It may have been a over a month now since this route was release, but I finally got my hands on Birmingham Cross-City Line over the Christmas period. I was particularly excited to pick this one up, especially as this was a route that I previously suggested on this forum over a year ago. I know there are other people on this forum that have done the same thing as me here, but there will always be a little satisfaction seeing a route you suggested finally be brought to life in TSW, and to be honest, it managed to pretty much turn out the way I suggested it... sort of. Okay, we did get the Class 323 in the West Midlands Train livery, as well as getting the entire main Cross-City Line, but the 323 was the only loco that came with the route. I did propose a Class 66 coming with the route as standard, but it only came as an additional layer from existing TSW content instead. However, it doesn't bother me too much though. as people would have quite rightly groaned at the sight of another add-on that comes with a 66, after going through 2 consecutive add-ons that feature them with the extended SEHS and the dirty one that came with the RHTT. I want to being by bringing up my suggestion because it also had two areas that I proposed back then, that didn't make it into the final route, these areas are Soho TMD and Landor Street. Now even if they weren't included, I was still curious to see if at the very least, the tracks were laid for those areas, and in the tradition of me breaking through a route's barriers to see what lies beyond them (like I've done with Brighton Main Line, Sherman Hill, Harlem Line and Kassel-Würzburg) I decided to go and find out. Soho TMD Now before this route came, I did have a sneaky suspicion that this area might have been planned for this route, but ended up getting cut, why may you ask? Well, if you decided in spawn-in walking into this route, when greeted with the map, around Birmingham is this area of track that looks suspiciously like the ones area Soho Depot. This is also the same case on the map you can access from the pause menu. Now this area was already discovered by someone on this forum. However, I still wanted to explore this area, as there was still one unanswered question... ...even if it's blocked off, do any trains actually use it? This is why when getting the following images, I decided to start the simulation around 5'o clock in the morning, before any of the 323 services start, just to see if any 323's where actually in that area at the time. So I guess without further ado, let's start exploring hidden potential worlds beyond Cross-City Line. Let's start by looking at the western end of New Street station. Down below is a image of where the line splits into the Cross-City Line heading to the left, and the line to Soho TMD on the right (and beyond to Wolverhampton, Preston and to eventually Scotland). We would usually go left, but tt's this right hand lane that we are taking today. Heading down the tunnel, which is actually pretty good if you want to break the boundaries of the route. Just board a train at New Street, enter the free cam, fly it along this tunnel and then your free to explore what lies beyond at your own will. Tunnel walls end here, even if it carries on. This right here is the limit of the visible tracks that you can see on the map, looking back towards New Street. But take one simple look behind us... ...we see the track goes further on. Shall we see where it goes? The tunnel exit (which doesn't look like it has been model and instead, the line just sinks underground. Oh this is a promising site, and passing AI train. This here used to be a station, Moument Lane, which was actually resited from the old station located further north in 1886 and closed in 1954. Which explains why the track layout around here looks like this. Line follows the Canal for a bit. Once again, by the look of the track layout, a station once sat here. Winson Green, opened in 1876 and closed in 1957, and just behind where this image was taken... ...is Soho TMD itself, and look... Trains! There's actually quite a few of them here, and I would like to guess that they will eventually make there way onto the main running line, judging from the site of the one we saw earlier. Just a general look around the nearby junction. Doesn't appear to be much else around here, so that concludes this part of the exploration. So even if Soho isn't in the final route, it seems clear that there might have been the plan to include this area as part of the route, but ended up getting cut. Like what we saw with Nahverkehr Dresden's S-Bahn branches (before one was reinstated later), Sherman Hill's Track 3 and many more examples. However, similar to the former example, even if this area is blocked off, trains do seem to use this area, mainly for storage in-between usage. So if DTG ever decides to come back and reinstate this area, the services for this area are practically done, so all they would need to do is finish up the scenery, unlock those services, integrate them in the existing timetable and then tear down the invisible walls. I don't think it's likely that we will ever see this area become accessible, but the idea should at least be considered, as I feel like this route is just missing something without this area, and in my eyes, a route should at least come with 1 depot, just so the route isn't just a 'running back and forth down the line all day affair', like what the route is now. So with Soho out the way, let's move on to Landor Street and the freight line leading towards it.
Landor Street/Camp Hill Line This was another area that I previously proposed for this route, and it's reason was simple. It's was for the sake of having a more satisfactory freight experience on this route. You see, they may have not included any freight stock with the route, but you do get freight services from other add-ons in TSW, which are mainly restricted to the section between Bromsgrove and King's Norton (Just like in real life may I add). The problem with these services right now is that on average, they only last a grand total of... 18 minutes. Some of those service do last longer, depending on weight and whether they have to go up the Lickey Incline, but keep in mind, many of the services on this route last more than an hour, mainly due to the stop-start nature of the route. On a side, the HST services, which also only run on this small section, last even less time at only 13 minutes on average, so not very long at all. This was why I suggested the line to the Freightliner Terminal at Landor Street (known as the Camp Hill Line) back then, because even if this route doesn't have any freight stock, it at least gives these service some extra length to run along, and to make this part of the timetable feel worthwhile. Like with Soho, even if this area isn't part of the route, I was still curious to see if the track were at least laid of it, and if any of the freight services that the route does have use it coming in and out of the route. I did try to see if the Landor Street area was visible from a passing train, since the route, passes very close to area, but I couldn't really see it (I will admit it was snowing when I made that attempt, so that didn't help). But thanks to the power of breaking through the invisible walls, we can now go and see if this area really was laid out, going from the junction just east of New Street Station, as seen in the image below. This image here was taken at the limit of where you can the tracks heading in this direction on the map, and just quick spin around... ...there is the Freightliner Depot at Landor Street (with a bit of scenery around it). The mess of tracks that make up the junction here, even though some of these tracks don't have bridges when passing over other tracks. Another view of the Freightliner Depot Now let's head north and see if we find anything else This track here is actually the line coming from Aston. Which passes over the line we are on below. AI run-off is just up ahead in the distance. So nothing more to see here So let's go back sotuh to that junction and head down the Camp Hill Line to answer the big question, does this area join up with King's Norton and more to that point, do services actually use this line? If your wondering why there's a line diverting off to nowhere here, I will explain this all later. We now come to area with no scenery around... ...and look what we have here. An northbound Cement service on it's way out of the map. So yes, AI services do use this part of the route for entering/exiting the route, and it bodes well for the fact that this area joins up with King's Norton. This exploration continues on the next post down...
Welcome back, let's continue on... Line travels into a large cutting. There's suppose to be a small tunnel here, which explains why the track appears to head straight towards a cliff, but then emerges again on the other side. Heading back towards scenery again. ...and here we are, up ahead is the junction at King's Norton, which means yes, Landor Street is connected to King's Norton and therefore means the end of this section of exploration. Looking back towards where we came from. From having a look at this area, I'm in two minds about this. On one hand, I think if this route did have some freight content available as standard, it might have created an excuse to go and make this area in full. But on other hand, when your really think about the freight services that are available with the route, you do have to realise how far they have to go just to reach the AI spawn point in this direction. To put it this way, the distance between King's Norton to the AI spawn point just beyond Landor Street is almost the distance that they travel on Cross-City between Bromsgrove and King's Norton, so if these services spent almost less than half of there time actually drivable on this route, you first have to ask, why did DTG even bother put freight layers on this route to begin with and secondly, could they have spent a bit of time just to add this extra bit in? with the Freightliner Terminal being the main start/end point in this direction. I don't know how you would go about adding this area in, maybe as part of some freight pack of some kind, but I don't know. That depends if there any more that can be added when it comes to freight on this route (which I'm sure could be possible, as freight is quite light at the moment with only 9 of them in total down here). But there is a slight catch with this area, remember that area that had a stretch of track diverting off to nowhere. Well, there's a reason for that, which leads to the last part of this thread. Birmingham Snow Hill Station Let me start by saying that I don't think this was ever expected to be part of this route (and I expect it never will) but I still wanted to see if this area was represented in some way, or at the very least, the building was, and I can say from having looked myself that it is... ...but it's quite a mess up here. You can see a building clipping through walls looking down the tunnel here. This area might look like it was slapped together quickly, but to be fair, I don't think it's likely that anyone will really notice this area, unless you peep your camera above to tunnel mouth. But regardless, let's go down the line and see if there's anything else to see. An abandoned viaduct joins up here (just like there is in real life). ...and here's lies the problem. You see the track ends here, but just up ahead in the distance, you can see the Camp Hill Line the we were just on a minute ago. The problem here is that in real life, these tracks would carry and pass underneath that line heading in the direction of Tyseley and join up with that branch of track that I pointed out earlier. Not to mention that there is in real life a big yard on the other side which, even if I doubt that it would ever be made accessible, would still have to be laid out, as it would look incredibly silly if either we didn't see any tracks pass underneath here, or all there was here was just a pair of tracks passing underneath. I don't want to say that this is impossible, just quite a bit of effort would be required around here, and I think in general, that it's pretty unlikely that we will ever see this area done up some capacity in the future, but as always, I would love to be proven wrong. So that concludes this exploration of Cross-City Line hidden areas, and from everyone that we have explored here, there still remains one big question... ...Was there ever any plans to include any of these areas as part of the main route? From what we've just explored, there's a good chance that there might of be, especially in the case of Soho TMD. I probably wouldn't have said the same about Landor Street, Camp Hill Line & Snow Hill, but maybe from releasing this thread, we might get answers here. But only time will tell on that. As for whether we will ever see these areas done up and be accessible, it would be nice, but I doubt it personally. The Soho area isn't really that long and probably won't add too much to the overall experience, even though it would be beneficial for the sake of having a depot on this route, and there would need to be a good excuse to go and make the Camp Hill Line/Landor Street in full. Like I said, probably as part of some freight expansion, but I'm not sure on that. We'll just have to see how time goes if ever any of these sections get finished up in full, but for now, don't expect this to happen any time soon.
Last night I drove a steel train to King's Norton, gave it up to the new AI driver, and then got stuck on board as they departed immediately. I sat in the secondman's seat, watching in surprise at the unfinished Camp Hill Line. I found this thread today, and now it makes sense. I haven't picked up TSW 4 yet, but I wonder if modders can complete these areas in the new editor. The editor FAQ says that existing routes can be added to but not modified, so I wonder if the roughed-in scenery will get in the way. If not, this sounds like low-hanging fruit since the hard work of building track, terrain, and timetables is already done.
Excellent work there WonterRail. I came across Landor Street, and beyond, just recently and then came straight on here to see who else had explored beyond the barriers. Fortunately you've done the donkey work! Have you managed to explore other areas of the route, like the Trent Valley line? Is it possible to reach Soho TMD using spawned trains and wrong line running?
