The Cork to Dublin line is the main passenger route in Ireland. It would be a wonderful addition to this platform, offering simmers a variety of old and new stations, powerful locomotives, modern DMU's and stunning scenery. This route is double lined and 266km, terminating at Kent Station, Cork, and Heuston Station, Dublin. The line also serves many branches, and it would be a wonderful addition if the Tralee branch could be included, owing to the dramatic scenery along the way. Including Tralee would also mean players could operate the longest direct rail route in Ireland. The line is primarily worked by IE class 201 locomotives, working with the Mark 4 DVTs. Additionally, the IE class 22000 regularly provides direct Dublin services from provincial towns, using the main Cork to Dublin line. This line has also been earmarked to become Ireland's first high-speed rail service, with feasibility studies looking into a 250 to 350km/h service on the line. (Any image used her belongs to owner) Route Map Stations Cork (Kent) Mallow Charleville Limerick Junction Thurles Templemore Ballybrophy Portlaoise Dublin (Heuston) Rolling Stock IE Class 22000 Mark 4 DVT IE 201 Class Locomotive Mark 4 Coach
I really do support any Irish route to be honest, and this one certainly looks very interesting. Nice choice OP! The loco in the image attached is a driving van train (DVT) which hauls Irish MK4 coaches. It is capable of 201km/h (125mph) by design, but restricted to 160km/h (99mph). P.S. (The Republic of) Ireland and the UK- very different countries.
I'd love an Irish route myself having played Enterprise North and South for MSTS back in the day. Issues I can see is DTG having to make all new assets including the 5ft 3'' track to scale. I know Rivit make the narrow gauge track for Arosa but still. A route from say, Dundalk to Dublin Connolly would be good. You can do Enterprise services from Dundalk to Connolly. Commuter 29k and ICR from Connolly to Droghead and Dundalk. DART services from Connolly to Malahide and the Howth branch. Also 071 locos on Tara Mines freights from Dublin port to the Navan branch at Drogheda. Lots of scope but far too much take on a TSW2 complexities. One can dream though.
Excellent idea and regarding IE Class 201 it has CAWS and the familiar Northern Ireland United Kingdom AWS TPWS DSD DRA system. In the case of Dublin to Cork route you're only using CAWS DSD Air/ vacuum brakes because they're still being used by IE
I'll say that although it's not one of the countries I'm advocating for, I'm actually all up for an Irish route and unlike Schotland would agree that it's not basically a UK release anyway. (or too similar either) That being said, this specific suggestion at 266km long is pretty much double of DTG's current maximum route, unless you're aiming for this route to be made in at least 5 years or so or more in hopes of max. route lengths having at least doubled in the time. With that information, what part of the route is in your opinion the most important one to keep? If we take Matt's answer of maximum feasible route length to about 60 to 70 miles length with 20-25 stations being on the high end. That out of the way, please do elaborate on this route proposal! I'm interested in hearing more about Irish trains for TSW2. Either way, good luck
My suggestion of Dublin Connolly to Dundalk is 54 miles, plus the Howth branch of 3 miles. You still have 201 locos in push pull mode hauling De dietrich Enterprise stock, 90mph limited. CAF 29000 DMU Commuter stock, 75mph limited. Rotem ICR 22000 DMU intercity stock. 100mph design but 90mph limit on the Northern line. EMD 071 class locos hauling Tara Mines freight to Dublin Port. Trains are a max of 12 wagons and up to 1,000 tons loaded. Vacuum braked and 50mph limited. Then you have the DART EMUs, 62mph limited. The old LHB 8100 stock from 1983 till now. Also the Mitsu 8500 stock from 2001 till present. Lots of DLC stock potential
Nice suggestion, though too long in its entirety. Purely personally,I would prefer a slightly older era 80s or 90s when the classic GM locos were still plentiful on the Irish network.
I'd prefer to see Northern Ireland, what trains do they have? I also agree with Oldvern with the 80's era.
I think Dublin Heuston to Portlaois would be a good fit as for passenger you would only need the 22000 railcars as they work the majority of the services from Heuston apart from some Cork Services. The traffic can be mixed either the Intercity trains that only stop at a few stations along the way or the Portlaois commuter that stops at all the stations along the way.
I love the idea for the route, but given how short the Hudson Line DLC is going to be thanks to scope, I just don't see this happening anytime soon. I think a good candidate would be the DART line from Greystones up to Malahide and the branch out to Howth. It's a coastal route with 30 stops and relatively high frequency, so it should make up for the short line distance with being an interesting route
I think the reason why the MNRR line is so short is to properly model Grand Central, that will really be the centrepiece of the route. The max a route can really be is 80-100km, depending on scenery ofc. I also wouldn’t expect more than 2 trains on a new route either.
I think the DART route would be fantastic, it looks great, plenty fantastic views and interesting routes. The intercity down to Rosslare also offers brilliant coastal views. I really hope they add some Iarnród Éireann, not only from my personal connection, but their are some gorgeous routes and trains!
yeh, would be cool to have the route down to Rosslare and/or the Dart, I yearn for a decent Irish route in a train sim. Another nice route(unfortunately shut down in 2010) is the South Wexford line, the branch line that goes from Rosslare Strand to Waterford Plunkett station. would love to see that line in tsw2, not just because It was my local railway line, but because it has some very pretty scenery including a stunning railway bridge crossing the River Barrow into Waterford. not too long of a route for dtg, just 31 miles. Now is time to do it if they decide on doing it, while the infrastructure is all still there, because there's rumors the tracks will be ripped up and the line turned into a walking trail, like the waterford greenway, a former branch line from the city to dungarvan
Waterford on to Limerick Junction is also quite nice - did that years ago with a 001 Class loco hauling some extremely tatty Park Royal coaches. IMHO one of the most scenic sections on the remaining Irish railway network.