Everybody in Britain once lived within the territory of one of 4 rail companies: these roughly being the LMS northwest of London, LNER to the northeast, GWR to the southwest, and SR to the southeast. Many would agree the grandest of these being the LNER, although they were the poorest. Many routes in TSW3 are set in the modern day, but this becomes a bit of a predicament when you want a route that has vanished with time, and it seems the game has been expanding to further ago periods, so hear me out: an LNER London to Rugby route. One of the constituents of the LNER would be the GCR, who built the now-closed Great Central Main Line (or “London Extension”) between London Marylebone and Manchester Piccadilly, but of course, that would be a route much too long. I would say the most appropriate distance would be the section from London Marylebone to Rugby Central, but perhaps Woodford Halse if the latter is considered too big. Although some people would prefer the route in its final days with BR, but I think it would be more interesting to see the line in the ‘30s or ‘40s, as this was when the line had an interesting array of old and new, all in a brilliant apple green livery. Let’s get to the locomotives: Gresley A3 Pacific Robinson A5 Pacific Gresley B17 Ten-wheeler Robinson C4 Atlantic Gresley V2 Prairie That’s all of the locomotives, a mix of Robinson and Gresley designs. I think it would be very interesting to see a pre-nationalisation depiction of Britain’s railways, and this route would be perfect. Although it’s not the ECML, it still was an important artery in a network long gone.
Of course, with the A3, we need Flying Scotsman. I'd also suggest the V2 and A4 Pacific (Mallard, for example).
Being from Lincolnshire I've always been an LNER/ER 'fan' so would love to see these locos in game (especially the V2s!) and from what I have been told the route wouldn't be too bad however it may be better to start at Rugby and go north up the GCR.
I wanted to avoid going north due to the fear of including the Woodhead line, which I think would be better in its electrified state after nationalisation, but also because I thought it would be exciting to see industrial London before the Clean Air Act of 1956.
one problem with the suggestion is that you are suggesting locomotives with have no survivors so producing a model and getting the sounds would be hard. Yes, the A5 is in TS so DTG could get permisson from the developer of that loco (Caledonia Works) but the other extinct classes would be hard to do
I know what you’re saying but, like you mentioned, Caledonia Works have A5 sounds, and Sonic Models are making a model of it too, so there’s the A5 solved. The C4 could be modelled using the NRM’s model on display, and I imagine they could use sounds from the preserved 63601 on the Great Central Railway in Loughborough, which has the same type of boiler. The 3 Gresley designs have preserved examples so that would be simple enough.
ok.. That is the A5 solved but 63601 has been out of traffic since 2012 however, I'm hoping that it shouldn't be too long (give or take a few years) before we see her once again steaming
