansea. At Swansea/Cardiff there is a connecting Transport for Wales boat train to/from Fishguard Harbour for the Stena Line ferry to Rosslare Europort in Ireland. An integrated timetable is offered between London Paddington and Rosslare Europort with through ticketing available.[16] Daytime and nocturnal journeys are offered in both directions daily (including Sundays). Additionally, 2–3 Great Western Railway trains continue to Pembroke Dock on weekends during the Summer season to connect with ferry services to Ireland. Infrastructure Between London and Didcot there are four tracks, two for each direction. The main lines are mostly used by the faster trains and are on the south side of the route. The relief lines on the north side are used for slower services and those that call at all stations, as only London Paddington, Slough, Maidenhead, Twyford, Reading and Didcot Parkway stations have platforms on the main lines (although a few others have main line platforms that can be used in an emergency). Between Didcot and Royal Wootton Bassett, a series of passing loops allow fast trains to overtake slower ones. This section is signalled for bi-directional running on each line but this facility is usually only used during engineering working or when there is a significant disruption to traffic in one direction. The summit of the line is at Swindon, and falls away in each direction: Swindon is 270 feet (82 m) above Paddington, and 292 feet (89 m) above Bristol Temple Meads. The maximum gradient between Paddington and Didcot is 1 in 1320 (0.75 ‰ or 0.075 %); between Didcot and Swindon it is 1 in 660 (1.5 ‰ or 0.15%) but west of Swindon, gradients as steep as 1 in 100 (10 ‰ or 1%) are found in places, such as Box Tunnel and to the east of Dauntsey.[18][19] The line is electrified between Paddington and Langley Burrell (just east of Chippenham) using 25 kV AC overhead supply lines; the Reading to Taunton line (as far as Newbury) and the South Wales Main Line (as far as Cardiff Central) are also electrified. The line speed is 125 miles per hour (201 km/h).[20] The relief lines from Paddington to Didcot are limited to 90 miles per hour (140 km/h) as far as Reading, and then 100 miles per hour (160 km/h) to Didcot. Lower restrictions apply at various locations.[17] The line is one of two Network Rail-owned lines equipped with the Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system, the other being the Chiltern Main Line. (The information I got from here is the exact information on this route in TSxx (Original Train Simulator) Also, include all of the branch lines which are on this route. Links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Western_Main_Line https://dbpedia.org/page/Great_Western_main_line
