For all you British steam fans, a new freeware route from Golden Age Developments featuring the Dorset area in the South of England depicting the 1950s/60s on the Southern Region of British Rail. This is phase 1, you can get it from here, and yes it does need some DLC routes to get it to look authentic for the period, but, it's so worth it.. Cheerz Steve. https://www.golden-age-developments.co.uk/dorset-coast.html
Looks neat, but I see that Caledonia Works stock seems to be the favoured stock for the route. I wonder what it might look like in the current era assuming the line still exists, even if it might not now.
Bournemouth Central Station now has a footbridge across the platforms, I can post a photo I took down there to give you an idea of the layout in 1985. Bournemouth West Station closed in late 1965. Any Southern Region locos and rolling stock would suffice, Class 33s, 47s and 73s were the predominant locomotives diagrammed across the region. The line still runs down to Hamworthy Docks via a freight branch line and of course down to Poole Harbour. Swanage is still there as well of course, you could backdate the route to anytime in the 1970s/80s/90s. Cheerz. Steve. https://www.flickr.com/photos/59849121@N08/49434105068/in/photolist-2ijjHbm-2ijn864-2ijofRo
I just realized, I can look up timetables from 1994 onwards. Now to figure out which one those are...
To the map Bournemouth West Branch closed 4th October 1965 Hamworthy Goods Branch still exists for limited freight Wareham to Swanage is now the Preserved Swanage Railway https://peter749.piwigo.com/index?/category/161-swanage_railway_2007 Wareham to Weymouth is still open and was electrified in 1998 from Bournemouth The Weymouth Quay Branch which featured on road running closed in 1987 as the stock used was withdrawn https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weymouth_Harbour_Tramway
Thanks for that info. So best we can do is a 1986ish scenario without all the steam engines, and even then the west branch is gone.
Correct, however, the track on this route is not 3rd rail, as this steam era route depicts the 1950s before 3rd rail was installed, so, unless you do a track swap in TS Tools for something suitable, I think you could only run some early diesels from the late 1960s on the layout for the time being, and of course we have the BR Class205 'Thumper' DMU from AP which was constructed in 1957. Cheerz. Steve.
As the Electrification beyond Bournemouth West was not done until 1988 a scenario set in 1986 would not need it. Scenarios could be set in BR Diesel days from 1960 onwards up to 1988 although the lack of a proper 4-TC is a problem
Yes, that's true, however, you'd also need to do some track renovation work on the route as the 2 middle roads weren't there in Bournemouth Central in the 1980s, I haven't done any research reading for what else is missing/changed for a 1980s scenario, if you wanted the layout to look precise, realistically. There is a good Bournemouth Station model in DTG's Southampton - Bournemouth route if you wanted something more modern, but it's a big structure and might need to do some fiddling with the trackwork and surrounding area to make it look right. Cheerz. Steve.