Not me you wouldn't! Especially if set in the 70's/early 80's! It's probably easier to say what I don't want - No.1 on the hate list being yet another London or South East based route using Electrostars.
'Inconsequential fun' quickly becomes actual speculation, as has been demonstrated in this thread and every other thread with the same premise. And there's no point in baseless speculation, because it is almost never true.
Honestly, I'd like to see anything other than another modern 3rd rail route for the next release. Time for something different, I'd say. All I want is an area we haven't seen before with some different trains to play with.
Definitely don’t want (yet) another modern Southern based third rail route. The Electrostar has been used so many times now, it’s time for something different. Give us a diesel regional route, or something electric which uses 25kv AC electrification.
London Liverpool St to Ipswich, York to Newcastle, Settle to Carlisle, Liverpool to Manchester Piccadilly
I'm personally waiting for rivet to make the silk railway line from china to Daventry, I can't wait to see how many trees that route will have. Oooh and the 3 services it will come with .
Rivet games - noddy toy town railway Az for dtg York to New castle would be great or York to Scarborough there's never been any official York to Scarborough route or Sheffield to leeds
I had a dream last night that in a Q and A stream Matt straight up admitted that they hadn't finalised what the next UK route would be and had narrowed it down to two possibilities- Sheffield to Manchester or Newcastle to York, both of which would feature just one train, the Class 185. I remember being perplexed that no HST would be included in the Newcastle- York route and when asked about this Matt gave a really poor answer. It wasn't anything to do with licensing LNER, it was that they wanted to ensure the route was set in present day. Quite why they'd do that instead of setting the route back a couple years to reuse a popular train for extra gameplay is beyond me, but this was a dream after all. I and many others in the chat then countered that if that was the case then the 185 also wasn't appropriate for the route, as it's now the domain of Class 802s and TPE has cascaded them down to other routes.
An odd dream certainly. The 185s still run on both routes, I think Sheffield - Manchester (Hope Valley Line) is now their stomping ground but they still get put on services to Middlesbrough. Anyway, have you wondered why they've never made a 185 for TS1 - I'm sure they'd leap at the opportunity
I was up in York last month and I had a trip to Newcastle while I was there. The whole week I only saw 185s on the services to Scarborough and Redcar, meaning on this TSW2 route they'd only be drivable from York to Northallerton. A 185 was actually released for TS Classic recently by ATS, it looks great too. It's very high on my wishlist of trains for TSW2 as well, I think they're fantastic units.
I would like to see in order of preference. Manchester to Crewe via Stockport and Airport. Manchester to Sheffield Hope Valley. SVR Kidderminster to Bridgnorth K&ES Tenterden to Bodiam KWVR Keighley to Oxenhope MML Derby to Bedford Metropolitan or Piccadilly from Uxbridge
I really would love to see WCML... but so many extenuating circumstances that could stop it from being really great. - Obviously we won't get a full run (unless they figure out extensions as a testbed for this) - Euston - Milton Keynes still feels a bit stunted/cut short - Euston - Birmingham would be fantastic, but pushes DTGs comfortable range for route limits - Should leave space for future technology that could link Bakerloo to get the full "london overground" experience on the earlier runs - Locos required would be too expensive for DTG. Seeing a new 390 and 350 seems highly unlikely. Potential for the 66 to show up again - Doubts on if 805/807s would show up in future. Route will unlikely be time period due to licensing conflicts with Virgin. - New assets required for both Birmingham and Euston respectively. - Timetable is unlikely to mimic Brighton unless someone like Joe slaved on this.
Thinking about it, DTG could bring out a smaller UK route to tide us (and their dev teams) over until the big release of spirit of steam. Something perhaps comparable in magnitude to Cathcart Circle (with possible collaboration with Rivet again since they themselves are in-between routes). It may not be on the roadmap yet in case they need to adjust the project size and don't want to repeat what happened with Riesa Dresden.
If it's present day it would be Avanti not Virgin, and I'm a bit optimistic seeing as Avanti are already in TS classic's WCML South route. I'd love to see a Euston to Birmingham route in TSW2, perhaps more than any other.
I travelled on the line from Bristol to Severn Beach last Saturday and wondered whether that would be a good short route for TSW2. Scenery could be quite interesting round the docks, the stations would look great if as much care was put into them as the Cathcart stations and the 166 is already in the game, so chop off the middle carriage and the train is sorted too.
Playing around a bit on TVL this evening, doing some Journey trips with the excellent 31 and 37 (now the sound is fixed) I'm actually hoping for another route focused on UK Heavy Freight operations. The Knottingley area and Yorkshire coalfield/power stations I've already suggested. Also good would be the freight operations around Buxton. Hindlow, Tunstead etc.
I'd like a WCML Over Shap route, set in modern times. Route: Preston to Carlisle. Stations: 6: Preston, Lancaster, Carnforth, Oxenholme, Penrith, Carlisle Route mileage: 90 miles Typical journey time: Class 390 - 70 minutes Rolling stock opportunities: Avanti Class 390 Pendolino Avanti Class 221 Voyager TransPennine Class 397 EWS, DB, Freightliner, DRS Class 66 Freightliner Class 86 Freightliner Class 90 DRS Class 68 DRS Class 88 (Obviously all of the above won't be included, however it shows there is a lot of variety of rolling stock for the route) *The mileage might be a bit daunting at first, but remember its the amount of stations and big populations of towns and cities which require modelling, which takes the most amount of time. This route has relatively few, with only two major stations at each end. The majority of the route looks like as seen in the pictures below. Pictures:
The Barton Line (Cleethorpes to Barton-on-Humber) including all the industrial areas around Immingham and a spur to Barnetby as a start/end point would be an excellent heavy freight/local passenger route. Good excuse to add a Class 60 too!
The more I think about it Glasgow Central to Carstairs makes perfect sense, think about it. Glasgow Central is already built. DTG are already experimenting with tilting trains with Chemnitz Dresden, a high speed tilter is the next logical step. This route would be well in range and could include a branch or 2 (Lanark for example) Would allow an intermediate stop at Motherwell on the express trains and there's not many areas you can get that on HS services A good route for freight as well DLC options for commuter services or TPE Scotrail are already in game so assets ready to be used.
Even better if they have the technology then Glasgow Carstairs Carlisle route with Special paint 390s 390 112 390 042 Face Mask 390 119 Pride.
Yes I'm aware. I quoted virgin in reference to the IETs... and what directions DTG could/would go down.
This is kinda what I feel is also gonna happen aswell. - Either a more modest route with maybe one loco addition, and depends alot on current stock... similar to the German DLCs - Something to prep for Steam
Thing is, Avanti don't stop at carstairs, so there would be no intermediate stop at Motherwell, and there ain't that many AWC trains that stop there anyway. Plus, I don't think you can get very high speed between Central and Motherwell anyway - the fast bit is south of Carstairs. EDIT: Looked on the Sectional Appendix, top speed between Glasgow and Motherwell is 95, between Motherwell and Carstairs, it's 105 - and both aren't exactly long sections at those speeds. Anyway, I think it'll be a while after Chemnitz releases before we get tilting trains.
Wonder if they could finally add the Sheerness branch to SEHS. If it was packaged as a mini route at a reduced price it could be pretty good. I think we'd be looking at a route under 40 miles with existing trains. Can anyone think of anything that would fit the bill?
West Coastway comes to mind, although the community may decide to invest in some pitchforks if we get another southern 3rd rail route with an electrostar. Part of the Merseyrail network might fit well, which would only need a Class 507/508 modified from the Class 313/314. Inverclyde line with a Class 380 and layers for the 314, but might be too similar to Cathcart which is still quite new. There's a lot of routes that would fit that category thinking about it. I still think getting one new train with it is within reason though.
Probably a North Eastern route with the 101 (or another 1st gen DMU), and maybe a 37/0. Perhaps the North Tyne Loop. But again, pitchforks will be at the ready for another route with the 101. Perhaps, if they're prepared to rework the 150, one of the branch lines from Exeter, or the Cardiff Valley Liens (of course, license dependent)
I think there have been enough hints dropped for us to safely assume the next UK route will appear under the Spirit of Steam banner...
Oh definitely. It's just that that means it'll likely be a while until the next modern British route.
I live in the Valleys so I've always hoped to get that as a route. If it got announced I'd probably assault Matt with DMs full of reference photos.
Cardiff - Didcot, you know it makes sense, lol. OR Wallingford - Cholsey if it's a small steam route.
Bit of a bump but I just had a quick run on the SIAM traffic sim for the West Highland, based in 1984 and it threw this traffic at me: 1S07 0630 Craigendoran Jn 7D10 0630 Approaching Tulloch. 7B02 0649 Craigendoran Jn. 1T16 0800 Taynuilt 1T24 0843 Spean Bridge 1B08 0900 Craigendoran Jn 1B10 1030 Craigendoran Jn 1T32 1300 Taynuilt 1B11 1300 Craigendoran Jn 7D12 1301 Spean Bridge 7B13 1350 Craigendoran Jn 1T45 1418 Spean Bridge 7D09 1417 Taynuilt 7B05 1443 Craigendoran Jn 6E46 1524 Spean Bridge 6S56 1542 Craigendoran Jn 1B14 1730 Craigendoran Jn 1M15 1742 Spean Bridge 1T52 1800 Taynuilt 1B15 1900 Craigendoran Jn It was actually quite a challenge to resolve, including allowing for a bit of late running. Obviously this includes trains to and from the Oban line as well. In 1984, mixture of Class 37's on the passenger services, with some of the freight still worked by 27's. What's not to like!
I would also like to see some hertiage steam routes get some attention, would be easy to get reference material than the mainlines