Peak Forest line - Buxton - Chinley & Ambergate, 1963 Stanier 8F Stanier Jubilee 6P5F Fowler 4F 0-6-0 The Ambergate to Chinley line was a scenic part of the Midland Railway’s main line from London to Manchester, carrying a full range of services. Hugging the valley sides of the rivers Derwent and Wye, it travelled in a northwest-southeast direction over the limestone hills of the Peak District before committing to the final climb up Great Rocks Dale, to the summit pass at Peak Dale. The southern section was opened by the Manchester, Buxton, Matlock and Midlands Junction Railway in 1849 and the reminder completed by the Midland Railway in 1867. With the depletion of the coalfields in the north west, huge quantities were instead transported from the East Midlands fields around Nottingham via the line, to Manchester, hauled by, amongst others, Fowler 7F & Stanier 8Fs. Centred around Peak Forest were numerous limestone quarries with both the unprocessed rock and the processed products eg quicklime being transported away. The gradient averaging 1 in 123 over the 14 miles to the to summit, necessitated a significant marshalling yard and banking operation at Rowsley, to split trains or provide banking to reduce the load on the couplings, and on the loco brakes during the descent. The number of tourists visiting the already popular Spas towns of Matlock & Buxton increased dramatically once the railway arrived. A number of top-flight expresses passed through - The Palatine (Manchester to London & return) Peaks Express (London to Manchester & return) The Midland Pullman (Manchester to London) (using the blue bespoke stock from 1960) Work In Progress
Work In Progress There will be an opportunity to take a scenic walk up to the Headstone Viaduct in Monsal Dale
The real route closed in 1967 and was well known for its limestone mining and freight. My only worries with this is the current state of steam workings and physics in TSW3. I hope these get some work before this route comes along such as manual full firing features to control those safety valves. As well as all the current outstanding SoS bugs and issues such as the lack of AI sounds. Anothering worrying issue is the 4F, were are sounds going to come from? there are only x3 4F's in preservation and NONE of them are in service.
I'm sure the fireman functionality (hard mode) will available. Even if they weren't, it wouldn't bother me as it's such a beautiful route. They already have the sounds used on the TS 4F.
My feelings are the same. All I'm concerned about is if it ends up like SoS, A white Elephant. Full of bugs then shoved into the dark recesses of the DTG cupboard, that they shove everything into that they can't be bothered to fix! Now that all of these new routes are coming out, all of the old will be pushed into the darkness even deeper. And so the Cycle of release, Don't Fix, Release, Will Continue... No, Must think Positive thoughts, New routes Will be great, and the old Will be fixed! New routes Will be great, and the old Will be fixed! New routes Will be great, and the old....... But I really want this route to work, and I so hope that they do pull it off. And that really excites me! I sincerely thank DTG for giving us another Steam route.
