Hello, I don't recall seeing this being suggested before so I'll throw my hat into the ring. It's an interesting 'backwater' route, with a mix of rural & urban locations, bridges, modern & old stations, junctions & sidings. There's 17 stations, and the route is roughly 27 miles (48.3km) long, so not the biggest and takes between 1-1h 30min from Kirkby to Manchester Victoria with trains timetabled at 1 per hour. Although I believe services do go on to Stalybridge as of a few years ago since it was displayed on Kirkby platform PIS, they may require a change using TPE services at Victoria, I'm not certain on that. Background So I'll begin with some historical background, the Kirkby branch line is a low frequency diesel operated timetable from Kirkby to Manchester stations currently run by Northern Rail. The Liverpool and Bury Railway was formed in 1845 and formally opened in 1848, it ran from Liverpool Exchange station branching off from the Liverpool, Ormskirk and Preston Railway, via Kirkby to Wigan, Bolton to Bury. In 1977 with the formation of the Merseyrail metro & the closure of Liverpool Exchange, operations from Wigan to Liverpool ceased. It was originally intended that the line be fully electrified, creating a Merseyrail terminal at Wigan Wallgate, however, their scheme only covered Liverpool to Kirkby. Decades later in 2007 a proposal to extend Merseyrail's Northern Line beyond Kirkby to open a new terminus as Headbolt Lane was submitted but at the time did not receive funding. In 2019 the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority made an announcement of using newly acquired funding toward opening this new station at Headbolt Lane, and so work on this extension has been ongoing since then. This fact also coincides with the new Class 777 making use of batteries, to travel beyond the DC supply end at Kirkby to Headbolt, which currently isn't electrified, with no plans to do so. As for the time period, I'm not certain on which to settle given one of the stations isn't built yet, but to keep it simple, I'll keep it at around or a couple years before 2016, before the Northern rebrand. We can save the Headbolt extension for an up to date Merseyrail Northern Line route featuring the 777. Now to help build the picture, here's a map of the route; Full Map Stations (mix of time periods in these pics from the web, just to give a rough idea of each location. Non of them are mine) 1. Kirkby Station. So first we have the Merseyrail side... And the Northern Rail side, beyond the bridge; You'll notice the extra width of the ballast where the Bury line used to be. 2 Rainford. This station still has a manned signal box, with original semaphore signal & token system. It's the only one on this line. I remember seeing the driver being handed the token bag on a hooked pole before crossing to the single track on the way back to Kirkby (I had no idea what it meant at the time). With The Junction pub just behind the tree on the left of the bridge. 3. Upholland. Setting off from there you meet a brief tunnel with 3 ventilation shafts in a spaced out row known as 'pepper pots' on the hill above. These vents are leftovers from the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway days of Steam but are still useful for diesel. 4. Orrell 5. Pemberton Of note, this station has a mosaic of a rose surrounded by a flower bed. 6.Wigan Wallgate Just before reaching the station, we pass the junction where the line branches off from Wigan to Southport, with carriage sidings right next to it. Just after this you'll pass under a WCML bridge, this is served by Wigan North Western across the street from Wallgate. 7. Ince ...
8. Hindley Here's a pretty station with its own award winning gardens & mosaics. It even has its own windmill to boot. 9. Daisy Hill 10. Hag Fold 11. Atherton You can just about make out the Atherton Goods Yard signal box beyond the bridge. 12. Walkden This signal box along with the Atherton Goods Yard box were both closed in 2013, the semaphores were replaced with modern colour lights too. 13. Moorside 14. Swinton Clearly they seem to share a pattern with Daisy Hill & Moorside...
15. Salford Crescent This one is definitely a sign of the time, since there was a large refurb of this platform in 2012. The stairs were essentially pushed back from the smaller foot bridge to the main road bridge with a lift & vastly improved ticket office. The line cuts through a Salford University campus so it was in dire need of a high capacity upgrade. It's also the point were the line returning from Bolton converges toward Manchester after branching off from Hindley. 16. Salford Central Almost there, entering Manchester city centre now. 17. Manchester Victoria And here we are, our final destination. As we know, the station already exists in game in a very dated state, but it's about time it was brought to at least the point of the arena complex being built on top. A sizable perk of bringing the terminal into the modern age is the Manchester Metrolink tram, with 3 lines serving 4 platforms there could be decent ai traffic here. Further Points of Note Crow Nest Junction: Just a few hundred yards from Hindley, this signal box closed in 2013 as part of rationalization plans, and this is where the line forks with the left heading to Bolton and the right heading to Manchester via Atherton. Knowsley Freight Terminal: Just after the Headbolt site, there's a freight terminal that currently serves the Potter Space depot in Knowsley Industrial Park. In 2016 services resumed under Potter Space after a long period of disuse since 2006. The new twice daily train service operates five days per week and once on Saturdays, moving freight/waste from Knowsley Industrial Park to the North East in Tyneside for disposal. It requires reversing in & out, plus loco maneuvering for switchback, which could be an interesting change of pace from just hauling the containers. Though I'm aware any potential freight service may conflict with wanting to retain the original Northern brand on the timeline. There is also opportunity for railtours since they visit there oddly enough. Apparently Pathfinder Railtours cooked up a tour called The Waste Train in 2017 from Crewe, and Knowsley was the first site they visited with a Bredbury waste terminal & tarmac aggregates facility coming second. Wigan Wallgate Carriage Sidings: Right before passing under the WCML, you'll pass the Southport line with some sidings which acted as a stabling point for Pacers and Sprinters. Wigan North Western Station: A sizable WCML station and kind of hard to miss when passing it. If there was ever a route with the Pendolino built, ai services could layer onto this route purely for a brief encounter here, and to help the world feel more populated, as intended with the EMT HSTs, ICEs & TGVs on SEHS. Rolling Stock And now for the best part, the trains. It'll be difficult nailing down dates & specifics with parts like shelters, signage, service variations, the Manc. Victoria renovation stages etc. in line with what can make the route the potentially more exciting but I'll not get bogged down with that yet, and so onto the classics. The interesting thing about Northern Rail is that they tended to mix it up with their stock on this line, making use of 3 types at any one time. It would be fun wondering what'd turn up for the journey. Class 150/1 Sprinter Now they have a couple of versions in service, the 150/1 and the 150/2 but since we already have a /2 in game, a /1 without the gangway door would be something new & different. That being said there's no reason we can't have both, and again, you never knew what'd turn up. Class 156 Super Sprinter For what can be called a more 'upmarket' version of the 150, there was a deliberate decision to build the cab in similar fashion in order to ease union acceptance. These are probably the most comfortable of the stock, with 2 by 2 rows of high back coach style seats in coach-like arrangement, with four seater table sets every few seats along. Class 142 Pacer And now for the cherry on top, it's the Pacer, nothing more to say on that, (since it's highly requested already) other than it's loud, it rattles, shudders, thrashes like mad, it's not DDA compliant and tons of fun. How I miss 'em. So this is the base, one of the Sprinters could even be DLC. Next up will be extras like freight & railtours...
Freight & Extra Class 66 There are a couple of candidates to run the potential logistic services but I'll start with the 66 because they do run that trip to Knowsley Industrial. But if it must be, at least have it in DB red, EWS is getting a bit stale. Class 60 A welcome addition that I really want too, and another piece of semi classic British traction from 1989 that would finally break up the 66 saturation in modern UK railfreight for the same role, this one above is coming up to Rainford. Meanwhile this one heads toward Kirkby on 'The Marsh Magician' railtour in March of this year. Class 56 Purely speculative as the 56 wasn't seen on this line again after the 2006 cease of operations. But it would be nice to have in EWS livery nonetheless. Class 37 Even the 37 runs a leg of a Pathfinder railtour along the route every now and again before heading back. Class 20 Considering it's out of the way, the line has seen a fair share of variety over the years, without even dipping into the BR Blue era. Conclusion While I don't ride this route anymore, it still holds a special place in my memories as I rode this route in 2011 during my time at university, making the commute nearly every weekday for 3 years. It's not the most glam or well known, but I can hope with all this long winded spiel I've given, you'll gain a glimpse into what the route has to offer. A charm filled branch line presenting quaint built up sections of track & mixed station architecture, some of which are like stepping into the past, along with a sharp contrast of urban progress and what it has to offer, not to mention the satisfying bag of UK retro diesel traction. There's a lot of noisy fun to be had with this and we're not even delving into scenario planner & livery options here, I dare say this little route has the potential be up there with the best of them if approached right. I may do another sometime, perhaps the Merseyrail Northern Line and beyond, now that the 777 is in service. Anyway, let me know your thoughts on this and keep it civil. Cheers!
this looks good I like the amount of railtours and the island platform stations, my only issue is the infrequent timetable.
Excellent Idea and remember the timetable must include a combined Sprinter Pacer Formation just like how SEH gets a 465/9 466 combined formation if needed
True, the downside is how spaced out traffic would be, two trains running parallel on a long stretch isn't much. That probably won't ever change. 8 island platforms, I didn't pick up on that ha. I think they did double up formations sometimes, I'll have to look into that more. But I don't recall mixed formations ever (I did notice the one in the Swinton pic just now lol, plus you can just about make out a 142 coupled to a 150 behind the tree in the Salford Cresent pic), clearly they did it sometimes, perhaps to ease pressure during peak times and a matching unit wasn't available.
This is an ausome suggestion but I would also do the Bolton way too since it would make the journey even more fun
Absolutely fantastic idea it’s high time we finally had token signalling in a tsw title as ts classic had it years ago it’s about time we saw some different as long as it doesn’t have rivet sprinters it would no Doubt be awesome
