New British Routes Speculation

I can't believe you leaked DTG’s release schedule for the next decade.

 

Ultimat3? Probably missing something there, but maybe a clue? A wash? ...Kings Lynn?

 

I enjoyed playing the BVE version of this in the early 2000s - it was the best route available due to the attention to detail, but what made it was also the rich variety of rolling stock which you'd see on the way.

 

Yes a work of genius, Anthony Bowden was the author IIRC. Mind I aligned mine to run with the 37/4 and Load 4 very thrashworthy!

It would call for a retro DLC though - Class 116 DMU's (with latterly displaced 115's from Marylebone) then if memory serves me correctly the awesome 304's worked the route for a bit before the milk floats (323s) arrived. Not sure if 310's or 312's appeared on the route.

If it's done ultra modern might mean Bromsgrove is included in which case we get to thrash the Lickey.

 

New Street will be pretty quiet as per Glasgow Central on Cathcart. The one good thing about London Commuter is that it's busy. Birmingham New Street has Voyagers, turbostars, desiro EMUs, Pendolinos, 323s of course, Some TFW units and various new flavour of LNW/WMTs plus the odd HST.

 

How many more Prime Ministers before the announcement of the routes?

 

I'd love to see Wales make an appearance in TSW at some point. Plenty of local routes with the Valley Lines, mainline could do Swansea to Newport and Cardiff to Ebbw Vale. Depending on what era they do as well they'd have their choice in DMUs and locos.

I even did a mock up Valley Lines livery on a 101 but would be fun to get some 142s and 143s.

 

I hope they're released before November 8th.
Depending on what happens over here, I might need some serious distraction for a while.

 

Nor do Wales and N. Ireland according to you lot!

 

For a few years here in Australia, it was a running joke that "we've got a new prime minister, time to change your smoke alarm battery"

 

I wondered about the ‘Wash’ reference and it potentially being King’s Lynn as the only AC route nearby. It’s all Electrostars, so easy from a traction perspective. However, Cambridge to King’s Lynn is an exceptionally boring route from a Driver’s perspective. Mile after mile of the same flat, featureless landscape. It’s difficult to imagine anyone choosing it as a route to re-create.

It reminds me of a conversation I had about route learning norms (the number of days allowed to learn a route) with a Driver who signs it. “Oh it’s quite easy” he said, “you just learn the first mile - then it’s the same again, and again, and again, and again - until you arrive at Lynn”.

Cross City would be fine for me. Plenty of interest - stations, junctions, speed restrictions, gradients etc - and a unit which - if we must have modern EMUs - at least has a full size windscreen so that we don’t have to view the route through a sideways letter-box.

 

As redrev1917 says, we'll have had at least 3 by then, it's what 2 weeks away!
What has a lesser shelf life than Truss' lettuce?

 

Hey if it is Cross City, how about an Easter Egg of a driveable canal boat, similar to that freeware game you can download on the tablets. That would be a bit of fun, puttering along at 4 MPH watching the trains from the cut.

However I fear as happened with TSW3 when we got all excited thinking we were getting WCML over Shap or similar and instead got warmed over SEHS, all this speculation will end in disappointment.

 

What if the new route is a London Overground route?

 

My assumptions are that the processing of the HST is related to its possible joint use on the new АС route. I would very much like it to be London то Peterborough with BR class 90.

 

Gradients, junctions, operational interest. Traction with more than one handle. WCML over Shap in a 390 is almost flat.....I'm wondering if the Wherry lines is being cooked up somewhere tbh....

 

Maybe the GWE changed to the Elizabeth Line?

 

However that doesn't quite fit with AC electric route other than Norwich itself, though Norfolk Broads definitely calm water.
I could definitely go for Wherry Lines in TSW though, particularly if it also included the Sheringham Branch.

I really hope not. That would be worse than warmed over SEHS.

 

I could be wrong, but those trains stopped in the St Pancras area could be saying the route is "under construction". It could be a hint that an ECML will come or not, who knows...

 

This is my favourite bit of speculation today. I'm changing my bet to Great Northern Electrics

 

Probs not Wherry lines no...I forgot the AC part

 

Liverpool Lime St to Manchester Victoria is AC isn't it? Then, further down the line, when we get a Northern Trans Pennine modern-day upgrade, we get the Liverpool to Leeds extension

We can dream..

 

That’s a good point you make. I believe is either ECML or WCML. I’m leaning towards the ECML since that would bring thameslink 700 that would layered into SEHP and BML routes…..

 

To dive properly down the hole of ridiculous speculation:

Calm water = Thameslink Canal Tunnels or The Wash if it goes that far?
Matt said he's pointing us 'away from Southern electrics' - towards (Great) Northern Electrics?

Can you tell I'm bored at work?

 

I think during when the SEHS timetable was set there was a blockade outside of Kings Cross in real life for remodelling works.

Though the ECML would mean they’d be able to re-use the St. Pancras tile of the map with all the detail and SE AI left in if you own the route…

 

Ohhhhh yes I'd love to see the 700 on BML.

 

I would love to see WCML: Over Shap 80's with the APT, either that or a modern WCML with the Pendolino and Super Voyager. I think it's time we get some tilting UK trains!

I would also be very happy if we got an ECML route with an InterCity HST and Class 91

 

My guess for what its worth, a couple of clues I think have been out there in the streams and how DTG have worked in the past.

When they made east Coastway Matt said in a stream now they had Brighton station they could build north from there.
We have St Pancras station fully modelled.

It was mentioned there was a space in the London Brighton timetable for a Thameslink layer of services. Class 700 on the way?

There does seem to be some synergy now between TS classic and TSW3 in production of routes and stock, I know they are different games, but they have utilized the same models and sounds. DTG produced the Class 700 and within a couple of weeks Armstrong powerhouse produced their class700 EP, which seems to say to me they must have already been working on Class700 sounds.

So, my guess is we will get the midland main line, I am guessing as far as Bedford, with amongst the rolling stock a class 700 which will layer into SEHS and BML.

Mind you all my guesses in the past have been wrong.

 

Bristol to Cardiff could be a contender given it's now electrified in real life, although I would rather see North Wales first TBH.

 

I do believe that is an Easter egg and was put there on purpose. Particularly one heading towards st pancras thameslink. I’m speculating that we will get kings cross with st pancras to Peterborough and Cambridge. Which would make it 33 total stations with 700 thameslink, 717 great northern ,LNER class 800s. Again all this just speculating and all for fun.

 

Still longing and hoping for a bit of Woodhead action one day

 

Not Temple Meads to Cardiff, only the mainline through Bristol Parkway is electrified. And as much as I'd love to finally see Wales in TSW3 just having Bristol to Cardiff would be a bit of a letdown. I'd rather have it go on to Swansea or if we're gonna do a route around Bristol, have it be the line down to Exeter or the GWML to Swindon or Didcot. Obviously allowing for a possible merge with GWE.

And why is everyone obsessing over Matt saying "calm waters"?! He's just saying the speculation had died down so he wanted to get it going again. Everyone on this forum thinks they're Sherlock Holmes. Matt isn't Moriarty (to my knowledge).

 

JD could be Dr Watson though...

Woodhead is an interesting thought, unfortunately wrong era and 1500v DC not 25kv AC. However it would be great to see with a 76 for the main line services and 506's on the locals. Not sure how you would source the sounds on the latter, though there was (maybe still is) a very similar type used on Cape Town local trains in South Africa.

 

Honestly how many routes do they make they couldn't build off of in the future though? I don't think there's really a route where DTG or a third party builds it with no expansion possibilities in mind. Hell, even the tiny closed off Isle of Wight has been expanded upon, and that is one of the more limited places in TSW for expansion.

Some's a pretty keyword though, they jump all over the place with projects, they don't stick to one lane for long. Just look at the Rush Hour routes, that shows how much they leap around perfectly. Dresden - Riesa was a barely year old addition to TSC at the time of release, London - Brighten though is one of the older TSC routes, and then there's Boston Sprinter which just doesn't exist in TSC at all.

That seems a odd conclusion to come to when you mentioned this-

-earlier. The Acela's very likely coming, and that similarly has formations already present on its home route of Boston Sprinter. I would think logic would dictate that if data for 700 services exist then it's likely being planned as a loco add-on, not as a train for another route.

 

I am really hoping for the acela

 

Matt's Only Connect level of hints are just about right I think..we still don't have much of a steer on the routes, and makes the wait a bit more bearable!

 

My speculation is Faversham to Dover and Ramsgate , we need a service going via Whitstable and Margate , and an extension to Sandwich , extension to Dover , and the Class 375/6

 

Currently running any of JD's posts through a cipher cracker to see what he is really saying....

 

As much as I’d genuinely like to see the ECML South in TSW, I’m honestly sick of routes based in or around London/the SE now. We really need a change of scenery.

 

Ultimately none of us have any idea at all really but it's a little fun game to guess.

 

IMO any of the routes that radiate from London not heading south are different enough to justify being produced - ECML South is of LNER heritage and feels different to the southern region routes we have so many of. I would still like to see routes elsewhere as well of course.

 

There's a lot of American passenger routes worth making as well, but didn't change the fact it got tiring to see no new American freight routes for a whole bloody year in TSW1/2. There's a time and place for everything, and London's gotten a lot of time, and plenty of places to itself. There's plenty of places in the UK which haven't been explored, it's worth giving those areas a go as well. Would much rather see something out of Edinburgh or York for ECML than London if it were to come in the near-term myself.

 

Based out of Leeds and primarily electric operated (Class 333 and Class 321 and/or Class 331) the Airedale line and Wharfedale line could be a pretty strong contender...

 

My gut feeling is they’ll go big on this one and I do think it could be ECML with it being top of the pops for years. Another big timetable from Joe etc

I think rivet will pick up, smaller uk routes this time around

 

I’m going for DTG doing part of ECML, which I’m certain has been in the works for a while. I also think Rivet might do another section of the ECML too but that’s a wild stab just because they both have the same code and were announced at the same time. That would help with getting more trains if they share each other’s as a sort of joint venture. But really it could be any of many AC electric routes even a modern version of Liverpool to Crewe (and beyond) with a Class 390 for some WCML action.

 

I think someone's been on the sauce again

 

You also have the LNER trains to Bradford and Skipton which could be included or added later.

 

Sorry, but the ECML is rather boring, remembering my experience of it in TSC, especially the coma-inducing stretch from York to Newcastle ( partially relieved by the presence of the Deltic ).

As for any more trains called 3XX, I'm praying to the Great Railway God to spare me and the rest of the human race.

Doesn't the UK rail system have any actual locomotives any more?

 

there are locomotives that start with a 3 but aren't in tsw like the 323, 350, 325, 317, 365, 319, 390, 303, 321. Some I got just from watching armstrong powerhouse videos. Im sure there are many more 3xx locomotives out there.