Metro is the operator of the Melbourne suburban railway network which is an above ground electrified railway. Metro currently operates a fleet of 220 six car train sets, the locos for this route would include Comeng built from 1981 - 88 Siemens Nexas built from 2002-05 X'trapolis 100 built from 2002-19 The route Belgrave is 41km from flinders street station (Melbourne city) and has 28 stops along the route there are 2 branch lines along the route which are Glen Waverley which branches off at burnley and has 13 stops , Lilydale branches off at ringwood and has 4 stops. So there would be a variety of different services with 3 different locomotives. Both lilydale and belgrave are located in the bush/forest on the outskirts of Melbourne. Glen Waverley and is located in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne which is the most populated area in Melbourne. City, suburbs and bush/forest. Most interesting parts of the route is towards ringwood where the Lilydale and belgrave lines split, there you will cross deep gullys and valleys climb hills and pass through the forest and at the end of belgrave station is one of Australia's most popular tourist railways...puffing billy which is a narrow gauge steam railway(hint, hint) comeng train top, siemens nexas middle and x'trapolis 100 bottom
Although I'm from Sydney and would love a Sydney route, I would be content with any Australian route at this time. The Metro you suggested looks awesome!
This is my local train route so I definitely would be pleased to see it. Melbourne trains have a nice spread of local and express services, especially on the Belgrave Line. It's connection to Puffing Billy was also brought up in the Puffing Billy proposal thread. https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/puffing-billy-railway-in-train-sim-world.14526/#post-62757 I will say that potentially the Pakenham or Craigieburn lines could possibly be better for a Melbourne route given that those routes could also feature V-Line regional trains and freight traffic.
Great idea. Im originally from the hurstbridge line but i suggested the belgrave line for a few reasons, as you know both the glen Waverley and lilydale lines branch off the belgrave line, also the mcg is right next to the railway and you also have Caulfield plus if i remember correctly around ringwood it starts to become bushy.
Old (still highly relevant), extremely detailed, and high quality grading/pathing charts available for almost every line in Victoria are available here: https://www.victorianrailways.net/grades/gradehome.html Here's the Belgrave line relevant ones (they cover the entirety of the line) (warning can be up to almost 100mb): https://www.victorianrailways.net/grades/plan_section/hawthorn_east_camberwell_regrade.pdf https://www.victorianrailways.net/grades/plan_section/hawthorn_canterbury.pdf https://www.victorianrailways.net/grades/plan_section/hawthorn_lilydale.pdf https://www.victorianrailways.net/grades/plan_section/ringwood_ferntree_gully.pdf https://www.victorianrailways.net/grades/plan_section/ftgully_gembrook.pdf https://www.victorianrailways.net/grades/ringufd.html https://www.victorianrailways.net/grades/ufdgem.html https://www.victorianrailways.net/grades/richeal/richeal.html There's also old diagrams/blueprints for both general widely used infrustructure elements, and specific elements (eg. stations, signal boxes) here: https://www.victorianrailways.net/infastuct/infastructhome.html https://www.victorianrailways.net/photogallery/index_i_m.html And here are signalling blueprints and rules & regulation books : https://www.victorianrailways.net/signaling/signalhome.html https://www.victorianrailways.net/signaling/completedia/erauburn2005.html https://www.victorianrailways.net/signaling/completedia/fss57_08.pdf
This channel has an excellent collection of various cab ride videos in HD which would be incredibly useful in the creation of a route; https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtdTpDamVj0z6-ZKMPZYytw Here is one featuring a city area training journey from Melbourne's inner most depot, past Flinders St Station, Southern Cross station, it then heads out of the CBD a bit to a depot/yard along the Lilydale, Belgrave, Alamein, and Glen Waverly Lines, before returning to the city and entering the city loop tunnels and running the loop a few times (which currently all lines run through and will until 2025 when some will be diverted into a new cross-city tunnel), then exiting along the Mernda, and Hurstbridge lines to a certain point, before heading back in again: This one features the Lilydale Line (which shares a significant portion of the journey with the Belgrave line - Melbourne to Ringwood) along with on board commentary mentioning signals, platforms, and speed limits; And here is one for the Belgrave Line - Belgrave to Ringwood:
Also I found this document "BURNLEY GROUP OPERATING PROCEDURES" on a Metro Trains Melbourne website (Belgrave, Lilydale, Alamein, Glen Waverly Lines make up the Burnley Group of lines as part of Melbourne's network): https://www.metrotrains.com.au/wp-c...010-15-Burnley-Group-Operating-Procedures.pdf And here are a bunch of other documents I found after that: "Operating Procedures Infrastructure Works" https://www.metrotrains.com.au/wp-c...erating-Procedures-Infrastructure-Works-1.pdf "Metropolitan Railway Network Train Operating Protocol" https://www.metrotrains.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/373.pdf "OPERATIONAL INTERFACE PROCEDURES" https://www.metrotrains.com.au/wp-c...es-5b12760c-961b-4a0d-84b3-406395078513-0.pdf "Regional Fast Rail Operations and other defined Corridors" (V/Line operations) https://www.metrotrains.com.au/wp-c...ast-Rail-Operations-Rev-17.01SW.0042.2017.pdf
