Hear me out.. Rugby, as the northern extremity of the route. Bletchley, as the southern extremity. The Northampton ‘loop’ is included, Daventry mega intermodal railfreight centre is included, Wolverton works is included. The focus of the route is on rail freight, and departmental stuff, with passenger stuff being secondary. There’s scope for diesel and electric hauled freight, new stock testing, stock storage movements, mail trains, rail tours and then passenger stuff. Era-wise.. something around 2000, this way there’s electric loco hauled freight and passenger possibilities (even if just ai, or layering). EMU services from Silverlink (I believe) which used to terminate at Rugby, and go via the Northampton ‘loop’. EWS were around so that token add-on EWS 66 can actually be relevant.. essentially an era that was on the verge of modernisation. Wasn’t the WCML going through its major modernisation update around this time too? If so, then include possession scenarios, overnight closures and associated works trains. Big yards at either end - Rugby and Bletchley. *edit* NEW stock included would be both the Class 87 and Class 90, as they operated on passenger and freight services. Class 321 EMU, as this was the regional train at the time. OLD stock included/layered would be the Class 66 on intermodal freight, Class 08 for stock movements at Wolverton and HST for the non electrified WCML express services (Holyhead, or Shrewsbury). Overall, not the longest or most ‘scenic’ of WCML routes, but something that adds replay-ability and a deeper more expansive 24hr timetable.
It's a bit small for a major mainline, may as well go down to Euston since we can utilise the existing Bakerloo scenery between Wembley Central and Harrow and Wealdstone
If a dev team can achieve that without cutting corners, compromising detail and delivering a solid playable simulation then yeah, why not.. would be nice to include Wembley Yard.
Interesting suggestion, I like how you have focused particularly on the freight side as most if not all UK routes are passenger-based so it would be interesting so see how a freight-based UK route would do compared to the current passenger-based UK routes
Hopefully it encourages developers to bring some much needed AC locos to the game, but also slower more methodical tasks for the player! personally I’d rather have a shorter route with more detail (yards, branches and layers) than a long one made with cut backs.
Yeah, it would be a first for a UK route where it is freight-focused and I would prefer detail and shorter routes than longer routes with a lack of detail or performance issues
