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The year is now 1881, and no new major projects are being undertaken as the GER tries to recoup the capital spent on both the SML and ECML. A few incremental improvements have however been approved; the addition of a 3rd platform at Cheltenham so that 'Southern Flyer' services aren't delayed by stopping trains, and the construction of a new terminus in St. Ives.

Postcard from 1997.

Hitchin and the country have seen vast changes. The TGV Duplex (Class 385) at P11 has just arrived from Hastings Picadilly and is loading passengers for its journey up HS2, calling at Soulbury, Huxley and Sunderland. The section running from Hastings Picadilly to Soulbury South Junction (HS2W) is cleared for 200mph running, being signalled by TVM-430, however the next section northwards to Sunderland is only signalled by AWS2+ (providing in cab signalling of the 5 aspect signals (flashing green, green, double yellow, yellow and red) so it is limited to 160mph; significant track upgrades would also be required to allow higher speeds). This service is operated by Great Eastern Trains the largest HS operator after the break up of British Rail.

A Class 421 is arriving at P8 from Midsomer Norton on a busy commuter service, this stock is very outdated and life expired (dating from the 60s), but is expected to last a couple more years. The Class 158 (cascaded from South West Trains due to the introduction of the Class 168 on the Hastings-Basildon service to replace Class 37s + Mk. 2s) is also arriving at Hitchin West Street, this has come from Cleveleys on a fast commuter service, running non-stop from Wallasey. Both these services are being operated by Silverlink, the 421 is in the Network Central livery whilst the 158 has been repainted into Silverlink's new livery.

At P5, a Crossrail service to Kirkburton is departing, on the tail of the service to Soulbury, both these services will subsequently call at Hitchin University, Hitchin Central, Hitchin & Great Malvern. The Kirkburton service orginated from Stocksbirdge, to the west whilst the Soulbury service started at Stamford Bridge, to the south. All Crossrail services are operated using new Class 365s, still in Network Central liveries. The introduction of these train in 1995 allowed the older Class 313s, which were cascaded onto Kirkburton-Hartlepool services allowing the retirement of the Class 310.

Departing northbound is a Class 370 operated by Connex Highspeed, to Wallasey where it will terminate, whilst another is arriving at P1 on a service to Basildon West High Speed, this is a fast service so will not be calling at St. Ives High Speed. This is the 'original' HS line (HS1), opening in 1975 with an experimental Class 87, providing essential data for the successful completion of the APT by BR, although the Class 87 itself was not ultimately successful, being withdrawn by 1977, when the HST was introduced as a stopgap until the Class 370 was introduced in 1980. HS1 was hugely successful, leading to a huge redevelopment of the rail network - work on HS2 commenced almost immediately after, originally stretching from Worthing North Junction (just north of St. Ives High Speed) to a purpose built extension of Soulbury station. Work then started on upgrading the ECML to HS standards.

Work also started on Crossrail, and Crossrail HS; Crossrail consisted of an underground section through Hitchin calling at all the stations, with two branches each side of Hitchin, to the west one went to Stocksbridge and the other to Stamford Bridge, to the east one went to Soulbury and the other to Kirkburton (on the original track alignment of the first railway!). Crossrail HS went from Hastings Picadilly to Hitchin West Street before diving underground Hitchin and coming out the otherside, diverging to Soulbury or Kirkburton. Crossrail HS wasn't built to a high standard, it was un-electrified (although sufficient loading gauge allowed for this to be retrofitted easily, and still within the Continental gauge), and the track was only up to 125mph, which wasn't a problem as the intended stock was HSTs.

However the Crossrail HS service proved immensely popular, with Hastings becoming the largest city 'proper', Hitchin the second largest city 'proper' and Metropolitan Area, and Kirkburton/Soulbury being the largest Metropolitan Area. Hence due to ridiculous overcrowding, the decision was taken in the 90s to completely revamp the line, involving upgrading the track to 200mph standards, two new longer platforms at Hastings Picadilly, longer platforms and an 11th at Hitchin West Street, and 4 lengthened platforms at Kirkburton. Of course the signalling had to be completely changed, from basic 4 aspect signals with AWS to TVM-430 - this allowed higher speeds than AWS2+, which only provided the 5-aspect in cab signalling and warnings which could be overridden.

Beautiful screenshots from the game !

Great screenshot !
What trainset you use there ? UKRS2 ? The TGV looks realistic !

Yoursnotmine wrote:What trainset you use there ? UKRS2 ? The TGV looks realistic !

He's using a mixture of UKRS2 (421 & 158) , 2cc (TGV) and a release of BROS (365 & APT).

A321 is correct ; I've attached the full grf list as well if anyone's interested.

Thanks for the comments persuades me to continue the story.

Thought I might continue the story from 1881 , so here we are...

...

Whilst Hitchin had a grand station standing at four platforms all long enough to handle the largest of express trains, Kirkburton has been 'making do' with a cramped affair, with only three platforms, no station building and handling far more traffic (East Coast Main Line fast & slows, Main Line services to Hitchin and fast and slow traffic to St. Ives down the South East Line), expansion was dearly needed. At peak times there would practically always be delays across the system due to the chronic congestion at Kirkburton.

However, with the cathedral to the south of the station, the coast not too far to the north, and being surrounded by dense development, expansion would be very difficult, costly and probably limited in the long term as traffic levels increase into the future. Whilst the GER was deliberating over what to do, Kirkshire Metropolitan Council was considering draining part of the bay between Kirkburton and Hemingbrough. Emboldened by the success of the Dutch, they provided funding along with private businesses and central government to drain some of the sea between the two conurbations allowing the expansion of the city. This would neatly provide the GER with a large flat area on which to situate an expanded Kirkburton station, with room to expand, with the added bonus of being more centrally located.

Hence preparatory work commenced in 1886. As a result, Kirkburton station was closed on weekends for engineering works. The GER managed to provide a not too shoddy service even with this closure; trains terminating at Kirkburton from Hitchin were diverted to the station at Egham, trains from St. Ives were curtailed at Egham, onward travel from Egham was provided for free by Kirkshire Tramways for those with rail tickets to Kirkburton - passengers should board the Blue Line towards Hemingbrough or the Yellow Line Clockwise for Kirkburton. Slow trains on the ECML were curtailed at Soulbury, whilst the semi-fast and fast services were diverted on to the slow lines at Hartlepool to terminate at Soulbury. The Northern Flyer service was curtailed at Hartlepool. As Kirkshire Tramways had not yet reached Soulbury, a fleet of rail replacement buses were contracted to run from Soulbury station to Kirkburton, whereupon you could board a tram to Egham for onward rail connections.

Just prior to the works at Kirkburton, the South East Line from Kirkburton to St. Ives was dualed, allowing an increase in frequency of the slow trains, and additionally, the Two Counties Express, a non-stop service from Kirkburton to St. Ives, complementing the Northern Flyer, Southern Flyer and The Express. Now St. Ives is connected to Hitchin and Kirkburton by non-stop services, and Kirkburton is connecrted to Hitchin and Sunderland by non-stop services. The stock is the standard express stock of the company at the moment, dual headed 4-2-2 Spinners, with brand new Clerestory coaches, providing better comfort than the old six wheelers - these will be phased out of service on expresses in the future.

Class 165 wrote:Just prior to the works at Kirkburton, the South East Line from Kirkburton to St. Ives was dualed, allowing an increase in frequency of the slow trains, and additionally, the Two Counties Express, a non-stop service from Kirkburton to St. Ives, complementing the Northern Flyer, Southern Flyer and The Express. Now St. Ives is connected to Hitchin and Kirkburton by non-stop services, and Kirkburton is connecrted to Hitchin and Sunderland by non-stop services. The stock is the standard express stock of the company at the moment, dual headed 4-2-2 Spinners, with brand new Clerestory coaches, providing better comfort than the old six wheelers - these will be phased out of service on expresses in the future.

Excellent screenshots and description to them . Read everything.

STD wrote:Excellent screenshots and description to them . Read everything.

Thank you, by the end of the weekend I should have reached the turn of the century . Glad to know someone reads them and finds them interesting!

Amazing screenshots
The story adds a "buzz" to them too.

what the scenario you're using?

Jacko wrote:Amazing screenshots
The story adds a "buzz" to them too.

Thanks Sorry for lying about putting more screenshots up again, I'm just a terrible person . Ah well, some more are definitely going up in the near future...

loonyduck1 wrote:what the scenario you're using?

It's not a scenario, just a random map generated by the game. I'll see if I can get the seed, although since it was generated in CPP, I don't know whether it would be the same? I would post the savegame, but there's a crapload of some quite eclectic grfs that would need to be found as well.

...

Nice screenshots! But isn't that thin part of the hills going to cause flooding after some time?

I was just thinking the same thing....
sounds like an obvious plot for a future story if you ask me haha

Hi! Nice screenshots .

In 1890, there were some more minor alterations to the ECML; a throughline at Huxley and a bay platform at Banstead, facing Sunderland, facilitating a far more frequent service between the two towns. The current typical service pattern on the ECML is a Northern Flyer service on the hour every two hours (running non-stop the length of the line from Kirkburton to Sunderland), a Fast service at xx:15 every hour, stopping at Hartlepool, Huxley and Sunderland, and a Semi-Fast at xx:45 every hour, stopping at Hartlepool, Huxley, Banstead and Sunderland. GER is considering proposals to axe stops at Banstead as there are no through lines for trains not stopping, and it causes congestion on top of the terminus at Sunderland. The new service between Banstead and Sunderland would allow passengers to connect to trains for Huxley, Hartlepool and Kirkburton at Sunderland.