Hello everyone today I'm going to present my masterplan for european freight. My main suggestion will be, as you've seen in the title, Rotterdam Harbour to Emmerich. But to get there I will follow Matt's advice and also be suggesting some other DLC at the bottom of this thread. Those might get expanded upon later in more detail in other threads and if that's the case I'll add links. But for now the Havenspoorlijn and Betuweroute are around 160km running from the Maasvlakte (western most point of the harbour of Rotterdam) to the border with Germany near Emmerich. This massive route can be split up into 2 sections one running from the Maasvlakte to Kijfhoek at around 40km and the other from Kijfhoek to Emmerich. Now the size of this route might scare you, but don't worry, most of the section between Kijfhoek and Emmerich is empty farm lands. Most of which doesn't even have to be the highest quality scenery since a lot of this route has sound bariers. Whilst this route is very busy for freight it isn't that busy for passenger services so performance shouldn't be too much of an issue. Unlike the rest of the Netherlands the Betuwe route is the only place where freight trains are allowed to go faster than 100km/h namely 120. It isn't a lot faster, but at least it's something. Most of the industries are unelectrified, but the mainline is electrified all the way from the Maasvlakte. The Havenspoorlijn and Betuwe route use the standard european 25kV 50hz AC, Kijfhoek is electrified to the dutch standard of 1,5kV DC and the german part is electrified with 15kV 16,7hz. There are neutral sections and power changeovers on this route. Now that we've had a basic overview let's discuss in more detail. Maasvlakte - Kijfhoek Waalhaven - Emmerich Maasvlakte The start of the route, being the closest to the sea this point of the harbour usually has the biggest ships. It has mainly oil, coal and container traffic. It also has a few shunting yards filled with wagons waiting to be transported elsewhere. Ofcourse with a lot of terminals using cranes to load most of it is unelectrified, but there are still some areas with electrification. Europoort Ets2 are familiair with this place. Europoort is smaller then Maasvlakte and mainly takes in chemicals. It also has the ferry to Hull allowing for some truckpiggyback trains to also visit here. This section is also mostly unelectrified. (Europoort on the right, Maasvlakte on the left) Botlek Also mainly chemicals, but this one is a lot bigger then Europoort. This place also has both the Botlek bridge and tunnel on it connecting to the rest of the harbour. again mostly unelectrified Vondelingenplaat I'll give you 1 guess to what is the main industry. If you guessed chemicals than you are correct. But don't worry the next area is going to be fun again. Waalhaven/Eemhaven Again an area ets2 fans might recognize and also the container heaven of the harbour of Rotterdam. And next to finally some variation this place also has the next major yard. And the maintenance facility of Alstom. If it's included this area also has a kuilwielenbank (or whatever it's called in english). Which repairs wheels to be made round again. And a kind of turntable that allows for locos to be moved side to side instead of in a circle. It also has a view of the depot of the Rotterdam Metro. (Botlek Left, Vondelingenplaat middle, Waalhaven right) Kijfhoek Now to the most famous part of the route and the biggest yard in the Netherlands Kijfhoek. This massive sorting yard allows for trains to come in mixed from the harbour and leave sorted to different places. This is done via Heuvelen (later more on that). IJsselmonde/Feijenoord (honorable mention) Small yard to the north of Kijfhoek, it isn't required in this dlc, but due to it allowing more services towards Bad Bentheim I would recommend also adding it in. Meteren (Betuwe) The first major connection point which allows trains from Germany to connect onward to Amsterdam or Brabant. In the future it will also allow for a connection from Brabant to Rotterdam. Valburg (Betuwe) The only real yard along the Betuweroute propper, This is used mainly for driver transfers as far as I know and as a connection point towards Nijmegen and Arnhem. Zevenaar and Emmerich This is where the route finally comes to an end. You cross the border here entering into PZB territory and having to do a power changeover. Emmerich itself also has a few industry tracks but given the large size of the map I would be content with leaving them out of this DLC. Safety systems This is the most important part for me and a lot of other european players. ETCS This route uses pretty much all of it and that is why I'm suggesting this route to be the first to use it. Maasvlakte - Kijfhoek is ETCS L1, Kijfhoek (ATB-eg), Kijfhoek - Zevenaar ETCS L2, Zevenaar - Emerich (pzb). You can use most modes on this route aswell. Ofcourse most of it will be under FS, but shunting will be used when necesarry. This route has level changes, mode changes, non-stopping areas, power changeovers, entering and exiting etcs, shunting, neutral sections, overlay (dualsignalling). Basically it has it all. For more detail on this read the generic drivers manual. System national Kijfhoek and Emmerich use ATB and PZB as we already know it. Nothing really special about that. Heuvelen I already mentioned this earlier but Heuvelen is the practice of pushing cars up a hill (heuvel in dutch), uncoupling them and letting gravity roll them down. A computer then calculates which way the car has to go and brakes it at exactly the right ammount to stop it in the right place, it also sets the switches to the correct track meaning multiple cars can be pushed over and all go to different places. This system is also used in some other places, but is still very popular in Kijfhoek. Freight Hauler potential I made this route suggestion with freight hauler in mind. There are so many little side tracks like in the Miami route. If you got the maximum of 50 coaches spread across this route you could be busy for weeks with how much shunting potential there is. Ofcourse freight hauler might need a few updates in for stability, but it has all the right ingedients. Trains Now here is the part where I'll first list the 2 main trains and after that the layers and DLC I'm suggesting. If a route has [ ] around it it's another suggestion for a missing route, because adding all these trains in one DLC is a bit too ambitious. BR 186 TRAXX Very common train for freight in the Netherland yet it isn't in the game yet. You might already know it's cousins the 185 and 187, but there are several differences between those and this train. For example the traction and brakes work similair to the BR 363 with it being a push to increase system. This train can be used on the long distance runs. This train has ATB, ETCS and PZB (lzb and other systems are also included but not on this specific route). My suggestion is that this will be the 'new' train on the block MaK DE 6400 An icon of dutch shunting, this is basically the dutch answer to the V90. It is used on a lot of services still and can be used as the main shunter on this route for the diesel sections. This train has ATB, ETCS, PZB. Since DTG rarely does 2 trains in 1 DLC I would recommend [Utrecht - Zwolle] to add it into the game first. That route would allow it to run freight services between the military bases of 't Harde and Amersfoort and allow for services down to Leusden. Now for the 'other' freight trains. BR 189 [Offenburg-Villingen] BR 193 (already in the game) 1600/1800 [Deventer - Rheine] (this one will only run in the kijfhoek yard since it doesn't support 25kV AC) BR 203 (needs new livery, but already in game) G2000 [Eindhoven - Maastricht/Heerlen] Euro9000 [Dordrecht - Den bosch] G1206 [loco DLC later on] Class 66 mainland [loco DLC later on] Then for the AI passenger layers VIRM and SNG near Kijfhoek, Valburg and Meteren ICE 3m (or ICE 3neo) near Emmerich Flirt 3 near Emmerich [Arnhem-Duisburg] GTW (elektrisch) [Dordrecht-Geldermalsen] GTW (diesel) [Arnhem - Apeldoorn via Winterswijk] In short: Length: 160/170km max speed: 120km/h (160 passenger) trains: Br 186 and MaK DE 6400 Safety systems: ATB, PZB, ETCS L1, ETCS L2. Electrification: 25kV 50hz AC, 1,5kV DC, 15kV 16,7hz AC End to end time: 2:15 hours (Maasvlakte - Kijfhoek 45 minutes, Kijfhoek - Emmerich 1:30 hours) Bonus suggestions in a row: Utrecht - Zwolle (required) Deventer - Rheine Offenburg - Villingen Eindhoven - Maastricht/Heerlen Dordrecht - Den Bosch Arnhem - Duisburg Dordrecht - Geldermalsen Arnhem - Apeldoorn via Winterswijk G 1206 Class 66 mainland
