It would be interesting to see if the Thames Branches experiment proves popular, and if so, that approach - a collection of small branches of the same mainline - is repeated by anyone else. If so, here are a couple of options, both, like the Thames Branches, connected by existing TSW routes. 1. Southeast Bavaria The Rosenheim to Salzburg route has several branches, many of which run north to a hub at Muhldorf. To stick to the brief though, we'd keep them unconnected, and focus on the routes heading south, namely: Prien to Aschau Traunstein to Ruhpolding Freilassing to Berchtesgaden. All routes traverse beautiful Bavarian scenery - the first one is electrified, while the third used to get a daily IC service. Rolling stock: DB 628, DB 426, OEBB 4024 2. Aachen to Dueren This is a more connected set of routes, although a selection could be chosen if the Thames Branches style wants to be kept. The Euregiobahn is a collection of non-electrified lines that largely circle around the Aachen to Koeln railway, with a branch to the south at Stolberg. Further east, the Rurtalbahn operates three branches, two to the south, and one to the north Rolling stock: DB 643, 640, 650
The Southeast Bavaria branch lines sounds great! Freilassing to Berchtesgaden is an iconic route and never made it to TSC. Would love to see that plus the other two branch lines.
The logical candidates would be the remaining Cornish branches - Falmouth, Newquay, Looe and possibly Gunnislake. Now that would be a worthwhile purchase and more justification in omitting the main line due to the distance. Obviously it would sell for more than £15 but even at £30 would be more likely a candidate for Day One purchase.
If Johannes work proves popular (and its looking good at the moment), of course we must do the branches off of the GWE nearer London. However, many of yo will say "there's only Greenford and perhaps Heathrow but everyone seems to ignore the remaining freight lines from Southall to Brentford waste terminal (formerly the Brentford Docks branch) as well as the Thorney Mill/Colnbrook aggregate/fuel line from West Drayton (formerly on the Staines West branch which used to connect to the former Uxbridge Vine Street branch also from West Drayton). This could provide a mixture of passenger and freight movements and possibly even open a door to a similar pack from the much earlier era with Staines West and Uxbridge Vine Street via West Drayton, Brentford Docks via Southall, a much grander Windsor and Eton Central, Maidenhead to High Wycombe and finally a more impressive Henley on Thames. After that the are a few branches (and former branches) of the WCML between Euston and Milton Keynes that are currently missing and likely many other old and current branches on routes we already have. Sorry to be uk focused but I only buy uk routes.
