I've been wanting to write about this for sometime, but now I have finally completed my pdf timetable for London Commuter, I can now finally show you something that originally started as exploring a small area beyond the limits of this route, but has since grown into something much bigger. Now I've noticed with London Commuter, that there are these areas that are blocked off and are not accessible on foot, but have all the markings for yards/stations/depots all marked out on the map. I've always be curious to find out what they actually looked like up close, and thanks to taking advantage of a glitch on this route, I was able to fly over a have a closer look. Now before I get started, I would like to mention how I was able to get access to these parts that are not normally accessible. Funnily enough, I did not do any modding or download any mods that remove the invisible walls in order to gain access to these areas. I was able to get outside the map via these two steps. 1. Select service 5M11 starting at 5:40 from Preston Park to Brighton in the service selection, or make a scenario starting at Preston Park platform 1 heading towards Brighton (make sure the consist is around 4 to 8 cars long) 2. Once in your service/scenario, press 2 to enter the boom camera, followed then by pressing 8 to enter the free camera. This spawns you behind the embankment on the right of your train. After that, you can explore the outsides of the route as much as you like. Now this camera glitch has been around for a while and can be annoying that entering the free cam from the boom cam can in some cases spawn you outside the invisible walls with no way of getting back in, but in this case, I decided to take this opportunity to take a look at some of the more interesting places that are not included on this route, but are seen on the map. In this case, we will be looking at the following places. AI lines going into Brighton (East Coastway & Hove) The whole of Gatwick Airport Tattenham Corner Line (Reedham & Coulsdon Town) Norwood Junction station Streatham station Streatham Hill station & depot Non-Accessible areas near London Victoria including Stewards Lane depot, Wandsworth Road & Queenstown Road (Battersea) Now this is going to be a long one, so sit back, relax and let's go on a journey to find out what lies beyond the limits of London Commuter and what these places really look like. AI Lines going into Brighton (East Coastway & Hove) We begin at the southern end of the line at Brighton. Now here is where you will see AI services from both the East/West Coastway lines coming into Brighton, served by either the 377/4 that comes with the route or the 313 if you have that loco add-on. On the map, the East Coastway line goes as far as just beyond Mouslecombe while the West Coastway goes as far as the end of the platform at Hove, as well as showing the sidings at Hove as well, as some Gatwick Express 387's are stored there overnight. Now neither of these lines are accessible normally, but with this camera glitch, they were the first places I explored as they were just nearby to where Preston Park is. Starting with the East Coastway, this is probably one of the more interesting parts, as we did get this route a few years back, so it will be interesting to see if there is anything here, and from a distance, you might be able to see London Road station from the depot at Lovers Road. …and on closer inspection... London Road station is here in it's entirety and it pretty much looks exactly how it does in East Coastway and even better yet... …the PIS works at this station. Nice that DTG that done that for a station that isn't even accessible, probably because they already had made this station for East Coastway. Similar case with Mouslecombe further up the line as this station is also here in it's entirety and looks the same as the one from East Coastway, but the PIS doesn't work this time around, although I'm not sure as to whether any AI trains stop here to begin with. But if your stating to think that the whole East Coastway is secretly hidden away here... …those hopes are dashed immediately as the end of the AI run-off is you further on from here. You will find an invisible road with car driving off into the distance here which I find quite funny. So overall, there's actually quite a bit here for a part that isn't normally accessible. I was part expect that there would be no scenery part the tunnel just beyond the eastern end of London Road, but it turns out there actually quite a but here, probably because they just reused it from East Coastway. It may not look entirely like that route and there are reminders that it is just an AI run-off such as the floating houses in the distance, but it's nice to know that these buildings do exist to begin with. The same cannot be said for Hove on the West Coastway Line into Brighton. Now on the other side of the two tunnels heading towards Hove, there is actually quite a bit of scenery here, just maybe not quite a well laid out as the East Coastway side in places. As for Hove itself, the station doesn't exist. No scenery is here and the tracks representing the sidings have sunken below the ground, along with any train that might stored there. Now Hove I feel is one of those places that isn't included on this route that maybe should have been, mainly for giving Littlehampton bound train somewhere more convenient to stop/go rather than Preston Park and for getting the full depot run for the Gatwick Express service stored here overnight, and for maybe getting some bonus services with the 313 representing the Hove-Brighton shuttles that happen twice-an-hour. But I can safely say from having a look round here that Hove wasn't somewhere that was ever planned to be part of this route, otherwise, there would have been a station here at Hove, but I'll let you decide if this place was ever planned to be part of this route. Continues in part 2...
…Part 2 Now to access every other place I'm about to show you, I just flew underneath the entire route and then came up to the surface when I came to a place that I wanted to explore. So let's take at some other places along this route. The whole of Gatwick Airport This might not be a siding or station, but I just had to explore this because this was somewhere that has so much than what initially meets the eye. Now at first glance, if you went to Gatwick Airport at looked down the runway in the direction of where planes land, there doesn't appear to be much in the way of scenery in the distance. There might be a few bits closer to where the line is, but it doesn't appear that DTG bothered to put anything else further on from that... …or did they? Let's go have a closer look. As it turns out, there is far more scenery here that what appears to be here at first. Some of it admittedly is a bit botched place, but has been a effort to at least put some scenery here. But better yet, both runways are represented in their entirety and extend far beyond the limits of what you can see normally. For perspective, this image you see above was taken at the western end of the runway, looking back towards the route, which cannot be seen from here. Now there are places along this route that don't have much scenery up close when they should have, but in this case, the problem is not the lack of scenery, but rather that TSW2's LOD/draw distances is so bad, that these parts are barely seen from here. This is also not the only case of scenery being invisible in a place that appears to have no scenery presented on this very route as there is another case that I will get to later. But being fair, from exploring the underside of this route, it appear the scenery does extend quite far out on this route, further than most routes that we have been getting lately. So that's Gatwick Airport dealt with, let's get back onto the route and explore more off-limits areas further up the route. Tattenham Corner Line (Reedham & Coulsdon Town) Another place that I feel should have made accessible, but isn't, especially when you consider that both of these stations are visible from the mainline just nearby, and from having a closer look at both stations, my impressions are... not good. Coulsdon Town station doesn't have any platforms represented here. All that's here is the footbridge and what appears to be the station building, but that's it. Also, the bridge walls either side of the running line extend way down where the platforms should be. There's a better attempt at Reedham, but the platforms here are way too short compared to what they actually are in real life. So overall, a bit of a disappointing representation for somewhere that is not accessible, but visible from the main route. I get the feeling from seeing these two stations and how they are in game that there might have been plans to include these stations as part of the main route, but where cut due to time constrains. I would love to see these stations fully finished and become a part of the main route, especially to fully complete some of the Tattenham Corner/Coulsdon Town services, but again, I don't expect that will happen any time soon. Norwood Junction station Now onto a station that might not be represented and while I didn't expect it to be so anyways, I feel like more effort should have gone into representing it than what it turn out like. To put it simply, Norwood Junction station doesn't exist on this route. The outline for where the platforms would be are there, but there are no platforms, no station building, nothing in sight. Just a large, empty, ballast pit. Keep in mind, this is not somewhere that is miles away from the route, you can see this place if you walk towards the station from Selhurst as the invisible wall is just before you get to station as seen in the image below. Like I said, this station not being part of the route I don't have problem with and I honestly didn't expect it to a part of the route anyways, but I would of liked to have seen more effort put into it for a place that you can walk right up to. Even if it was a basic platform, it would still look better than what this place turned out. Streatham station A quick one here as the markings for this station are shown on the map, it turns out, like with Norwood Junction that I just talked about, this station doesn't exist either. However, as this station is located far beyond where the invisible walls are placed, I don't have too much of a problem here as it's not a station you typically see anyways. That quick look complete, let's move on to something more interesting. Streatham Hill station & depot We are now looking down the line that many services turning off/joining the route at Balham go down and there's actually a bit more to talk about here than the previous station. Firstly, like the previous two stations Streatham Hill station itself doesn't exist. But like with Streatham station, as this is located far from the invisible walls, I don't have a particular problem with this one. But one thing that is surprising is that a building representing the depot just west of the station is represented. It might be just a generic industrial building, but considering this is located closer to where Balham is, I feel like DTG wanted to put something here without spending lots of time on a building that nobody will access anyways. At least with the East Coastway bit, the station buildings/platforms already existed before this route was made. Continues in part 3...
…Part 3 Nearly there now, but before we get to final bit, I wanted to use this opportunity to show in more depth a major issue with a station further down the line and that is Clapham Junction. Lines heading away from Clapham Junction Now I get the feeling with these Rush Hour routes that there's each route has one area that nearby the route, is not accessible, but yet the effort put into making that section look decent is minimable to non. With Boston Sprinter, it's the yard at Mansfield, with Nahvekehr Dresden, it's the triangle junction at Dresden heading towards Friedrichstadt and here, one may argue that Norwood Junction one case, but I would argue the main point of contention is the lines leading away from Platforms 1-6 of Clapham Junction (towards Putney/Richmond/Houslow/Staines/Windsor and beyond) Now having a look from the accessible platforms looking down towards that area, it doesn't that DTG put much effort into making it look decent and in closer inspection... Yeah, I think some more work should be put into this section. Several track sections are floating and there doesn't appear to be much scenery around this area for a place that, while not accessible, can be seen from the main route. Even if it was just adding some more foliage like trees and what not, it would still go a long way into making this area look a bit nicer compared to what it looks like now. Right, now I have gotten that part out of the way, lets get back into final part of exploring off-limits areas and I have saved the biggest part for last. Non-Accessible areas near London Victoria including Stewarts Lane depot, Wandsworth Road & Queenstown Road (Battersea) This last part consists of several places on the approach to London Victoria, starting off with the biggest of them all, Stewarts Lane Depot. Now out of all of the places along this route that are not accessible, but I personally feel like they should be, this is the place that I feel is missing from this route most. Now I love this routes timetable as much as anyone else for shear amount of services and depth that it goes into, but I also feel like this route doesn't have as many depot services as it could have, and I got the feeling this place should have been accessible to allow more depot services on this route as I feel like the grand majority of them happen around here. But while it may not be accessible, that hasn't stopped me wanting to see what it looked like anyways, especially when you can just see it from Battersea Park station. So the question is, what does this place look like on this route? Well, it looks like... this... Now I don't know about you, but I feel like DTG placed a couple of generic buildings in a way to try and make Stewarts Lane Depot look like what it appears in real life, but this looks nowhere near what the depot actually looks like. The front of the depot only has three doors and the rest of tracks just lead straight into a solid wall. The main building even clips through a piece of track leading into a siding. There are also these building which appear to be a small depot building on the approach to main one at Stewarts Lane, but don't have any doors where the tracks lead into the building, as seen below. I can't tell whether this was ever intended to be a place that was accessible, maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. But if this was to become part of the route later on someday, I feel like a lot of work would be need to bring it up to an accessible state, whether that be replacing the building with a more accurate one, or making the area around it look a bit nicer with more scenery. But regardless, I don't think this is something that's happening any time soon. While round this area, I did notice that the station markings for Wandsworth Road where featured on the map, but the station doesn't exist on the route as seen here. Not much else to talk about here other than the fact that the track also appears to be sinking beneath the ground, so let's move on to a station that is partly represented on this route and that is Queenstown Road (Battersea). A station that is visible from the bridge that passes over the main heading London Waterloo and while an attempt was made to represent this station in some way, I think it could have been done better. Firstly, I feel like the main two platforms at this station, 2& 3 are too small as one platform is next to the track and other is not. Secondly, there are these floating car stop markers at the end of the platform. Finally, the abandoned platform here I feel is too short and you can even see the hollow interior of the platform. So overall, I'm glad this station has been represented, but I feel like a better job could have been done for a place that is visible from the main line heading into Victoria. Now before we end this, there is one more thing I would like to bring up here and for that, we are moving to Grosvenor railway bridge, just north from here. Grosvenor railway bridge Now I don't know about you, but compared to other major bridge crossing in TSW2, and especially for one that has quite an iconic status as it's the bridge that crosses the Thames carrying the main line in Victoria, I feel like the view down the river isn't as spectacular as other routes such as Riesa-Dresden or Cathcart Circle. If you look east, you will see a floating piece of scenery off in the distance. If you look west at Chelsea bridge, you will see that there is no scenery after those group of buildings in the distance. Now I did report this issue via DTG support a while back as I feel a better job could have been done round here, but after going through everything we have just seen here, and especially after seeing Gatwick Airport where there is actually a lot more scenery that what there at first appears to be... …you can see where this is going can't you? For reference, those blue/orange & brown buildings was the limit where you could up to from the bridge and as you can see, there is actually far more scenery hidden away here than what appears to be at first. Just like with Gatwick Airport, this is another case where this games LOD/draw distances really hurts this part as this entire area cannot be seen normally. Or at least, it's inconsistent as in the last image your about to see, you can see Battersea Power Station from this place whereas the rest of the area around it, you can't Speaking of which, for those wonder if Battersea Railway bridge is represented in anyway, even if it's on an AI run-off, well I can now say that the answer is a big fat... ...no There's no bridge to be seen here, no water running beneath the tracks and for some reason, so trees appear to be planted in the middle of the Thames, which I actually find hilarious. But considering this is on an AI run-off and that you can't access or see this area normally, I don't have a problem with this area looking like this. Conclusion So that concludes this massive post and to be honest, it's actually be rather fun to explore areas of the route that you wouldn't see normally. Some of these place could have been part of the route when they are not, some of these area raise questions about the games LOD/draw distances and some area feel like they need a bit more work for somewhere that can be seen from the main route. If you ever have the chance, just follow the instructions I gave on the first page and you will be able to explore this route wherever you can without being able to download mods and whatnot and who knows, you might be able to find something that I wasn't able to find in this thread along this route that isn't accessible normally.
Nice pictures. I was always wondering how the depot south of victoria might look in london commuter. Dont think an extension will happen soon, still hope they get it done at least with east coast way & london commuter.
Woah, that's awesome! Sad to see that DTG where under a slight time constraint, it would have been nice to see what other stations could have been a part of the DLC .
Very interesting and for the Brighton London Road Eastcoast way line perhaps DTG should experiment merging ECW with BML as a linked route with the working PIS then implement that on RRO RSN at Hagen Hbf. Have you also looked at Wivelsfield where ECW also meets BML.
I wonder now that DTG have revealed intentions to do expansion packs for older routes, I do wonder if this could ever be beneficial for London Commuter at some point for potentially adding services to the extra stations you mentioned.
The latest roadmap article, mentions an expansion pack to add new content for Bakerloo, Koln and Sand Patch.
cloudyskies21 means the gameplay packs, there's been no mention of route extensions or anything like that other than it won't happen
Nice. I think it works like this. DTG has a preset budget for a route. So they start working, giving those areas a lower priority. If they are not happy with them, they simply put a fence around them. It happens at more routes, TVL is an example where a complete harbour is locked. MSB is an exception with the harbour are that was fully accessible on foot, before the Br204 came. Of course it is a waste of money and talent to do so. For RT it is even more weird. There a large visible yard was not accessible. They did some fixes, made all switches work, but it is still completely empty and unused.
