Hello all! Now that steam is well and truly on its way in TSW2 (very exciting, I know!), I want to suggest a GWR route which I think would be great in the steam era, and so I present the route between Swindon and Gloucester and Cheltenham, with the Cirencester and Tetbury branches. Unfortunately, I was not even a twinkle in the milkman's eye when steam ruled the rails to know much about the line at the time, so the little information I have found may need to be taken with a pinch of salt. I hope someone who knows more can correct and add information . With that out of the way, let's look at the route! The route is 42 and 1/3 miles between Swindon and Cheltenham, with the 5 mile branch to Cirencester and the 7 1/2 mile branch to Tetbury, both branches originating at Kemble. There are 20 stations (including halts) on the main line, including Swindon, Kemble, Gloucester and Cheltenham Spa, 6 on the branch to Tetbury and 2 on the line to Cirencester. Here are a few route maps/diagrams to illustrate how it all fits together. Ideally, the route would come with two locomotives, a mixed traffic tender engine and a mixed traffic tank engine. I'm going to suggest the 4073 "Castle" class of locomotives. These are some of the most iconic locomotives from GWR, with a total of 171 locomotives being constructed between 1923 and 1950. These locomotives would be seen pulling express passenger trains between Cheltenham, Gloucester and London Paddington. I'm unsure whether these locomotives were used for express/long distance freight traffic, however here one can be seen on a parcel's train. The other locomotive I'm going to suggest is the iconic GWR 5700 pannier tanks, also known as "Duck" These trains will operate the short branch lines as well as the local stopping services that run on the line. These were built between 1929 and 1950, with a total of 863 locomotives produced. Many variations of the 5700s were produced, some of which were able to run push-pull autotrains. It would be very cool to have the GWR autocoach and a suitable locomotive run on this route. Some interesting things I found out: On the topic of autotrains, these ran between Chalford and Gloucester on the "Chalford shuttle". Autotrains were frequently seen on branch lines as well, so services to Cirencester and Tetbury could be served with autotrains. However, I did discover that on the Tetbury branch, many trains ran with mixed passenger and freight consists, with the locomotive shunting at either end. This meant that autotrains were impractical as coupling and uncoupling took too long. There was also a photo I found in which the description told of the express from Paddington arriving at Gloucester station (in this case, pulled by a Castle class) and a tank engine was being used to run the section between Gloucester and Cheltenham Spa. I wonder how often this arrangement was used, as it would be a great and interesting operation to include in the game. This would be a great route to have during the steam era, and it would include two branch lines that are now no longer there, which would give them a new life despite closure. It would also include Swindon works during the steam era, with much of GWR's locomotives being built here.
Excellent Idea because this line was used as a diversionary route from the South Wales Main Line if the Severn Tunnel was closed and shortcut to London Paddington via Gloucester Newport Line
Now there's an idea for a scenario! Another idea I had for one would be to take a brand new locomotive from Swindon and use the line to test it. I don't know if this was done in real life but it's a scenario. Does anyone know if this route had the non-stop travelling post office equipment?
