In real life, the cross country route spans all the way from York to Bristol Temple Meads, some 184 miles. The section I propose is from Derby to Bristol Temple Meads, a length of 112 miles. Parts of the route do exist in other DLC’s, Birmingham New Street to Bromsgrove being on the Cross City line, and Bristol Parkway to Temple Meads being included with South Wales Coastal. The main operator along the route is Cross Country, which will have to be debranded for licensing reasons. The main locations along this route include Barton under Needwood depot, the overnight sleeping place for almost all of Avanti WC’s and XC’s Voyager/Super Voyager fleet, Birmingham New Street Station, the mighty Lickey Incline, newly opened Worcestershire Parkway, Cheltenham Spa, Gloucester, Bristol Parkway and the nearby Stoke Gifford IET Depot, and finally Bristol Temple Meads itself. The route has a plethora of operators and stock that run along its distance, the most prominent behind Cross Country being Great Western Railway, of which I am unsure if licensing has been acquired or not. Onto the rolling stock now, with the trains being listed by which operator they work for as there’s so many of them. Avanti West Coast Class 390 ‘Pendolino’ Class 221 ‘Super Voyager’ (ideally in the actual livery rather than the WCMLS one) CrossCountry Class 220/221 Voyager/Super Voyager Class 170 ‘Turbostar’ Class 43 ‘HST’ Direct Rail Services Class 66/4 for the Daventry - Wentloog ‘Tescos’ with IDA Container Wagons Class 68 for Flask workings Class 88 for Flask workings FNA Wagon for Flask Workings DB Schenker Class 60 and TEA’s for Westerleigh oil tankers Class 66 and BYA wagons for Swindon Stores to Toton East Midlands Railway Class 156 for Crewe - Newark Castle services Class 222 ‘Meridian’ for AI at Derby GB Railfreight Class 66 and JPA Wagons for Avonmouth - Clitheroe Castle Cement and other similar workings. Great Western Railway Class 165/166 ‘Turbo’ (please can we have a brand new model and new sounds for this). Most commonly used on all stoppers between Bristol and Gloucester/ Worcester Class 800/802 ‘IET’(5 car sets only). Most commonly used on Paddington - Cheltenham Spa services as well as the Cotswold Line services Class 158/7 and 158/9 (158/9 are the 2+1 sets). Less common since the ‘Turbos’ migrated down south. Transport for Wales Class 170/2 (Ex Greater Anglia sets). Most commonly used on Cheltenham Spa - Maesteg services Class 175/0 (2 car sets). Most commonly used on TfW services that terminate at Gloucester
Most of what you suggested is already in T.S. in different routes. York to Wakefield has been done on both Harrogate Loop (OTS) or Leeds Lines (ATS). Sheffield to Derby has been done by Just Trains. The only part we don't have yet is Leeds/Wakefield to Sheffield Now the part of the route you've requested. Derby to Bromsgrove has been done by jetgriff. Birmingham to Bristol has been done by XC route. https://xcroute.com/extended/ Derby to Birmingham could do with an upgrade (maybe being worked on now I think).
I was unaware of Leeds to Wakefield having already been made by freeware devs, but regardless of this wouldn’t Wakefield to Sheffield would be a bit short for a TS route or even a TSW2 one. Whilst the entirety of this 2nd route proposal has been done before, they are 2 separate routes, in some places they are terribly inaccurate due to a lack of custom assets (you can’t fit a 7 car HST in Platforms 1-6 at New Street) and the frame rate for XC Route at certain points is quite bad, though I haven’t been on it in quite a while so I can’t remember the locations exactly
Yes it would be short, hence why a lot of people are asking JustTrains to extend the MML to Leeds from Sheffield, finishing off the route. Unfortunately that is the case with them being older routes, a lot of kuju/RSC assets have been used instead of custom assets. Regarding the frame rate on Xc route, with it being such a big route and the detail that's gone into it, it will have an affect on frame rate.
A problem with a route of that length and the number of big track areas it would be difficult to make it work in TS2021 Also the large number of custom assets required would make it very expensive Just Trains are making the Midland Mainline which includes the Sheffield Derby section but just that is £24.99 -how much would the whole lot cost?
