Following on from a reply I made to a post earlier, I would like to suggest a Route. The post I replied to was suggesting the whole Birmingham network (see below) Map I would like to refine this, I would like to suggest the Birmingham New street-Hereford line. The line itself is approximately 72km (within the current norm for route lengths as far as I can tell). (this suggestion is for around the 2018-present The initial portion of the route would start out from new street, in its rather beautiful (IMO) new build, hopefully, a very busy station within the route, to replicate its feeling IRL. Following on from this the route would proceed through some tunnels before emerging into the rather drab (to be contrasted with later, this being one of the key features of the route) outer portions of Birmingham to stop at several stations within birmingham. University station The line would pass through several interesting locations, the most prevalent being the Lickey bank. The Lickey bank is the steepest sustained main-line railway incline in Great Britain. The climb is a gradient of 1 in 37.7. This could provide some interesting gameplay as it is so steep, especially in older traction trying to keep the train moving up the hill. A mix of traction here especially would make for a significant amount of replayability as DEMUs, DMUs and EMUs all use this stretch of track daily. Below can be seen some images of the bank: Lickey bank The route would finally break out into something slightly less drab in the form of barnt green and bromsgrove stations (Potentially the branch down to redditch could be added as this adds some interesting single track running for modern stock?) Barnt green station (note the redditch branch on the left) Now the route would transition into something altogether more green (again this would be a key feature in my mind, the contrast between the more gray nature of Birmingham to the greens of the latter portions of the route). The next interesting sight would be the city of Worcester, including both stations to allow for some interesting GWR services, and the stabling of the WMT DMUs at shrub hill. Foregate street station is somewhat of a local landmark with its striking green bridge, this being something I especially would like to see. Foregate street bridge & station Straight on from foregate street is the Worcester viaduct spanning the severn river at the center of the city.This viaduct can give some rather pretty views, down to the Worcester cathedral, and the Worcester bridge, when traveling across. Worcester Viaduct Worcester cathedral and bridge Out of worcester you pass through several towns to finally arrive at malvern, with its beautiful hills, rendered properly again this could be something to seriously contrast with birmingham city center. Malvern hills Following on the next sight of interest would be the colwall tunnel. The colwall tunnel is to my mind rather interesting given the single track nature, length, and manner of trains which pass through it, including both high speed services and stopper services. Below can be seen the colwall tunnel. Colwall tunnel Following on once more following the snaking track through the green of Herefordshire. Again a very beautiful area, allowing the digital artists to go to town so to speak. Some beauty shots of herefordshire. Finally the route culminates in the city of Hereford, interchanging with transport for Wales stock and GWR stock. Hereford station. Speaking of stock, I haven’t talked about any of that yet. Below are the stock found on this route: Class 170/172 turbostar DMUs, some of the most popular classes on the network, and especially this line provides commuter services for the whole route. Class 323 EMU, commuter trains to and from Redditch, fairly prolific on the first half of the route through to Barnt green and down the Redditch branch line. Class 800 D/EMU One of my most wanted stock for this game, the 800 only would be resent on the southwestern portion of the route between Worcester and Hereford. Class 158 is another extremely popular unit on the network, also only being present on the southwestern portion of the route, as well as potentially being present at the Hereford station in transport for wales livery Class 166 is another GWR unit that has become more popular on the line recently with the timetable change, this is a freebie for DTG to layer in given that it's already in Great western express. Class 220/221 Another extremely popular set of stock on the network, however this would likely require an extension down to Worcestershire parkway, possibly too far for this route realistically. class 66, provides all of the freight traffic along this route, doing both container and steel moves several times a day. I really do think this route would add something to tsw2, and most of the units could either be layers from other dlc, or standalone dlc. I have heard that abellio have been uncooperative when it comes to DTG getting them in games, so this may be an issue however I'm sure DTG could get something sorted. I think especially with the variety of stock on this route there's lots of cash to be made for DTG, which is obviously a factor in this. lmk what you think!
Having spent 3 years at uni in Worcester, I'd love to see it represented in TSW (it's not officially in TS22 as it's a 3rd party freeware route). I know Foregate St and Shrub Hill very well having travelled into and out of both of them many times to Birmingham or Cheltenham Spa. Malvern is so beautiful and I spent a lot of time walking and exploring the hills. Hereford is also a lovely city and I've done the route from Worcester to Hereford a few times.
