WCML Trent Valley Line Rugby - Stafford The Trent Valley line, featured in Thomson Interactive's 'WCML Trent Valley' route for Train Simulator Classic, which many people will be familiar with, is a route in the West Midlands running between Rugby and Stafford. The Trent Valley line acts as a bypass for the busy lines around Birmingham New Street for both Avanti West Coast and London Northwestern Railway services, and is also used as a diversion route should anything happen in Birmingham. The route runs for approximately 51 miles between these stations, with 6 intermediate stops. The route is electrified with 25 kV AC Overhead Wires, and has a maximum speed of 125 miles per hour. Let's first look at the stations we'll find on this route. Stations We'll take our journey northbound, and thus we will start at Rugby, departing the WCML's Birmingham Loop and heading through the Trent Valley, up to Stafford where we meet the Loop again. Rugby Rugby station opened in 1885 - the third to open in the town - at it's current site. Known as Rugby for its entire existence, bar the period 1950-1970, when it was known as Rugby Midland, the station became the only station in the town when the Great Central Mainline was abandoned, and Rugby Central closed in 1969. 350116 sits at Rugby's Platform 1, heading Northbound. Between 2006 and 2008, the station was extensively remodelled, with three new through platforms added, alongside an overhaul of the station's through tracks, to enable passing trains to remain at 125mph, rather than the previous 75mph restriction, which often caused a bottleneck around the station. Additionally, a new entrance and ticket hall were built, and, with the original Victorian building preserved, the station has a very mixed feeling when it comes to the looks and character of it. The station has regular services to Birmingham, Crewe, Manchester and London Euston. Nuneaton Nuneaton station sits 14 miles & 50 chains north of Rugby, sitting at the head of the Coventry-Nuneaton Line, as well as being on the Birmingham - Leicester - Peterborough line. This major station, with 7 platforms, is operated by London Northwestern Railway, and also served by Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry and West Midlands Railway. A Virgin Trains Class 390 arrives at platform 4. Formerly known as Nuneaton Trent Valley, to differentiate from Nuneaton Abbey Street (closed 1969), this station sits at the centre of this large town, with 1.34 million passengers in 2019/20 - the last pre-pandemic recordings. The station is quite old-fashioned in it's design and atmosphere, however platforms 6 and 7, on the Birmingham - Peterborough line, have a far more modern design to them. Atherstone Atherstone is one of the smaller stations on the Trent Valley line. Seeing only 95 thousand passengers in 2021/22, this station has, historically, been a low priority. However, under London Midland, the station that only ever received an infrequent service between Stafford and Rugby/Coventry, finally received an hourly service to London Euston. Since then, passenger uptake has been closer to 120,000 annually, prior to the pandemic. The station opened in 1847 with two tracks, however two non-stopping tracks were added in the 1900's, which remain today for passing services. The Tudor style station building is Grade II listed. Polesworth Polesworth would probably be the least used station in Train Sim World, with less than 200 passengers annually. The station has four tracks, but only one (northbound) platform, as the footbridge to the other platform was removed in 2005. The station receives one parliamentary train per day, a Northampton-Crewe LNR services, which stops here at 06:48, Monday-Saturday. It's rare for more than one passenger to board or alight at a time. It is the least used station in both Warwickshire and the entirety of the West Midlands; and is the 9th least used in Great Britain. Between here and our next station, the route crosses the River Anker twice, as well as going under the M42 Motorway. Following that, we arrive at... Tamworth 350372 at Tamworth (Low Level) Tamworth station is a multi-level interchange between the Trent Valley Line (Low Level) and the Crosscountry route (High Level), the located between Derby and Birmingham on the latter. Both levels have two platforms, with London Northwestern Railway and Avanti West Coast calling at the Low Level, and CrossCountry calling at the high level. This multi-level design is hardly unique to Tamworth, as we will see going north along this route. The station is managed by London Northwestern Railway. Lichfield Trent Valley Well how about that, we meet the Cross City Line! Indeed, one of our stations is already in the game, how lucky is that? The WCML Platforms, taken from the Cross City platform, facing northbound. As players of the aforementioned route will be aware, the Cross City Line, served by West Midlands Railway, uses the single high level platform. Trent Valley services use the low level, with fast trains passing the station on the through tracks. The only change really needed for this station would be appropriate signage on the low level platform - on BCC it is depicted as West Midland Railway's - however apart from that it's already there to be used. Rugeley Trent Valley Rugeley Trent Valley is located on the Outskirts of Rugeley, Staffordshire, and is the terminus of the Chase Line from Birmingham New Street. This station is one of two stations to serve the town, the other being Rugeley Town. The station has three platforms, all on one level, with Platform 1 being bi-directional, as the Chase Line platform - and then Platforms 2 & 3 are on an island, separated from P1 by two through tracks. Unlike most other Trent Valley Line stations, Rugeley does not see Avanti West Coast services stopping, as the platforms are too short for both Pendolinos and the Super Voyagers. Stafford And now we meet our northern end. Stafford is quite a major interchange, with the WCML heading North, the Trent Valley and Birmingham Loop lines heading South. The station has 5 platforms. Avanti West Coast operate and serve this station, however CrossCountry and London Northwestern Railway also serve this station regularly. Rolling Stock With that out of the way, it's time to talk trains. As a primarily LNR/AWC route, two (brand new) trains make the most logical sense. BR Class 390 'Pendolino' The BR Class 390, part of Alstom and Fiat Ferroviaria's Tilting Train fleet, known as 'Pendolinos', was constructed between 2001 and 2004, with a second batch made between 2010 and 2012. The Class 390 is split into two subclasses, the 390/0, with 22 units built 2001-2004, 9 Carriages each; and the 390/1 - 31 units converted to 11 Carriages, as well as 4 built 2010-2012, also 11 carriages. The 390/0 and /1 were originally 8-cars, before being extended to 9 or 11 - they were all originally numbered as 3900××. The 390 is the backbone of Avanti West Coast's fleet, and is the preferred option wherever electrification is present. BR Class 350 The Class 350, part of Siemens' 'Desiro' fleet, is an electric multiple unit operated by London Northwestern Railway. Formerly operated by London Midland, these trains have served the West Midlands and the WCML for almost 20 years now. Their top speed is - following upgrades by London Midland - 110mph. There are 87 Class 350 sets in total. This fleet of is split in to four variants. 350/1 - 30 Units, Built 2004-2005, 2+2 Seating, Dual-Voltage 350/2 - 37 Units, built 2008-2009, 2+3 Seating 350/3 - 10 Units, built 2014, 2+2 Seating 350/4 - 10 Units, built 2013-2014, 2+2 Seating Apart from the /2, interiors are much the same, and exteriors are similar, apart from the /1, as it has third rail capabilities. Class 66 This could be reused from an existing route, or included as a layer, to cover the abundance of freight services along this route. The route could be extended to include freight yards to the south, but I can't find enough info about them so I'm not detailing them. Class 66 (RHTT) The RHTT could provide layers, as is now standard. Class 37 (ROG) The ROG 37 could be represented hauling the Class 350, or a 390 for repair - as Alstom own the Crewe Engineering Works. Class 323 Obvious enough for this one to layer in at Lichfield T Valley. Timetable This route has quite a simple passenger timetable. Note: (×tph) means there is (×tph) going one direction, and (×tph) going in the other. London NW Railway London Euston - Crewe (1tph) Calling all stations, except Polesworth. Avanti West Coast Avanti services only serve stations on this line infrequently, so for the sake of having playable services, I've altered it just a little bit, so that it stops at the last stop on the line, regardless of reality. London Euston - Manchester P. via Stoke (1tph) Calling at; Rugby and Lichfield T Valley London Euston - Manchester P. via Crewe (1tph) Calling at; Rugby and Stafford London Euston - Liverpool L St. (1tph) Calling at; Rugby and Stafford London Euston - Glasgow Ctrl (1tph) Calling at; Rugby and Stafford AI London - Glasgow via Birmingham (5tpd) AI at; Rugby (stop) and Stafford (skip) AI London - Edinburgh via Birmingham (1tp2h) AI at; Rugby (skip) and Stafford (stop) AI London - Blackpool North via Birmingham (2tpd) AI at; Rugby (stop) and Stafford (skip) London Euston - Blackpool North (1tph) Calling at; Rugby and Stafford Note: Service types (that aren't AI exclusive) will make rare/occasional stops at; Nuneaton, Tamworth and/or Lichfield Trent Valley; However, Glasgow/Blackpool services do not stop at Nuneaton at all. With that, I've now covered everything that is really needed. Despite only having an hourly LNR service, and a semi-fictionalised AWC timetable, this would be a really good addition to the game, and a good way to bring the West Coast Mainline in, at last. As always, thanks for reading.
This is probably the most achievable segment of the WCML to make at the moment, if not going the other way and making Stafford to Rugby via Birmingham New Street. I'm ok with more express services calling at the endpoints for playability but others might have a different opinion, since very few would call at more than one station on this segment in real life. The biggest attraction for me would be the freight variety and stopping services via the slow lines, and Polesworth would make for an unusual and interesting station stop. Ideally Daventry would be included for the intermodal traffic, and I believe we already have the appropriate wagon type used here from GWE. The only real downside would be not having any end-to-end services, as all services would continue 'off-map' as AI only. This route would also be useful for layering in additional AI services at Birmingham New Street to make Cross-City a little less desolate. A good, adequately detailed suggestion
Bring It On and some of the trains need a special paint these are 390 119 Trainbow 390 042 390 122 Safe Travels. If you want to spawn them directly use Xbox X button PC Q button Square PS4/PS5. Downloadable content Freight locomotive classes 90 92 & 325 Mail train.
I’d love this route ngl. I’ve suggested it before because to me it is perfect for TSW. It has a good variety, is a decent yet reasonable length and has a defined start and end point. It would be good to include DIRFT as well to to give intermodal freight a start/end point, also potentially giving the opportunity for a DB class 90 loco DLC
