Hi everyone, I am here to propose a potential new route addon, which would be the second (as far as I know) UK Heritage railway in TSW. The Route The ELR's main running section is 12 miles long, with 7 stations: Heywood Bury Bolton Street Burrs Country Park Summerseat Ramsbottom Irwell Vale Rawtenstall The route offers scenic views through Greater Manchester and Lancashire, with some notable points of interest being: Peel Tower Several bridges over the River Irwell Bury Transport Museum Ramsbottom Town Center Extensive sidings and maintenance facilities at Baron Street (Buckley Wells). And much, much more. I would also suggest that the line continues beyond Heywood, an additional distance of only 2.1Km (1.3 miles) as the crow flies to Castleton, which serves as a connection to Network Rail, which would provide opportunities for unique locomotive movements in and out of the heritage railway. Potential Rolling Stock Additions There is no shortage of potential locomotive stock that could go alongside this route. First of all, the current steam locomotives in TSW would all fit nicely on the ELR, with jubilees (especially (4)5690 Leadner) and 8Fs visiting quite often. Flying Scotsman too has visited the railway on several occasions. There are also options for new steam loco stock, including: Bulleid Pacifics (34092 City of Wells calls the ELR it's home). BR Standard 4 (80097 is based at the ELR) Lancashire and Yorkshire 752 Lancashire and Yorkshire Pug LMS Jinty LMS Crabs So many other options The thing I find particularly interesting about the steam choices is that many of the options I listed are tank engines and currently the only steam locomotives we have in TSW are "tender" engines. This could provide a nice change to the current selection of steam locomotives. Many of the options I listed above would also layer in nicely to the other "steam routes" in TSW, namely Crew-Liverpool, Peak Forest and West Summerset Railway. In terms of Deisel and DMU locomotives, there are again several options, including: BR 0-6-0 Class 14 BR Class 24 BR Class 25 BR Class 42 Class 105 DMU Class 110 DMU Class 122 DMU Furthermore, all the current Deisel locomotives would not feel out of place on the ELR and could layer in nicely, even including the class 101 and 142 pacers, as the ELR have a few of the latter. Anyway, that is my two cents. The East Lancashire Railway is my favourite heritage railway and I would love to see more of these heritage lines in TSW. They seem to fit Dovetail's current trend of doing shorter routes (its a very similar length to the recently released Gospel Oak to Barking) but is different because of the relaxing nature of the slow-paced route and offer the option for both steam and diesel traffic on the same route. Thanks for your time!
It would be a good platform to launch something like the Class 25. However as Jack notes above, other than maybe layering in the existing steam locos you are not going to get anything new kettle wise.
Yeah, it would be a shame not having new steam locos. But I'd be happy with the ones in the game currently layering onto this route. I'd do anything for the ELR in TSW haha
