Been a while since I've done one of these, hasn't it? But it's time to cover another route that featured in that thread talking about potential 'Rush Hour' style routes, and a lot has happened with that thread since the last in-depth thread I did on one of those routes. Now there was some interest in that poll when I briefly revive talking about some of those routes in more depth (specifically the routes that later became part of TS 2022) as more people did vote in the poll, but after people started replying to that thread for the first time in a while, the poll took off again and now the number of people who voted in that poll pretty much doubled over the past couple of weeks. Now before I go further, I would like to say firstly, a massive thank you to everyone who voted in that poll so far. It gives me a great indication of which of those routes people would most like to see in TSW2, but also without it, I probably wouldn't be covering as many routes in more depth as I would, which leads me onto secondly, I can announce that I will eventually get round to covering every single route that featured in that thread. I make take awhile as I do have other things I want to do at the same time, but thanks to all of you voting in that poll, it is something that I will be getting round to eventually. So with all that said, for today's route, we will be talking about a route that has been quite a fan favourite in TS Classic and one that has the potential to create a pretty epic route in TSW2 and one that brings us to a new part of the UK. We already have plenty of routes set in England, we now one route set in Scotland, but how about a route set in Wales?... and with that subject, there's is one route that stands out from the rest and that is South Wales Coastal between Bristol and Swansea. But before going any deeper, as always, let's have a remind of what I said last time. As always, click on the link here to see all the other routes that featured in that thread and vote in the poll if you haven't already. Now with all that out of the way, let's get into this route. The Route Itself Now this route has had quite a history when it comes to it's TS Classic counterpart. This route was first release back in April 2016 and only focused on the section between Bristol and Cardiff. But at the time, it was actually quite a big hit and would go on to form one of the 4 routes that made up TS 2017 that came out in September that year (around the time something called Train Sim World was first announced, wonder how that turned out?...), but just two months later, another version of this route came out which extended the line to Swansea and even had a updated Class 67 come out around the same time. Now I did own both versions of these routes at the time and if there's one thing that makes this route really appealing, it's the fact that this route is packed with content. It had about 3 locos (Including a new one in the form of the class 175), a couple of freight wagons and even received some decent loco add-ons post release, with the aforementioned 67, a Class 150/2 and an Arriva Trains Wales DMU pack that added a Class 158 and a Pacer to the route. But unfortunately, both versions of the route, along with it's loco add-ons, were removed from the steam store in around April 2020 due to DTG license with Arriva Trains Wales expiring around that time (which had already long passed over to Transport for Wales by that point). But the Bristol-Swansea version of the route would make a comeback later that year, but with all the Arriva Trains Wales locos unbranded. Now when focusing on TSW2, I think it's fair to say that if this route was to happen now, it would most likely have locos from Transport For Wales, along with GWR. Plus, we will be using the Bristol-Swansea version of this route as the basis for this suggestion here. Now as always, to give you all a better idea of what this route is like, here is what this route would look like on a map. Map of the Whole Route Section out of Bristol towards Severn Tunnel Junction & Llanwern Steelworks Section around Cardiff Central Section between Pyle & Swansea So as always, going over this routes stats, the total length of the route you see here is 96.4 Miles (155.1 km). Breaking this length down, this includes the main line between Bristol Temple Meads and Swansea (83.9 Miles or 135 km plus the combined 1.88 Miles (3.02 km) that makes up the spurs heading towards Bristol Parkway), the 1.07 Mile (1.72 km) Butetown Branch line to Cardiff Bay, a 1.06 Mile (1.7 km) spur that heads via Ninian Park, and a combined 8.48 Miles (13.6 km) that make up various locations along the route such as depots, yards, spurs and so much more. This route also has 26 stations, 6 Passenger depots (St Philip's Marsh, Bristol Barton Hill, Stoke Gifford, Cardiff Canton, Landore & Swansea Maliphant) and 7 Freight Yards (Bristol East, Llanwern Steelworks, East Usk, Alexandra Dock Junction, Wentloog Freightliner Terminal, Port Talbot Steelworks 7 Balgan Bay). So as you can see, there is a lot to unpack from the route you have just seen here, but one thing that alreasy stands out for me about this route is the fact that is had lots of yards, depots and spurs of varying sizes dotted at various points along the route. These already add quite a lot of character to the route as they not only gives this route plenty to explore on foot, but also more importantly, it gives this route a lot of freight opportunities as well, and that's the important thing about this route, there is a large freight presence along this route, with it serving many of these yards and spurs located along this route. Now you will see later, but I have decided to put in a freight loco with this route, but I decided for this suggestion that the freight part of this route would focus on what is probably the two biggest yards on this route, the steelworks at Llanwern and Port Talbot. The main reason for this is because they are probably two of the biggest landmarks along this route and they would probably give the best freight experience on this route. Now there are other freight services that run on this route such as oil trains and intermodal services to the Freightliner Terminal at Wentloog, but I have decided to save those services for future loco add-ons as you will see later. But going into the route at large, I would best describe this route as a bigger, busier, and much more modern version of the Tees Valley Line. I say that not only from the large amount of yards that I have just discussed, but also the fact that this is a UK diesel route set in modern times for the most part. Now we do have plenty of vintage-era diesel routes, we've had quite a few modern electric routes (mainly third/fourth rail), but we haven't really seen a modern diesel route since the very first UK route, Great Western Express, and this route is kinda set in the same region as that route, just that is situated about 70+ miles further west. Looking at this route from a rush hour perspective, I would say that this route busiest point is probably Cardiff Central as it's a major interchange for many lines coming in from across Wales, served by a wide variety of services at varying times throughout the day. In fact, if you looked at the map for the section around Cardiff, you will see that the branch line that goes up to Cardiff Queen Street and then down to Cardiff Bay is represented as part of this route. I believe this location was on one of versions in TS Classic, and since it's only about 1+ mile long, I feel like it would be a bit silly to leave it out on this route. Now that's not to mention that the Bristol area of the route would see a lot of traffic as well, it's just that it would mostly be made up of AI services. When doing research for this route, I found out two things about this section that probably won't make it quite as busy as first thought on this route. Firstly, the services coming from this area are split between the two main Bristol stations, Bristol Parkway and Bristol Temple Meads, each receiving at least two trains an hour in each direction. Plus, services coming from the Temple Meads side of the route would only travel as far as Cardiff Central apart from one Intercity services coming from London Padding that stops here, reverses out of the station to Bristol Parkway, before reversing again and continuing on all the way to Swansea. But in the case of Swansea, the grand majority of the services that go all the way coming from around Bristol to use the Parkway station. Plus, something else I found out is that the Welsh operator of this route, Transport For Wales, would come nowhere near Bristol. Now this operator does come into England on the south side of Wales, but that's not until further up the River Severn at Gloucester and Cheltenham. On this route, the furthest Transport For Wales actually operates heading east is Severn Tunnel Junction (Or as I've put on the map, Caldicot. But I get the feeling this would be off limited if this route would ever get made despite it being located right next to the main route), located just short of another one of this routes main landmarks, the Severn Tunnel, which was for along while, Britain's longest mainline railway tunnel. But going back to Transport For Wales, even if they don't come over to the England side of the route, they will be the most prominent operator on this route once it crosses into Wales, and what would make up the grand majority of the services on this route, as you will see later. But for now, let's take a break from taking about this route and go into some pictures of what this route looks like in real life. Pictures of the route in real life Bristol Temple Meads Bristol Parkway Severn Tunnel Severn Tunnel Junction Llanwern Steelworks Newport Cardiff Central Cardiff Bay Margam Knuckle Yard/Port Talbot Steelworks Swansea Available Locos Now for the fun part, one of the things that made the TS Classic version of this route so appealing was the wide variety of locos that came with it, whether that be with the route or via loco add-ons that came after release. As of right now, the version of this route that is being sold on steam comes with 4 locos along with a bunch of wagons and coaches. When focusing in TSW2, I envision this route coming with 5 locos. Of which, one is new and other four are reused. Out of those four reused locos, two are the same from the previous time they came over with upgrades, one recently came to TSW2 not too long ago, but is in a new livery along with various other changes and the final one is actually borrowed from another suggestion I have already made on this forum, but what that one is we will get to in a bit. I would also like to mention here that all of the locos featured here are diesel locos or DMU's and that the Class 800 is not one of those locos, even though this route would have the overhead catenary for it between Bristol and Cardiff. That would be something saved for a loco add-on someday in the future. For now though, let's start with what would be the new loco for this route... Transport For Wales BR Class 175 That new loco also being the star loco of this route and one that has been recognisable round this area of nearly 20 years. These units were originally introduced in the year with First North Western, the precursor of what would be both Northern and TransPennine Express. 27 were built in total to replace the old Class 101's and 309's that were showing their age around that time. In October 2003, they were all transferred to what was Wales & Borders at the time, with 11 being subleased back to FNW and even into the early days of First TransPennine, before being giving back to what had become Arriva Trains Wales by that time in December 2006, once the Class 185's had been brought into service around there, and have continually operating throughout the various guises that the Wales & Borders Franchises has been under ever since. In the case of this route, they would come in the Transport For Wales livery and have two variants. A 2 car 175/0 variant (11 of them were built in total) and a 3 car 175/1 variant (of which they totalled at 16). They would mainly operate on the Welsh side of the route, but would feature on a wide variety of services round that part. To name some of the patterns they would work, these would include: Cardiff Central-Newport 8tpd (On towards Holyhead) Swansea-Newport 1tph (To either Milford Haven/Carmarthen on the west side & to Manchester Piccadilly in the east side) Bidgend-Cardiff Central 1tph (On towards Ebbw Vale Town) But while they would have a big presence around this area, I don't think it's the loco that would have the large majority of the services on this route, that will come later on. Great Western Railway BR Class 43 HST Now what would this route be without a HST? I was featured on both versions of this route in TS Classic and would also feature here as the main express loco on this route. This would basically be the same loco as the one from Great Western Express with just a few minor tweaks to bring it up to TSW2 standards. On this route, this loco would actually come with two different formations. One is the usual 7/8 car variant from Great Western Express that would operate the main express services that departs out of Bristol Parkway twice per hour coming from London Paddington, one of those trains goes only as far as Cardiff Central and the other goes all the way to Swansea and another continues on once per day all the way to Camarthen. Plus, one would also form the one service a day in the morning that departs out of Bristol Temple Meads and travels the entire length of the line all the way to Swansea. Speaking of Temple Meads, the other formation is a actually a 4 car variant meant to represent the Castle Units that these trains would become after being replaced by the 800/802's. These would operate out of Bristol Temple Meads, coming from Taunton and travelling as far as Cardiff Central, making more stops than the longer variant along the way. Transport For Wales BR Class 150/2 Going back to Transport For Wales for a bit, to help compliment the 175 I've already talked about, we have a loco that has recently been introduced to TSW2 via the new West Cornwall Local route. Now I did have this on the original proposal that I did for the thread talking about these routes initially, but that was originally part of the GWR side of this route. Since then, I have changed it to now be part of the Transport For Wales side as I feel the job for more regional GWR services would be better suited for a certain loco that I will bring up in a bit. As for the livery, I did nearly place it in a unbranded Arriva Trains Wales livery, but I eventually settled on the more modern Transport For Wales livery, as some have now been spotted in that livery. This unit would be massively different from one that just came out with West Cornwall livery, featuring the new aforementioned livery, updated headlights, new interior and cab and more hopefully more importantly... a better sound kit. Now when talking about services, I feel like this unit would actually have a much greater presence and take up a large chunk of the Transport For Wales services compared to the 175. Running down the services they operate on this route, they would consist of: Fishguard Harbour-Newport 1tpd (On towards Manchester Piccadilly) Swansea-Cardiff Central 1 train per 2 hours Bridgend-Severn Tunnel Junction 1tph (To Maesteg on the west side & to Gloucester on the east side, alternates with the following service) Swansea-Severn Tunnel Junction 4tpd (To Fishguard Harbour on the wets side & to Gloucester on the east side) Cardiff Central-Cardiff Queen Street 12tph (To a variety of destinations in both direction such as Penarth, Bargoed, Bridgend (via Barry), Barry Island, Aberdare, Merthyr Tydfil, Treherbert, Radyr & Coryton) Cardiff Queen Street-Cardiff Bay 5tph Plus, on top of all of these services, both this, along with the 175 would add plenty of AI trains around both Cardiff Central and Swansea, boosting the levels of traffic even further around that area. Great Western Railway BR Class 166 So this was originally a GWR Class 150/2, but like I said, I thought that the job of filling the more regional GWR services would be better fitted for a unit that has recently be cascaded over to this part of the country after being moved over to the operating depot at St Philip's Marsh in Bristol, coming over from Reading Depot. Just like the HST I talked about earlier, they are basically the same units from Great Western Express, but upgraded to TSW2 standards. They would mainly operate on this route out of Bristol Temple Meads on two types of service. The first one reverses out of Bristol Temple Meads having come from Portsmouth Harbour and then travels over to Wales as far as Cardiff Central, which happens about once per hour. The other service would be one that connects the two main Bristol stations together, Temple Meads and Parkways. This happens about twice per hour. One that terminates at Parkways and goes out towards Weston-super-Mare and another that alternates between either Great Malvern & Gloucester in the North or Westbury & Weymouth in the South. Also, like with the Transport For Wales locos that I mentioned earlier, both this and the HST would add a large amount of AI traffic around the Bristol area, increasing the traffic levels around an area that probably wouldn't have that much traffic without. DB/EWS BR Class 66/0 Now deciding what the freight loco would be for this route was a hard one to decide as most of the locos featured in the original TS Classic versions of this route would be both new to TSW2, and being realistic to what a typical TSW2 route release comes with, I have already used up the allocation of one new loco per route. So what I decided for the freight loco on this route is to basically copy freight loco and wagons from my Birmingham Cross City Line suggestion. I mean, considering that those same wagons and locos are seen here as well, and the fact that I want to focus the freight part of this route on the two big steelworks located along this route, I might as well take something I already had an apply it here as well. Now as for the loco in question, this loco would come in the same livery as the one in both Great Western Express and East Coastway, but with no EWS logos on the sides and has DB stickers on the front and sides of the cab. The freight services they would operate in this route would be coil trains on a variety of services. Whether that would be taking coil wagons between the two steelworks, taking them further afield and out of the route, to even seeing these locos run light engine between the steelworks and the various yards along the route. They would operate these services for the most part with 3 different types of coil wagon; the BYA, the IHA and the BZA. An image of each of the three wagons can be seen down below. Now since there won't be much in terms of other layers that can be added from existing routes, apart from maybe the usual rail tour service from Northern Trans-Pennine, let's cut to final part and what loco add-ons could be added to this route after it had been released. Future Loco Add-On on next post...
…continues from the previous post. Future Loco Add-Ons Now into the last part here and for this section, I decided to mainly focus on freight here as a lot of it does run on this run and maybe some of you are disappointed about the fact that I just took something from one of my other suggestions and placed it in this one. But that was mainly because those locos and wagons would actually add some of the best gameplay experience that this route would offer. But don't worry, I have a two locos that would further enhance the freight experience on this route. Plus one passenger add that I will get to at the end. Freightliner BR Class 70 This is feel would really complete this route as this was the freight loco on both TS Classics versions of this route. Built by General Electric, these loco are designed to be more fuel-efficient than older locos of their type while being able to match their haulage capacity, being 7% more efficient than most contemporary locos of the time with an extra 3% gained under braking using regenerative braking that supplies power to the locos auxiliary motors. The livery this loco would with in is the classic Freighter Grey and Yellow. The operator in question has 19 of them in operation of various freight duties across the UK. On this route, the main focus where these locos would be operating out of would be the Freightliner Terminal at Wentloog, hauling a variety of freight services around this area using the KTA container wagon. Now the main path these services would take is between Wentloog and Bristol Parkway, but I did see that once a day, one Freightliner service goes down to Cardiff Central before disappear off towards Barry Docks and the chemical plant located there, before return to Wentloog later that day. DB Cargo UK BR Class 60 This one I feel is bound to be a popular one. Built in the dying years of BR, 100 of these were built between 1989 and 1993. But during the days of EWS, a large percentage of them were placed in stored due to the fact that EWS wasn't overly impressed with it's performance, but was still allocated for heavy freight work. But from 2013, after DB acquired EWS, many of them have undergone overhauls to create what was know as the 'Super 60s' with an overhauled engine and refurbishing the various elements of the loco such as the traction motors, bogies, control gear, cabs and electrical systems. This is done to extend the service life of these locos, allowing them to operate up to 2025, maybe even further than that. On this route, these locos would come in the DB Red livery and would be put to work on oil trains using a more modern version of the TEA Tank wagon from the BR Heavy Freight Pack. As for the services in question, they would all stop/start at Briton Ferry having come or gone from Pembrokeshire Oil Terminal and would go on towards either Severn Tunnel Junction (and then on towards Westerleigh Puma) or through the Severn Tunnel into England to a place called Bristol East Depot, located just east of Bristol Temple Meads, and subsequently on towards Theale Puma. I also believe these are seen heading light engine to the yard at Port Talbot Steelworks where they are stored when not in use. Transport For Wales BR Class 153 For the final loco add-on suggestion, we are moving away from freight and onto passenger with one of the more unique DMU's operating in the UK. These single-car units are primarily designed for low capacity rural branch lines that don't need longer trains. Transport For Wales are cuurently the largest operator of them and on this route, they would mostly sub into existing Class 150 services on this route, and would even add an extra coach to some services operating solely by the 150. But the reason I chose this as a loco add-on for this route is simply for the fact of running services down the Butetown Branch Line to Cardiff Bay, where that lines short length makes this loco a perfect choice for those services. Conclusion Now I don't know about you, but from going through everything we have just gone through, this route has the potential to be something truly spectacular. The various versions in TS Classic already came with tons of content already available, but a potential TSW2 version has the potential to even exceed that. It has a decent length to it, has potential to offer a wide variety of services, promises to have some of the best freight experiences on any TSW2 route, brings a modern diesel route for the first time since Great Western Express, has several large stations that have lots of trains passing through at the busiest of times, and has lots of small yards, depots and spurs dotted along it's length both for services to take advantage of, and would give this route so much character, along with some major landmarks that this route either passes by or passes through. I mean, as something who likes exploring these routes in foot, I can only image how much fun exploring this one on foot would be, the Easter Egg potential would be massive with this route. But most of all, these are the kind of routes that TSW2 should be, something that offers so much in terms of content and gameplay that can still offer new experiences every time you play with a route. These kinds of routes stand out so much more than routes that may have lots of services, but don't have much else to offer in terms of gameplay. We may have seen a couple of these routes already like with Tees Valley (which is what this route is kinda like), Riesa-Dresden and potentially more out there, but what this promises to offer is experience that is unlike anything else you can currently find in TSW2 so far. As always with these suggestions, if you have any ideas for this route, or you feel like there's something that can be done differently with this route, then feel free to let me know in the replies below. That's all from me, and I'll see you all for the next route. Image Sources https://showmethejourney.com/train-station-guide/station/380-bristoltemplemeads https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Station_Bristol_Parkway https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severn_Tunnel https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3099013 https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/n...omes-former-llanwern-steelworks-site-newport/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newport_railway_station https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5065061 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cardiff_Bay_railway_station_MMB_07.jpg https://www.flickr.com/photos/nat37670/36889594365 https://pembrokeshire-herald.com/29209/swansea-train-station-closed-weekend/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/95289374@N04/46529287285 http://rickinghamphotography.co.uk/gallery3/Railway/Class-43-HST/FGW-GWR-Standard-Livery/IMG_6921 https://news.tfw.wales/news/transpo...omers-to-check-before-they-travel-this-easter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_166 https://www.tauntontrains.co.uk/photos/gallery/ews/2 https://www.flickr.com/photos/66737297@N06/49044280333 https://wagons-library.weebly.com/iha.html https://wagons-library.weebly.com/bza.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_70_(diesel) https://ukrailwaypics.smugmug.com/UKRailRollingstock/K-Tops-codes/KTA-Pocket-Intermodal-wagons/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/barryduffin/15962500373 https://www.flickr.com/photos/camperdown/47167884761 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_153
Excellent idea if there is a future GWR route that has Class 800/802 standard that can substitute Class 43 HST Here. Option 2 is DLC then Substitute HST
I can’t see a route this long being made at the moment. If it was Swansea to Newport then it would stand a better chance, if Newport (and the steelworks) is a good end point for the services. Obviously the full route as you’ve described would be awesome but I think it’s worth offering up shorter options to increase the chance of it happening. It is an ideal route for upgrading the older stock from GWE while adding enough new stock, especially freight wagons, for increased interest.
I'd have cut the route at Severn Tunnel Junction. 67 miles from Swansea, you can include the yards around Newport and maybe include a spur up to Calidcot (which was in the TS1 version) The parts you'd lose from the original post would be Severn Tunnel and the Bristol complex, which as the OP says is possibly a bit complex to do justice to without being centered on Bristol itself
I would do the same, But route needs to have 2 parts. First one is Bristol to Severn Tunnel Junction and second one is Severn Tunnel Junction to Swansea.
BTM - STJ is only about 17 miles and even with a spur to BTP you wouldn't gain much. Maybe Taunton to BTP and STJ via BTM with the Weston loop? which the timetable linked to the South Wales Coastal route?
