Gameplay Improving Lineside Industry: East Coast Main Line: Peterborough - Doncaster (8 Industries)

Introduction

Hi, welcome to another post in my series "Improving Lineside Industry". I'm going to be looking at various routes in Train Sim World and highlighting what we have, and what we could have, in regard to railways that serve the various industries along them. I find these to be very interesting, and I think maximizing opportunities for players to use them in TSW would greatly enhance our game.

I've tried to limit any suggestions to what is just about already within the scope of the route, and might just need some extra modelling of scenery, and perhaps a few new wagons.

It must be said that I haven't been a fan of railways for very long, and I'm from Australia, so I'd love for you to add your knowledge about these far-flung routes and correct anything I get wrong. I have speculated at times, as information can be hard to come by.

(Some of the screenshots here of the in-game map are rather poor-looking as I couldn't do any better with their resolution when zoomed out. Some areas do not have 3D buildings on Google Maps so only some locations will have those images included.)

Route

In this post, I'll be looking at East Coast Main Line: Peterborough - Doncaster. I believe the route is set in 2023. Here is a map of the route as represented in game, numbered with each location that I will be highlighting.



Industries

Location 1

Commencing at the north of the route in Doncaster, Trackwork Moll manufactures concrete rail sleepers. These are placed onto trains by gantry crane for dispatch to maintenance of way operations. Players could move FKA wagons under the crane for loading.






Location 2

Network Rail has a ballast stockpile in Doncaster where the material is loaded onto trains for use in maintenance of way work. Players could shunt consists in and out of the sidings here.





Location 3

Freightliner has an intermodal facility in Doncaster. Reach stackers tranship containers between lorries and trains. Players could arrive with containers, run around the consist, shunt wagons from siding to siding, and take them away again.







Location 4

iPort Rail is an intermodal facility in south Doncaster, just outside the area represented in game. The sidings allow long trains to be loaded and unloaded by reach stackers. The location is very close to numerous warehouses belonging to logistics companies. Players could shunt FKA wagon consists between the reception and handling sidings.

 

Location 5

South Doncaster is home to EcoPower Environmental which is a waste management company that recycles rubbish and produces fuel from biomass. Players could deliver and remove JNA wagons to and from their rail link.







Location 6

In Tallington, Tarmac has a plant that produces precast concrete elements. These include railway sleepers, bridge beams, and tunnel segments, which are loaded onto trains by forklift. The site was the first place in the world to make concrete railway ties (under the original operator Dow-Mac). Players could shunt wagons around the site for loading.









Location 7

GB Railfreight has a wagon maintenance facility in Peterborough. Here freight cars are repaired and serviced, and others are stored. Players could drop off and take away rakes of wagons from these sidings.

 

Location 8

Just north of Peterborough station is a siding where spoil is loaded onto trains by excavator. Players could shunt JNA wagons here.






Conclusion

I hope this was interesting. Please feel free to add to this and let me know what I've got wrong. Thanks for reading!

 

Honestly DTG ought to hire you for research on routes. As always this is an amazing and informative overview of what DTG missed industry wise.

 

DTG could be more comprehensive and broaden the scope of their routes, but if players simply use these posts as inspiration for Free Roam, then the effort is worth it.

 

Not gonna lie they should just connect Nottingham with the ECML and that's already Doncaster and Peterborough to Derby covered

 

Extending it from Grantham-Nottingham is still a decent amount of work and given its 2 seperate developers I have no idea if that's work.

To be honest I'm hesitant on the idea of merges regardless if DTG has Said yes or no to them in the past

 

Amazing work LewieLevy. Even if half of these became a reality I’d be happy.

Not sure if it’s still active, but the Royal Mail depot platforms, south-east of Doncaster, are present and likely usable for something interesting. Do mail trains still use them?

 

Thanks, I missed those. By the looks of it, they're not used for mail. They seem to be repurposed as extra stabling capacity for other freight trains.

 

I think the main reason DTG hasn't done this is because it would require a lot of liscensing. If they were to be added I'd think only a few would come as it would take a lot of work to try to get liscensing and for example the crane that would take a lot of work. Still great research.

 

They haven't included the Nene Valley Railway either.

 

excellent idea however the JNA wagon needs Woodchip load for the biomass power station.