I know we have a few routes already in the south / south east but would anyone agree that a route in to Charing Cross would be good? Coming across the bridge alongside the London Eye and The Houses of Parliament. Maybe the sevenoaks - Charing Cross line could work? It's about 20 miles I think.
This is Charing Cross station. It sits right on the bank of the Thames, opposite the London eye. It is a commuter station that serves London's West end theatre district. The sevenoaks line runs through London suburbs like Lewisham, Grove Park and Orpington. Sevenoaks is a green and leafy village in Kent. This is a as the crow flies map of the route
The major sticking point on this would be London Bridge, which is a complex grouping of four separate stations serving London Cannon Street, London Blackfriars, London Charing Cross and is also the terminal station of the Southern network in East London. Away from this the Sevenoaks line follows the Kent Mainline from London Bridge through New Cross (link with the Overground) and bypassing Lewisham (North Kent Lines) and Hither Green (North Kent Lines, major freight depot) Continuing on the KML the line runs to Orpington (major inner urban turnaround along with several sidings) and onto Sevenoaks Stations on the Line are: London Charing Cross - 6 platforms, under a big building so almost cave like London Waterloo East - 4 platforms, adjacent to the main Waterloo but no rail links between them London Bridge - 17? platforms over two main platform spaces, P1-P8 would need modelling to allow SE and TL services New Cross - 5 platforms, 4 mainline and 1 bay for LO St Johns - 2 platforms with four running lines as well. Ramp up to Lewisham recently dualled Hither Green - 6 platforms split into 4&2 with 2 heading to Sidcup, 4 heading to Orpington Grove Park - 5 platforms. 1-4 main running lines, P5 used for Bromley North Shuttle Elmstead Woods - 4 platforms Chislehurst- 4 platforms Petts Wood- 4 platforms Orpington - 8 platforms. P2-P5 through lines, P1,P6-8 bar platforms. Sidings to the North on Eastern side Chelsfield - 2 platforms Knockholt - 2 platforms Dunton Green - 2 platforms Sevenoaks - 4 platforms The line is 22 miles 9 chains long (add a few miles for branches to allow for AI at Lewisham, Hither Green, New Cross, Deptford (from Greenwich) and after Sevenoaks itself Trains on the line would be classes 465, 466, 375, 376, 700, 707 Freight does run on the Sevenoaks end of this line, but only for a few miles from Petts Wood Junction, where freight heads west around London to other areas of the country.
The southeast Main Line SEML and for this route linked to BML via new cross Gate station SEHS if the missing Chistlehurst to Rochester section was built on the Chatham Main Line. BML gives AI Southern Railway Services at London Bridge station SEHS 465 375 at Charing Cross railway station AI services to Chistlehurst Junction diversion
Those are class 465 and 375 from SEHS route and furthermore there can be services from Charing Cross to Faversham via Chistlehurst Junction SEML CML Junction.
Thanks so much for the info! Having the grove park to Bromley North branch would be good too. It's infamous in South London for how short the line is.
Maybe DTG could just extend the Southeastern services to and from London Victoria and London Charing Cross and maybe they could throw in the commuter lines too. I also love routes going into and out of London.
If they extended high-speed in to Charing Cross they would need to build Gravesend to Charing cross either via Woolwich or Bexley. That would be great too. I think a standalone separate route is more likely?
Extending this down to Tonbridge would be better, it's a more logical stop/start point and has a large freight yard too. Bromley North branch would add a bit of interest, quite a quirky little branch line located in an otherwise busy area of London. Also a great route option to get more use out of the wonderful Class 465 we have. I was going to make my own proposal a while back, here's a route map I made:
There are only five trains in and four trains out in a day which run from the Chatham Mainline to Cannon Street via Chiselhurst, and they're all fast from Rochester to LBG, so this wouldn't be a great experience past drive 1 Almost all of the routes coming out of CHX are "commuter", mainly to Dartford, Sevenoaks, Hayes (Kent) and so on. There are a few regionals, but they're still all in Kent (so within 70 miles length) The North Kent lines are three lines, Woolwich Arsenal is the northernmost one (there will also be a station called "Woolwich" on the crossrail route, so the distinction is valid, there's also a station called Woolwich Dockyard which is a minor station between Woolwich Arsenal and Charlton), the Bexley line is the Southern one which also goes through Sidcup, but there's one in the middle which goes via Bexleyheath and Falconwood. Further into London the Woolwich line splits, with the northern line continuing via Greenwich and the southern fork going through a tunnel to Blackheath (where it meets up with the middle line) and onto Lewisham where everything meets up with the Kent Mainline coming up from Sevenoaks It's a good little network which lots of interesting turnbacks and sidings (and soon enough services from Abbey Wood to Heathrow!) My problem with Tonbridge rather than North Kent is that Tonbridge is another "there and back" route, though you would be able to have the Orpington locals, Sevenoaks commuter and Tonbridge regional services (onto Thanet and Hastings), you'd also have a few freights that run from Tonbridge to Petts Wood but loads go via Medway Valley Line (so wouldn't be included) or via Leigh (so out the back of the yard). There are some that go up to Hither green and along the Sidcup line, but probably only one or two in a week
My only worry is would Dovetail entertain the thought of two Southeastern routes, as SEHS was only released this year?
We've got two modern Southern routes (ECW and BML) so there's no reason why not on that score. I imagine they're more likely to do a Northern area route next though, or even a Midlands one because there's been nothing for a while coming from that area of the country.
Agreed. I once suggested the Southeastern Mainline: London Charing Cross - Tonbridge, which would also include the Class 466 Networker
Why not have it go to Hastings where services run to Charing Cross and London Cannon Street using the Class 375? Additional services could run between Tunbridge Wells to London which uses the Class 465
I would have thought that route would have been too long, given the SEHS route only goes as far as Faversham.
STP - FAV = 51½ miles CHX - HGS = 62½ miles similar ballpark, but of course the hardest part is going to be the "10 miles of inner London" which SEHS bypasses by being in a tunnel
I thought the community wanted longer routes? DTG has mentioned that a few times in past live streams. Longer and complete would be a better game for me instead of releasing partial routes like East Coastway.
(Looks at first reply) To be fair, maybe we should reply to the "More Details" with "More Details about the Details". :P
I'd love longer / complete routes but I didn't know big it was technically possible, or realistic to make a full route.
There’s been talk about this for years,we got the Chatham line on train simulator a few years ago & we already have 465/466 networkers on tsw2.. I want this too but with the Dartford lines Via bexleyheath Via Sidcup Via woolwich These are the busiest 3 lines in rush hour in the country I think yet they’ve never been done, Ok we’ve had a couple of workshop demos to tinker with but This Addition would be great for us all and a sound investment for dovetail.. I’m gutted also as much as I like tsw2 my train simulator dlc Is not transferable to it as I have invested a lot of money in, let’s hope Dovetale take it onboard what we have said this would be a benefit for everyone