I put to you a very nice route that could be created on TSW2 considering the announcement that longer routes may be possible in the future. Aalborg to Aarhus is a mainline in the mainland of Denmark. Aalborg is a harbour city in North Jutland and Aarhus is a harbour city on the east coast further south in Middle Jutland. This route is double track, and unelectrified (at present), and uses the Danish IC3 DMU for the intercity trains operated by DSB, which are shown below. It also has some freight movements from Aalborg which heads south. These often use the Danish MZ locomotives which are operated by DB Schenker in both DSB and DB livery which are both shown below. Aalborg also uses some local trains that go to Skørping as part of the Aalborg Nærbane (Aalborg commuter Rail) which is about 30km south of Aalborg. This service is operated by Nordjyske Jernbaner and uses a Desiro DMU as seen in the photo below. The full line is roughly 101KM long, with a range of speed limits. From Aalborg to Randers, the limit is 120km/h and 180km/h. From Randers to Aarhus it is 160km/h. Aarhus: Aarhus is a through station, but requires trains heading from Copenhagen and the boarder heading to Aalborg and further north to enter the station and reverse. This is why I chose it as the main station to end and start at because: A) it being the second largest Danish city B) freight trains are stabled at Aarhus until they are turned around to head south C) it being a good starting and stopping point on the route with all trains having to stop there Randers: Randers is roughly 60km from Aalborg and 40km from Aarhus. It is the second largest stop on the journey from Aarhus to Aalborg. Due to its location, I would recommend that if this were to make it to TSW2, that the journeys be split in two where either the player chooses to ‘Return to Freeroam’ and continue the journey, or whether to finish there. This is so that players have the opportunity to choose how long they are willing to play for. Each whole journey from Aalborg to Aarhus takes roughly an hour and a half, so it would be a good point to split the services. Aalborg: Aalborg is one of the main termini in North Jutland for the main Intercity trains. With some sidings and some loops for freight, Aalborg would be a great place to start and terminate trains. The routes main stations on an ICL (Intercity Lyn) journey are as follows from north to south (I have included a link to Wikipedia for more information on each town): Aalborg - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aalborg Skalborg - a suburb of Aalborg Svenstrup - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svenstrup_station Støvring - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Støvring Skørping - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skørping Arden - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arden_Municipality Hobro - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobro Randers - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randers Langå - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langå Aarhus - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aarhus For DLC, addons could be such as the IC4 DMU and the DSB Nohab MY Locomotive. both of these would add to the realism of the Danish route. Being from Aalborg, I personally believe that this route is a very good contender for routes in the TSW2 community because this route is a key part of life for commutes, and for families. For example, when I have travelled on the IC3 trains, there was a ‘Family Car’ which is specifically designed for families and young children who have to travel from the North of Denmark to the capital and between stations to see separated parents among other things. The route is very pretty spanning from the forests in Arden to the city life of Aarhus and Aalborg. With a range of trains to use and with the use of diesel, it makes it unique to the modern routes of TSW. Please comment and let me know if you have any suggestions on how to improve this. (All images found on internet)
Since Aalborg Airport has a new station being built, I would recommend that if this were to be added to TSW2, then the extension from Aalborg to the airport would be much needed. It would bring the local services more stations and it has plans for services from the Airport station to directly go to Kastrup Airport in Copenhagen. The Diesero and the IC3 would both go to the Airport station. It is a single Bay platform, with a passing loop halfway.
More details about landmarks for the route: The Rold Skov is the second largest forest in Denmark going through Arden and Skørping. Aalborg is the city which lies both sides of the Limfjord which separates the north of Denmark from Jutland. Randers has a dock railway which goes along side the road through town. There is also the Randers Regnskov which is a man made eco system which is near the station and can be seen very clearly. At Aalborg, there is a Heritage Centre where some special steam and diesel services are kept. This is called the Limfjords Bane. They use the Original Roundhouse for storage. The signalling is new to TSW, with a similar, but different method to the German Railways. See the signals below: more information on how the signals operate can be found online. (All images taken from Google)
