Just Trains has just updated the MML-Hope Valley Extension and I found this interesting video on YouTube. The local community stopped Beeching from axing their local line (Hope Vally) and it is now seeing more passengers than ever and making a "profit". When Beeching's axe fell there were around 54 Million of us living in the UK and that has risen close to 70 million now - makes you wonder how many other lines could have been saved if our crystal ball had shown that phenomenal future growth. pH
It's more to do with the growth of the motor car and the money ploughed into the motorways and trunk road network than anything else, I genuinely don't believe the UK rail network would have remained sustainable in its pre Beeching form, every dewy eyed rail enthusiast lament Dr Beechings cuts but do you honestly believe BR or any other incompetent organisation since could have maintained and sustained it all since knowing what we do now about the rise of motor vehicles?
Apart from updates for Sheffield - Derby and Hope Valley there are updates for Derby - Nottingham - Leicester, Derwent Valley and Nottingham - Lincoln. As far as I know you have to uninstall all MML routes and reinstall them in the correct order. I suppose this includes Erewash and Barrow Hill which don't seem to have current updates. If I am wrong on this then I am happy to be corrected. If I am correct then an installathon awaits.
The install order... 1) Midland Main Line: Sheffield-Derby (base route) *See note* 2) Midland Main Line: Derwent Valley Line (not available as a standalone) 3) Midland Main Line: Derby-Nottingham-Leicester Extension 4) Midland Main Line: Erewash Valley (not available as a standalone) 5) Midland Main Line: Barrow Hill Roundhouse Extension (not available as a standalone) 6) Midland Main Line: Nottingham-Lincoln Extension 7) Midland Main Line: Hope Valley Extension *Note* NONE of the above extensions will work with the Steam version of the MML Sheffield - Derby they will only work with the version available for purchase and download directly from the Just Trains website.
Duplicate Thread of this https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/midland-main-line-buxton-peak-forest-extension.79680/
I think Beeching did what he had to do. No one was travelling on these lines back then, it was just not economical. And as motorcars became affordable for everyone, people enjoyed that freedom and travelling by train was not modern anymore. Of course for railfans, this was a "crime". But railways have costs and bills to pay. In some way, Beeching reminded us of the wisdom "You don't know what you've got till it's gone." That's the thing I'm loving TSC for - here all those old and gone routes may exist and we can experience them. Like Woodhead. And, there's reconsiderations and reevaluation going on... as the times have changed. As I've understood it, Portishead will be back on the rails in 2028.
There were certainly a lot of railways that were not economically viable, and even more became so with the decline of heavy industry over the next 20-some years, but there are persistent tales of skullduggery and vested interests in the motor industry that led to the closures being far more draconian than strictly necessary.
Agreed - we live in a world of lobbyists, that's how it is and has always been. But also Heritage Railways have their lobby.
In the preview video on the JT website the reviewer drove a passenger scenario from Hazel Grove to Buxton but was initially unable to enter Buxton as a signal was against the player train. Some fiddling about with points allowed the signal to clear and the scenario was completed. Anyone know if that bug has been fixed in the version currently on sale?
Not helped by the then Minister of Transport - Ernest Marples - being associated with the Motorway construction firm - Marples-Ridgeway. Some lines were closed purely for politics (note the lower case p) i.e. within BR Regions but it is true the system needed pruning not butchering.
