The line I’m suggesting is the Manchester Piccadilly to Sheffield via Reddish, Brinnington, Bredbury and Stockport. Services on this route include local stoppers ran by Northern and express routes ran by Transpennine Express and East Midlands Railways As part of the route I’d include the 2.7km branch line running from Earle’s sidings to Hope Cement Works. The line runs through the Hope Valley, which hosts some of the highest peaks in England and beautiful scenery. It is host to 3 tunnels, the Totley tunnel which is the 4th longest tunnel in England, the Cowburn tunnel which is the deepest tunnel in England and the Disley tunnel. The majority of the route is double track though at Dore and Totley station junction and Edgely junction just after Hazel Grove station it is single track only. Rolling Stock: Class 185 - run express services to Sheffield, could provide layers at Manchester Piccadilly. Class 158 - East Midland Railway express services to Sheffield, could be used in the Northern Livery to provide layers at Sheffield Class 195 - stopper service to Sheffield, provide layers at Sheffield and Manchester Piccadilly. Class 331 - used for stopping services from Man Pic to Hazel Grove - for a route like this, it would be under utilised but could be used for layers. Due to commonality with the class 195, it could be easier to introduce. Class 150 - layer for services towards Buxton, could also be used in place of the 195 for services towards Sheffield. Class 20 - used as a shunter at Earles siding for Freight towards Hope Cement Works. Class 66 - used for freight runnings from Earles sidings to other destinations Places of Interest Manchester Piccadilly - terminus of the Transpennine and Northern services from Sheffield, East Midland services would run via platform 13/14 onwards to Liverpool Lime Street. Ardwick depot - used for maintenance and stabling of the class 185 fleet. Stockport - stop after Manchester Piccadilly, used by EMR and TPExpress. Line towards Sheffield diverges from WCML. Hazel Grove services would also stop here. Hazel Grove - terminus of the Hazel Grove stopper from Manchester Piccadilly, end point of electrification and stop on the Buxton line. Chinley - Northern, Transpennine Express and East Midlands Railways services meet/diverge before/ after this station Earles Sidings - beginning point of the branch line towards Hope Cement Works Dore and Totley - stop on the Hope Valley line. Point where the Hope Valley Line meets/separates with the Midland Mainline. Sheffield -major station on the Midland Mainline. Used by East Midlands Railway, Transpennine Express services and Northern Rail. The route would begin at Manchester Piccadilly, with Transpennine Express and Northern commencing services there. East Midlands trains could be picked up from platform 13/14. Northern services would go north via Mill Hill Central and Transpennine and East Midland Services would go via Stockport and Hazel Grove and carry on to Sheffield as an express with some infrequent droppings at places such as Dore and Totley, Hope and Hazel Grove. Northern Services would run a stopper service through areas of Manchester and Stockport before connecting back at Chinley and carrying on the local stopper towards Sheffield. Potential DLC: Class 70 - used to work freight runnings from Hope Valley Cement Works to other destinations. This proposal would add life to Piccadilly, introducing a variety of layers to the station - with class 195s, 331s, 185s added as layers along with the 323. It would also introduce Sheffield to the game, as the newest addition to the midland mainline. At Sheffield class 195s, 185s, 158s, 150s and class 43s as layers to the station adding an aspect of life to the station, preventing it from an empty feeling we’ve got with previous stations in the game. This route would offer a variety of different services from local stoppers through to shunters all in one route, something that I feel hasn’t been properly achieved in a UK TSW route before. Edited to add more details.
I think this would be a fantastic route to bring to the game with fantastic scenery and service variety, it's got express services, local services and a real Commuter / Network feel at the Manchester end. I think that sadly there are just a few too many stations for the route to be represented currently in the game however I've a feeling this is going to change soon. I always give DTG too much credit for being strategic with DLC plans and end up disappointed but it feels like there has been a sea-change recently. I feel that one of the main reasons Glossop Line was chosen was to get Piccadilly into the game so it could be resued on future routes. If Skyhook manage to pull off extensions for MML that they've hinted at, with one going to Shedfield and then we get a future route via Stockport heading south then this route becomes a no-brainer.
I do think it could be one route that could work out quite well, especially given that we've got Man Picc in the game already and surroundings modelled and used. I do recognise that it would be momentous to complete. If anything, development of a dlc such as this would be similar to London Commuter with the amount of stations, depots, routes splitting, branch lines, rolling stock etc but I think it would be something that people would want - especially with the variety of services, freight potential and shunting in a modern era - something that isn't very usual on the modern British rail network. And I think if rolling stock were to be developed as listed above, could provide some much needed layers and life to other modern British dlc's such as the MML - if like you were saying, an extension to Sheffield was completed for MML and potentially the class 222 was brought in - we'd see stations such as Sheffield as well full of activity with Northern rail livered class 158s, 195s, EMT 222s, 158s, 43s, TPExpress 185s along with freight workings. Something that I don't think has been properly achieved in a modern British DLC outside of London. To be even more optimistic, if a modern day WCML was brought in with class 390s, we'd practically have a working station with a good variety of a traction - optimised with the use of creators club liveries, and potentially train models developed on the editor. Now, that is just me being very optimistic but one can hope.
Bring it on and this should make Manchester Piccadilly Busy when combined with the Woodhead Line Manchester Picadilly to Glossop and Hadfield
