Hi all, many (Germany focused) TSW players have at least some interest in connecting the existing Ruhr Area routes. In light of my recent suggestion for the Köln-Wuppertal route, I made a map that shows some of the Ruhr Area railway lines. It is based on a map of German Intercity lines. I'll use the map for my future suggestions, and you are free to do so aswell. I'm hoping it will one day be a good starting point for the Rollbahn from Hamburg to the Ruhr area (which is also included in the map). I've also included the route from Köln to Koblenz, the route from Köln to Frankfurt and the route from Köln to Duisburg, as they are popular requests. A connection to the Netherlands, for which I also made a suggestion is also added. This connection offers some interesting options, with the stationary power changeover at Bad-Bentheim for the Intercity service between Amsterdam and Berlin. Please note that I'm not suggesting these routes all at once, but rather as a framework for Ruhr-related DLC over the coming years. Germany, and definetly the Ruhr area, are already overrepresented in TSW, so I personally think that just Köln-Wuppertal and Enschede-Amersfoort should come this year. Already suggested routes from this map: Köln-Wuppertal (with National Express Talent 2 and ICE 2) - by me Köln-Düsseldorf-Duisburg (with ???) - by Perks390 Köln-Frankfurt High Speed Line (with ???) - by Swedewagon Köln-Koblenz (with BR 146.2, 101, 361 and 155) - by MrSouthernDriver Enschede-Amersfoort (with NS ICMm and SGMm) - by me Note: I'm thinking of making my own suggestions of some of the above routes, as their missing parts like which loco's could run on them, or could do with a little more information. I will only do so when the original poster allow me to do so, and don't expect these suggestions anytime soon. For the Dutch connection not only the DB BR 101, but also the NS serie 1700 locomotives are required. The BR 189 and BR 193 also operate on this border section. Currently the 1700 and BR 189 are included as possible DLC for the Enschede-Amersfoort suggestion, this will probably change when I make a suggestion for Hengelo-Osnabrück. How to join these routes into a network? For this I have made a seperate suggestion. It works by asking you if you want to continue your service on the next route. It then loads out the current route, and loads in the next. Check out the suggestion for more details. Additional information to the map, and problematic route lengths. Some of the routes on the map aren't really feasible at this time, as they are either too short or long. Mainly connecting Hagen to Bochum over Dortmund is a bit of a puzzle to me, as this would be a very short route and there are no passenger trains going from Hagen to Bochum directly, you always have to connect at Dortmund. Therefore the line wouldn't make sense, as the services on it would only run for ~20 km, this is mainly down to HRR just being too short to make sense, this wouldn't be a problem if HRR ran until Dortmund. On the other hand, the route from Aachen to Duisburg over Mönchengladbach is too long. The same goes for the route from Duisburg to Münster. Yet both of this routes would be too short when cut in half. They do seem to get closer to being realistic, with for example LGV being quite long. There are also some more possible routes in the area, that I've not included for the sake of simplicity. The S-bahn line from Mönchengladbach via Düsseldorf and Wuppertal to Hagen, of which only the latter part is in game right now, comes to mind.
It would be amazing to see that because you have then busier stations (e.g: Hagen, Essen etc.) and you can mostly finish a service completely.
That is a great idea. They already could do some good routes on the map. That would add so much for anyone's German collection, especially if you like NRW area as I do.
Köln-Koblenz was one of my all-time favourite routes in Train Simulator. Would love to see that route in TSW.
I think I'll be adding the popularly suggested line from Köln to Frankfurt later on. Someone else made a good suggestion for it. I'll link a suggestion for Köln-Koblenz and Köln-Duisburg when I find them again, they should be somewhere. Maybe it could even be the start of a larger map whith suggested possible and in-gamd routes somewhere in the future. They said they wanted to do every route someday after all .
I overhauled the map, so it now includes Köln-Frankfurt and other suggestions made by other people. It should also be a little easier to understand, as I've replaced the reddish orange by yellow.
I was on a roll today and added even more to the map, now with Hamburg-Lübeck and the Netherlands included aswell. In the future I'll probably include a connection to MSB. I think the map will eventually grow to a Germany-wide one, at that point I'll make a new thread, so this will probably be all for this thread.
Excellent idea there's also this routing Köln-Bonn-Unkel-Wiesbaden the East Rhine Railway https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Rhine_Railway which actually from the Köln Frankfurt airport High Speed Line at Troisdorf. The missing linking route for that one will be S8 Frankfurt S-Bahn Tanus Bahn then permit Main Spessart Bahn as Wiesbaden Frankfurt Airport-Frankfurt Hbf-Aschaffenburg-Gemünden service. If you own S8 Wiesbaden Frankfurt then Main Spessart Bahn Aschaffenburg-Frankfurt and the original Aschaffenburg-Gemünden section.
However, Koln-Wuppertal and Koln-Duisburg are right in the range of normal TSW route lengths. Koln-Bonn-Koblenz would be a bit of a stretch, but within reach of LGV length (but for the Linkstrecke they would have to do a LOT better job with the scenery!) (Apologies for "Koln." English-language keyboards don't have umlauts)
Absolutely right about the length, and yes the scenery for that route could and should be top notch. When working on LGV they mentioned that they partly developed it using new building tools that allows for more working efficiency, and thus longer routes, so let's hope that is going to be a succes. For now Köln-Wuppertal and Köln Duisburg would be the easiest way to connect the Ruhr routes. as for the umlauts: Try pressing " (with shift) and then o, is should give you ö . I have no Umlauts either.
I would love this. Frankfurt am Main to Koblenz and also Köln to Koblenz are two of my favourite routes in TS classic would love coming into TSW2. Köln to Duisburg would be a great addition. Wonder what German route will come next after Hamburg - Lubeck. Hopefully it something from this region you have suggested.