Moin, Northern Ireland, though British, is quite a bit underrepresented in the world of train simulation. That is certainly in part due to the fact that there isn't a whole lot of railway activity going on there, but a bit there is. And interesting insofar that it uses 1600 millimeter wide gauge tracks. The part of the NI Railways network picked here is about the same length as your typical TSW route, only it's spread over three different branches eminating from Belfast city center. First, there's the two lines leaving northbound on either side of the Belfast Lough with all its docks and shipyards, most notably (because most famous and the most visible landmark of Belfast) that of Harland & Wolff of Titanic fame. Those are the lines to Larne and Bangor, which offer local, commuter rail-like services only. These are clearly the more scenic lines, offering a bit of everything - changing between an urban, suburban industrial, rural and maritime flair, sometimes in fairly rapid succession. And then a bit of southbound line toward Dublin, is used by international InterCity trains to Dublin in addition to the local trains. The idea of suggesting a bit of that as well came to me because that's where a the depot is located just south of downtown Belfast. After all, this might just be a nice opportunity for another TSW route that's more like a network rather than a point to point route, without even feeling like all the lines being "chopped in half" as they so often do. If set in the modern era, the vehicles of choice would be NIR classes 3000 and 4000. However an alternative would be to set it around 2010, when in addition to the modern class 3000, the old class 450 from the 1970's was still in service - pretty much a lookalike of the British class 150, albeit always with three segments. General Location: Northern Ireland Era: modern Length overall: 48 mi / 77 km max speed: ? # of passenger stations: 34 Service types: Local, InterCity, Cargo # of tracks: 1-2 Electrified: No Lines included at least partially: Belfast-Bangor Line Belfast-Larne Line Belfast-Derry Line (Belfast - Whiteabbey) Belfast-Dublin Line (Belfast - Lisburn) Suitable vehicles (among others): NIR Class 3000 NIR Class 4000 IE Class 201 + Enterprise trainset, IE class 22000 NIR Class 111 (cargo engine) Spoiler: Maps Maps Key Locations Belfast Lanyon Place (formerly Belfast Central) Belfast Great Victoria Street Bangor Larne Harbour Lisburn Further Impressions Belfast Botanic Belfast City Hospital Titanic Quarter (formerly Bridge End) Sydenham Yorkgate Whiteabby Cultra Helen's Bay Greenisland Whitehead Carrickfergus Ballycarry Larne Town (before renovation) Balmoral Finaghy
I really do hope DTG are taking the suggestions of NIR stuff seriously, as I think it would be awesome to see Northern Ireland in TSW.
