Route Portsmouth Direct Line: London Waterloo–portsmouth Harbour

Discussion in 'Suggestions' started by WonterRail, Aug 9, 2021.

  1. WonterRail

    WonterRail Well-Known Member

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    Time for another route suggestion and the second one in two days, helps when you had this one in back ready to be written while writing the one I posted yesterday. I think I'll take a couple of days off after this before tackling the next route i want to talk about in-depth.

    Now so far, when talking about the routes that featured in that thread talking about routes that have the potential to make great 'Rush Hour' style routes and subsequently talking about those that got the most votes in the poll I did in that thread, I have talked about the most voted route of them, the second most voted route and what was at the time the fourth most vote route (now joint third at the time of this being written). So now I think it's far to go back and talk about the other route that is joint third in that poll, and a route that I have great memories of playing it over in TS Classic and probably one of my most played routes on that game and that is the Portsmouth Direct Line between London Waterloo and Portsmouth Harbour.

    But before we go too far into this, lets have a recap on what I said last time...

    What he said in that post

    Of course as always, if you what to check out all the other routes that featured in that thread and vote in the poll if you haven't already, go check out the link here.

    So, without further ado, let's get into this.

    The Route Itself

    Now when talking about the original route in TS Classic, specifically the version that starts at Woking and goes all the way to Portsmouth Harbour, it might be the route that I have played with the most and the route that really got me into Train Simulation. The route was one of the first pieces of DLC I ever brought for it outside of the base game which was at the time Train Simulator 2015 and I for a long while couldn't get enough of this route, for two particular reasons. Firstly, it is one of few routes that I have personally done for real as I have been on trains down this section when there are being diverted around Basingstoke which me onto the other reason, the locos that would feature with this route are the same ones that pass by my house and also serve my local station where I live. I should digress though, this is not the route that I live next to by the way, I live around the bottom end of the South Western Main Line (Which stills remain the route I what to see the most in either TS Classic or TSW2, but that's a discussion for another time).

    The route we will focusing on today is actually based on the upgraded version of the route that came out in 2018, which not only upgraded the route to bring it up to what it looks like today, but also extended the route all the way to the capital at London Waterloo and also added the branch to Hampton Court while in the area. To give you a better idea of how this route would look, once again, I have made a map of what I think this route would look like.

    Map of the Whole Route
    Portsmouth Direct Line 1.PNG
    Section out of London Waterloo & The Hampton Court Branch
    Portsmouth Direct Line 2.PNG
    Section going into Portsmouth & Cosham
    Portsmouth Direct Line 3.PNG

    So going over some of the facts about the route you see here, the total length of the entire route you see here is 82.1 miles (132.1 km). This length can be divided into the main route that runs between London and Portsmouth (74.6 miles or 120 km), the section between Clapham Junction and Wimbledon that goes via East Putney and the District Line (4.1 miles or 6.6 km), the branch line to Hampton Court (1.6 miles or 2.5 km), the spur that goes to Cosham (a combined length of 1.5 miles or 2.4 km which includes the two lines joining onto the main route at Farlington Junction) and the remaining 0.4 miles (0.6 km) makes up some of the depots featured along this route. For other facts, there are a total of 41 stations on this route as well as 3 main passenger depots (Clapham Junction Traincare, Wimbledon TMD and Fratton Traincare Depot).

    So probably what would be the biggest selling point for this route is the section out of London Waterloo towards Woking. It actually bares quite a big resemblance to what we are seemingly getting with the upcoming Brighton Main Line with it being a hectic scramble to try to get in and out of Waterloo, which then continues all the way to Woking. From here, and especially after Guildford things start to quieten down as this section isn't quite as busy as the first part of the route and from going by my experience, it's actually quite a scenic section, traversing through the South Downs. But the timetable starts to liven up again from Havant all the way to the end of the line, as you try to traverse what is actually, quite a busy section going into Portsmouth, especially when adding additional services from other TSW2 routes and loco add-ons, but more on that later.

    The route also has a couple of branches coming off it. Of course you have the Hampton Court in there as it would be kinda dumb to leave out what is only a just over a mile branch of the main line. You also have the lines going in and out of Cosham down in the area near Portsmouth. I put in here in order to enable services coming from Southampton and give them a decent place to start, rather than already on the main route at either Hilsea or Fratton (which the later is pretty close to the end of the line). But probably the most notable branch here is the one that deviates at Clapham Junction, joins onto the District Line at East Putney and them traverses it all the way to Wimbledon. This section, believe it or not, is actually used by South Western Railway for trains accessing the depot at Wimbledon, but I also found out that there is one train a day from Basingstoke in each direction, one early in the morning and another late at night, that traverses this section of the route. It is also used by one late night service into Waterloo from Shepperton.

    Right, shall we have some real-life pictures? Well, let's take a look to see what we could expect of this route.

    Pictures of the route in real-life

    London Waterloo
    [​IMG]
    East Putney
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    Wimbledon
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    Raynes Park
    [​IMG]
    Surbiton
    [​IMG]

    Hampton Court
    [​IMG]
    Weybridge
    [​IMG]
    Woking
    [​IMG]
    Guildford
    [​IMG]
    Haslemere
    [​IMG]
    Petersfield
    [​IMG]

    Havant
    [​IMG]
    Cosham
    [​IMG]
    Fratton
    [​IMG]
    Portsmouth & Southsea
    [​IMG]
    Portsmouth Harbour
    [​IMG]

    Available Locos

    Now normally when I suggest the locos that I think would come with this route, I usually try to follow the pattern of what we usually get with a route which is one new loco and the other that is reused or is in a different livery/variant. For this suggestion however, the locos that I think would come with this route are both new. The reason for this is because they are pretty much part of the same family and they pretty much look exactly the same at the front and in the cab, it's just that one is longer and designed for express services while the other is shorter and used for outer-suburban services.

    South Western Railway BR Class 444
    [​IMG]
    This is the train that I see pass by my house every day and the train that I have used to travel to London on, and this train has been serving express services in the South West since 2004, firstly on this route, before being rolled out onto other parts of the network. These units would take charge of the main express services on this route, running between London and Portsmouth, with a few services running the first section between London and Woking. But one fun service that they would operate is a service that runs to Portsmouth via Winchester. But since that section isn't represented here, the service would run from Waterloo to Woking, the run off the map heading towards Basingstoke and then re emerge at Cosham about an hour-and-a-half later, before traversing the final leg into Portsmouth, which is kinda the main reason why I would include Cosham on this route to begin with.

    South Western Railway BR Class 450
    [​IMG]
    This loco is the same principle design as the 444 I have just discussed, but is shorter and is more designed for outer suburban work. Both this, and the 444, where introduced in the early 2000s to replace the ageing slam-door stock that dated back to the 1950s and both have since gone on to arguably be the face of the South Western network, both through the days of South West Trains and into what we now know as South Western Railway today. These units would support and maybe sub into the 444 services that I have just mentioned, but would also have a few dedicated services of there own. The first being between Waterloo and Woking and on towards either Basingstoke or Alton, going actually down the Direct Line only as far as Haslemere and a small services out of Portsmouth heading towards Cosham and then out of the map towards Southampton Central.

    Additional services from other routes already available in TSW2

    When talking about what other routes could contribute to the timetable on this route, There is one thing out there that would really push the traffic levels up on this route is additional services from the Southern content that is both already available in TSW2 and what's is upcoming. In this aspect, Southern would add more traffic in two specific areas.

    The first of which being AI traffic around Clapham Junction using the Class 377/4 and 387/2 from the upcoming Brighton Main Line, with those services either making a stop at the station or running straight through non-stop.

    The other area is around that final section around Portsmouth, in which Southern services would be added using the Class 377/4 from East Coastway/Brighton Main Line and also the upcoming Class 313 loco add-on for East Coastway (whenever that arrives). These would add three types of service. One that only travels between Havant and Cosham, one that travels between Havant and Portsmouth & Southsea and one more that goes all the way to the Harbour.

    While we are also in this area, another route that would contribute to adding more traffic in this area and add another train operator in the process would be Great Western Express, which would add Great Western Railway services using the Class 166 between Cosham and Portsmouth Harbour and would also add AI traffic around Guildford for North Downs Line services coming from Reading, passing through this station on their way to either Redhill or Gatwick Airport.

    But on the subject of layering, while those other routes would help increase traffic on areas of this route that would be otherwise be dead without so, this route would also play a part in increasing traffic levels on a particular section of another route that is coming soon in the future to TSW2 and that is the Brighton Main Line around Clapham Junction. Now one thing that a lot of people seem to be concerned about this route is that Clapham Junction is going to look quite dead as no SWR stock currently exists in this game in order to make that area of the route look busy. So what I propose is that when this route would come out, or any other SWR/SWT route for that matter, the locos available with that route would also add AI traffic around Clapham Junction to Brighton Main Line in order to liven up the area and bring it up to the standard of some of the other parts of the route which look more promising to actually have lots of traffic running about at the same time.

    Future Loco Add-Ons

    To end this off, as always, let's go into what locos could come to this route after it had been release. When talking about this segment, I have two that I could think up of with one of them being a loco that would really lift this route up to the standard of a 'Rush Hour' route and I think you might have an idea of what I am talking about.

    South Western Railway BR Class 455/7
    [​IMG]
    Now I know I didn't include this loco as part of the main roster of locos available with this route, but as you can already tell, we already have two new locos available with the route and having a third would feel like a bit overkill here. But this wouldn't be too bad as I kinda imagine that this loco wouldn't come too long after this route would have been released, kinda how the 465/9 came not long after the release of Southeastern High Speed. But anyways, these units have been the staple of metro services out of London Waterloo for many years, although with the introducing of new rolling stock to replace these on the horizon, there time is now limited. But for now, for this route, they would help complete the timetable by adding metro services out of London Waterloo. These services include...:
    • Out to Wandsworth Town before heading off towards Putney and beyond with one type of service making a reappearance as AI terminating at Weybridge.
    • As far as Raynes Park before turning off towards either Chessington South, Dorking or making a reappearance at Guildford as a terminating AI train.
    • As far as New Malden before turning off towards either Shepperton or down the loop line via Kingston and re-emerging at Wandsworth Town and then carrying on back to Waterloo.
    • As far as Surbiton before disappearing down towards Effingham Junction and then rejoing the route as AI terminating at Guildford.
    • Down the branch line to Hampton Court.
    • All the way to Woking before terminating here.
    All this would combine to make a really busy and hectic section of the route with lots of these trains coming in and out of Waterloo to various destinations along this route.

    South Western Railway BR Class 442
    [​IMG]
    Ah, another train that used to pass by where I lived and another train that I have also been, back when they used to serve where I live. In all seriousness though, these units have had a turbulent history. These were originally introduced with Network SouthEast back in 1987 and operating on this route even right into the South West Trains days, but the introduction of the 444s and 450s eventually led to their withdrawal in 2007, they were then used on Gatwick Express services on the Brighton Main Line between London and Brighton for nearly a decade, before being replace by the 387/2, a handful were then put back into service on South Western Railway on this route in particular, only to last less than a year before being withdrawn again due to reliability problems and of course the ongoing pandemic. What will become of these units next remains to be seen. But in this case, they would be represented in that last period when they ran for a brief on in South Western Railways livery on the Portsmouth Direct Line and would sub into the 444 services already available with this route, running between London and Portsmouth.

    Conclusion

    As I have said earlier, I have a lot of great memories playing the original route that only ran between Woking and Portsmouth. I haven't played the upgraded version as much since by that time I had moved on from TS Classic to TSW, but from what I did play of it, it still is a worthwhile route that upgrades the original route to be closer to what it is today and also makes the route even bigger and more complete by extending it all the way to the capital, and from going through what we just talked about with a potential TSW2 version, if it manages to live up to what those two routes laid out, it will absolutely be just as enjoyable and worthwhile as those routes were and combining with additional stuff from other routes and from what future loco loco add-ons have the potential to add to this route, you could end up with a route that is on par with the upcoming Brighton Main Line. This route pretty much what that route is seemly going to offer, but more spread out across it's length with a really hectic and busy start around Waterloo, before things calm down past Guildford, before thing start to pick up again at Havant and subsequently, the busy fight navigating around Portsmouth. Also, just like Brighton Main Line, it is a city to coast route where you start near heart of London, and end at a major coastal port town, which serves as a gateway to the Isle of Wight a several major destinations in France and beyond, all while travelling through some of the most picturesque countryside in the South West.

    If you have something that you would like to see on this route, or you feel like there's something that can be done differently with this route, feel free to leave a reply down below.

    That's all from me and I'll see you for the next route.

    Image Sources:
     
    Last edited: Sep 24, 2021
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  2. trainsimplayer

    trainsimplayer Well-Known Member

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    Of all the TS Routes I'd like to see brought over to TSW, PDL is high on that list for me. Despite the length being longer than what we have so far (I'd happily pay extra for that), I think it is one of the best options out right now - along with ECMLs, WCMLs + Abbey Line + DC Lines, Edinburgh-Glasgow, West Highland Line, MerseyRail, Chatham Mainline and many others.

    I would buy this without hesitation. I think many would agree.

    Fantastic Suggestion as always. I hope to see this made. Sooner rather than later. :)
     
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  3. First capital connect

    First capital connect Well-Known Member

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    Great suggestion if the 442s were guaranteed to be apart of this route
    I would buy it instantly
     
  4. driverwoods#1787

    driverwoods#1787 Well-Known Member

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    Excellent idea and if you want the most recent train for DLC Class 701 can work. Video is by Geoff Marshall on Class 701 Pre COVID-19 pandemic
     
  5. elaineedwards2013

    elaineedwards2013 Well-Known Member

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    Excellent suggestion
     
  6. Alex_m30x#7297

    Alex_m30x#7297 Well-Known Member

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    Personally I would have the 455 included for variety as base as the 450 is very similar to the 444
     
  7. sam12isbest

    sam12isbest New Member

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    I would want the PDL as well as the line that goes to London via Fareham as it gives variety some trains going done the PDL and some going down the other way but apart from that great suggestion
     
  8. bradders059

    bradders059 New Member

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    I would love to see this route, but I would love to see it in swt era as if it was a south western railway because of l licensing rules I think the Company Would want to see their locos all in the NEW swr livery not ex south west trains livery as it’s got the colours Of stagecoach not first group. What this means is there would be no 455, (458 until it’s refurbished into a swr livery) and no 707s because they are going to southeastern. For this reason I would prefer to have a full running swt over swr
     
  9. elarthur

    elarthur Well-Known Member

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    Where do I sign?
     
  10. Kim1087

    Kim1087 Well-Known Member

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    I would love to see this route set in the 1980's
     
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  11. jackthelad258

    jackthelad258 Active Member

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    Great suggestion, I'd happily buy this route if the Class 707 trains were included and have the route set in 2017 when they were in operation for the London Waterloo to Windsor & Eton Riverside as well as the Weybridge via Hounslow services.

    Class 707:

    [​IMG]
     
  12. kenobi#1878

    kenobi#1878 Well-Known Member

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    Yes pls.
    I’d pay for this as 444s are my favourite EMUs that aren’t 319s or 707s.
     
  13. Trainmania100

    Trainmania100 Well-Known Member

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    I'd pay just for the extra stock on the BML at Clapham
     
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  14. SWR450

    SWR450 Active Member

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    I'd love to see this route but I'd like it with 2 different branch-offs, One being the main route which is the PDL and the 2nd being the SWML down to southampton or bournemouth with the branch-off between Southampton And portsmouth and eastleigh and portsmouth being added with it as well, wether it be separate DLC or one big route.
     
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