Been a while since I've been here, but welcome back to another suggestion, focusing on a route that thread in that thread talking about potential 'Rush Hour' routes. For this suggestion, we are dealing with one the last of the more popular German suggestions, according to the poll I did, and this route actually shares two things in common with the previous route I did a suggestion on, S-Bahn Rhein-Main. Firstly, it is set on an S-Bahn line and secondly, it is set in a part of Germany we haven't visited yet, and the part of Germany we are going to is one of the most heavily requested parts of Germany that isn't yet in TSW2 and that is Berlin. The route we will talking about today is one of the many S-Bahn lines that criss-cross the German capital, which has been given the title, S25/26 Heart of Berlin, running from Teltow Stadt in the south, right up to either Henningsdorf for S25 or Waidmannslust for S26. But before going too far... What he said in that post Click on the link here to see all the other routes that features and vote in the poll if you haven't already. So with that out the way, I now have a little story to tell you all. How the route ended up like this You may have noticed in the recap of what I said in the big thread that I mentioned that I had a bigger vision for this route than what this ended up, but what does that actually mean? Well, to answer that question, let's go back I when I was coming up with the whole Rush Hour Thread/Poll idea. You see, when picking what routes would feature, I wanted to include something involving Berlin, as it's one of the most requested areas that TSW2 hasn't visited yet (I remember it featuring in DTG list of the most suggested routes in which it was at 19th alongside an LGV route, MerseyRail and any route from New Zealand. Now my original plan was to adapt part of the Berlin S-Bahn network as it's probably the most recognisable S-Bahn network of them all and the one that offers the most potential when talking about what could make a great 'Rush Hour' style route. The route I had in mind was to adapt the circle line in full (S41/42) along with parts of S1, S2/25/26, S3, S45/46/47, S5, S7/75, S8/85 & S9. Those later lines wouldn't be adapted in full, but rather the parts ran directly through the centre of the main circle line, along with a few extra locations in order to open up opportunities to expand the loco roster along with any additional layers from other routes already available. Now as much as this would have been an awesome route, there was just one problem. At the time, I was sticking to a limit of around 100 miles for each of the route that ended up featuring. Now as much as this became obsolete as many of those suggestions ended up going beyond 100 miles, as I starting coming up with more ideas for this route, it ended up taking the total length way past 100 miles. But even without the limit, the route I had in mind would just end up being way to over the top for a typical TSW2 route, so the plans to include so a route in the final thread, ended up being dropped. But I still wanted to include a route from Berlin in thread, and luckily, a TS Classic route would come to the rescue in that perspective. Specifically the route S25 Heart of Berlin, which focuses on S25/26 and was made by a third-party developer called Virtual Tracks. They mainly specialise in making German content for TS Classic and have even worked with TSG on a couple of projects, which you may recognise from the G6 that they recently made in TSW2 for Rhein-Ruhr Osten. So even if this wasn't the original intention, I still think this would make a decent TSW2 route for reasons we will get to, and hey, maybe depending on how you respond to this (if there is any response) maybe we can think of ideas on how to expand this even further. But what remains clear is that this is a solid starting foundation to bring TSW2 to Berlin. So now with that little story out the way, let's see what this route looks like on a map. Map of the Whole Route Northern Section towards Henningsdorf & Waidmannslust Southern Section towards Teltow Stadt So what we have here is a rather simple route that would have a total length of 27.82 Miles (44.82 km) which includes the main S25 route (24.8 Miles or 39.9 km) and the S26 branch to Waidmannslust (3.1 Miles or 4.9 km). The route also has a lot of station, 30 in total (including 6 that are underground) but would have no depots or sidings for anything like that. I know I've said in the past that finding information about German depots/yard is quite difficult, but trust me, I looked hard for any depots/yards along this route and I couldn't find a single one. Or at least, one that would actually be relevant to this route (and no, turnback sidings don't count as it needs to be a proper depot or yard where either passenger trains are maintained/stored or where freight trains can start/stop or where shunting can take place, so on and so forth). Now a first glance, I thought this route was a bit like Rapid Transit, in terms of the fact that it's a pretty straightforward A to B kinda route, that goes on the South to one of to locations in the North via an underground section with nothing else to dramatic to offer, apart from the maybe the S26 spur that goes down to Waidmannslust. But upon closer inspection, there's actually a lot more to talk about than what it seem at first. Now with that underground section, on this route (which it's underground part is know as the Nord-Süd Tunnel) it is slightly longer than Rapid Transit's and comes with more underground stations, as this route has 6 of them compared to RT's 4. Plus, this route has one unique trait compared to not only Rapid Transit, but every other S-Bahn route that has so far been adapted for TSW, and that's the fact that this is a third-rail S-Bahn route. Something we have only seen in the small section out of Hamburg on Hauptstrecke Hamburg – Lübeck. But even then, that was only as scenery, whereas this would be a full blown, drivable route that is solely a third-rail route, with maybe a small catenary section for AI traffic. If anything, I actually think route somewhat resembles a London Underground route, not only for that, but also from the shape of the trains that run on this route, but more on that later. As for how busy this route would be, the busiest part would probably be the aforementioned underground part, as this section quite a few other S-Bahn lines running through it, from S2, which joins the route at Bornholmer Straße and then carries on down to Priesterweg before exiting towards Blankenfelde, and S1, which joins the run at the northern terminus of S26 at Waidmannslust and then travels the route as far as either Anhalter Bahnhof, or Yorckstraße. I say either because I found out with there are actually two Yorckstraße station within close proximity of each other. One for S2/25/26 and another for S1. It's not until the next station heading north, Anhalter, when the two lines actually join up properly. Whether the S1 station gets represented, that's the decision of whoever decides to make this route. Which actually leads onto a point I want to make here, even if the route is a little basic, there's plenty of room for expansion here. I mean, the S1/2 lines that runs through the underground part could form the foundation on how to expand this route and make it more interesting. But I'm going to leave it there for now and see what you all say first being trying to expand out even further. But in the meantime, let's move on to see what this route actually looks like in real life. Pictures of the route in real life Teltow Stadt Priesterweg Berlin Südkreuz Berlin Yorckstraße Berlin Friedrichstraße Berlin-Gesundbrunnen Berlin Bornholmer Straße Berlin-Schönholz Berlin-Waidmannslust Henningsdorf Available Locos We now come to the part of discussing what the main loco for this route would be. Now I'm going to admit something here, I originally planned to make a poll out of this, giving you the option of which main loco you would like to see be the main one for this route and it was a choice between a more modern option and a more classic option, which would have also impacted the time frame in which was set, weather that would be more nowadays, or back around the beginning of the 2000s (which is around where the other loco option would have been operating around before being withdrawn, as we will get to). But around the time I began writing this, DTG removed the poll featured from the forum (for understandable reasons may I add). I kept this on hold for a while as I debated to myself and how and whether to carry on with this, but in the end, I have decided to carry with this without the poll (as I don't think it was all that necessary for this particular suggestion) and as for choosing the loco, I asked my this... ...if I did carry out that poll, what would be option that people would have gone for anyways?... ...and the answer to this I think was pretty obvious. But regardless of what the loco that I about to show you is, this would be the only loco that comes with the route, but it is a good one and a new one for TSW2, as you will see. DB BR 481 So I went with the more modern option, and I say more modern because it isn't actually all that modern. 500 of these quarter-units were built between 1996 and 2004 to replace many of the ageing rolling stock that dated since before the second world war, after the reunification of Germany in 1990, with the first mock-up being shown in 1993 and the first being rolled out three years later. Since then, they have become the staple of the Berlin S-Bahn network, running on every line that is part of the network. That last point should provide a clue as to what this unit would be doing on this route, which is taking charge of every service that runs on this route (as they are the only unit that actually operates the section through the Nord-Süd Tunnel nowadays) running the S25/26 service as well as the S1/2 service that join at varying points along the route. They would also bring so many AI services to this route, whether that would be S8/85 at Bornholmer Straße, or even the Ring-Bahn (S41/42) at either Gesundbrunnen or Südkreuz (which also has S45 running through it), as the later station has those same lines running on the higher level platforms, even if those platfoms wouldn't be fully accessible. Speaking of AI traffic... Additional services from other routes Now I have good new and bad news here. The bad news is that there would be any other drivable services other than the main BR 481 services that I have just talked about (as far as I'm aware), the good news is that wouldn't mean you wouldn't see other traffic running around on this route. It's just that they only appear as AI. But on the bright side, there are four routes/loco add-ons that have the potential to add tons of extra AI traffic to this route, specifically focusing on two particular stations, Gesundbrunnen & Südkreuz. The first add-ons is rather surprisingly, Hamburg – Lübeck, which would add RE services using the DB BR 112+dostos available with that route. The services include RE3 and RE5 which both services are also seen in the southern part of the route and even make a stop at Lichterfelde Ost, one of the S25/26 stations down in that part of the route. Maybe this portion could be made drivable, but that will be up to whoever makes this route to decided The second is IC services using the DB BR 101+IC Coaches available with the aforementioned add-on. What it would do is pretty self-explanatory as this would add IC traffic to the route Stay with more long-distance services for a bit, we then have ICE services using the ICE 3 from München – Augsburg. It's also worth mentioning that both this, and the 101 would only show up and stop at both Gesundbrunnen & Südkreuz, which are the only two places these locos/units stop at along this route. The final add-on is a bit more interesting. It's Nahverkehr Dresden, and it add two things to this route. Firstly is the DB BR 442 running AI RB20 traffic in and out of Henningsdorf. I know it's not the most the version of the Talent 2 that does these services, but you kinda have to make use of what you got at the moment and hey, it's some more traffic around that area of the route, which is always a plus. The other thing that Nahverkehr Dresden would bring is AI freight running straight through Gesundbrunnen, using the MRCE BR 185.5 and the freight wagons available with that route, as I have seen freight running through Gesundbrunnen in some real life trainspotting videos that I have seen of that station. Future Loco Add-Ons So into the final part now, and talking about what loco add-ons could come to this route after it has been released. Now I'll admit, because of the nature of this route, the options here are pretty limited, as we already have the main loco for this route and every other loco that could be added here would either do exactly the same thing as that loco, or wouldn't feel worthwhile for a route like this. But either way, I have thought up of two locos here, and one of them is what the other option would have been if I was able to carry out a poll on the loco options here. DB BR 476.3 So the first one is the classic option for this route. Regardless of whoever won that poll if it ever happened, the losing option would have been a future loco add-on anyways. Plus, I feel like it's better to do it like this, as it would mean there's more in this section than if did do that poll. But onto the unit itself, this was actually included in Virtual Tracks adaptation of S25/26 that is available on TS Classic. It was introduced built as the DR ET 167, with 283 power cars and 261 trailer cars being built between 1938 and 1941. They operated for over 60 years, were divided between East and West Berlin from 1961 and 1990 when they were reformed again, before finally being withdrawn and scrapped in 2003, after being replaced by the new BR 481's that operate the route today. As for how they could fit in here, they could either come in as just subbing into the existing 481 services available here, or they could form a extra timetable which is exclusive to just this loco. But regardless, this would add some more variety to this route, rather than just constantly seeing BR 481's all the time. But this is not the only loco add-on that I was able to find for this route... DB BR 480 So after doing some digging, I was actually able to find that, while it doesn't run on the S25/26 lines nowadays, it did run for a time up until 2004, when one of them caught fire in the Nord-Süd Tunnel, which resulted in them being moved away from the S1/2/25 towards other lines in the network. 85 of these units were built in total, which included 4 prototypes in 1986. Originally it was planned for these to be the replacement for the ageing pre-war stock, but after the reunification of Berlin in 1990, the remaining orders were scrapped and replaced with more BR 481's in 1993. But even if they don't run on this route anymore, the fact that they did at one point is enough to make a loco add-on out of this and have them operate S1/2/25/26 services on this route, either as subbing into existing BR 481 services or running on a separate timetable. You would also see them operating some of the other AI traffic that this route encounters a varying points such as S8/85 at Bornholmer Straße and the Ring-Bahn services (S41/42) at Gesundbrunnen and Südkreuz, as well as S45 for the later station. Conclusion In the end, it might be a rather simple route, but one that could be quite an interesting one to say the least. It's not just a simple A to B route, as it has the S26 branch going to Waidmannslust, the route has a ton of traffic running on it, both in terms of it's main core services and any extra AI traffic that any other route we have at the moment, has a decently long and interesting underground portion and has the unique novelty of being a third-rail S-Bahn line, something we haven't really seen in TSW2 yet outside of being there for the sake of scenery. Maybe the fact that there are no depots or big sidings could be a bit of detractor (from what I could find) but I'm sure there's lot's else to keep you interested here. But what I think is probably this routes biggest selling point is the fact that this is a route set in Berlin, the capital of and the largest city in Germany. For all the German routes we have been getting lately, it's rather surprisingly that we haven't been to Berlin yet. It could be argued that it is one of three major cities in Germany that doesn't yet have a TSW2 route, the other two being Frankurt and Stuttgart, the former of which I have already done a suggestion on last time round. Admittedly, this might not be the best route to bring TSW2 to Berlin and the final suggestion I have here isn't what I originally had I mind, but it would still be a worthwhile route and they, like I've said all along, there's plenty of room to expand this out to cover more of the lines that make up the Berlin S-Bahn network, what could probably be one of largest, buisest and more unique S-Bahn networks in all of Germany, one that would quite a sight to see in TSW2. Now... *takes deep breath*... If you have any ideas that you would like to see on this route, or there's something you feel can be done differently here, the be sure to let me know in the replies down below, I feel like we could have a lot here. Well, that's all from me (for now) and I'll see you all for the next route (Which shouldn't hopefully take as long as this one did).
Image Sources https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teltow_Stadt_station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priesterweg_station https://www.60jahrezukunftplanen.de/projektauswahl/bahnhof-suedkreuz-berlin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Yorckstra%C3%9Fe_station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Friedrichstra%C3%9Fe_station https://www.schuessler-plan.de/de/projekte/bahnhof-gesundbrunnen-berlin.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Bornholmer_Stra%C3%9Fe_station https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Berlin_-_S-Bahnhof_Sch%C3%B6nholz_(7818070500).jpg https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q800492 https://www.bahnbilder.de/bild/deut...f-hennigsdorf-bei-berlin-2542015-frueher.html https://sbahn.berlin/en/about-us/vehicle-fleet/481-series/ https://www.bahnbilder.de/name/gale...6-277-s-bahn-berlin/digitalfotografie/48.html https://sbahn.berlin/en/about-us/vehicle-fleet/480-series/ This thread is also futureproofing, just in case I ever decide the expand the suggestion and it requires to use a second post on this suggestion thread.
Wow, the best and detailled Suggestion i ever have read. The BR 483/484 were another downloadable Content. I hope it find the way to TSW 2.
I just bought this route for TSC and absolutely love it. The train is quirky but fun to drive, though I need to read the manual to understand how to set the PIS up. A must for TSW and something different for commuter/rapid transit.
