Hi, this is my first project, and it has been a very steep learning curve! Being off work due to illness and lockdown meant I just never got to calling this finished, just kept adding locations until the network stretches from Seaforth Container Terminal in Bootle down to Cheater and into North Wales!
Loosely based on the Merseyrail network of the present day, I added a long lost station Woodside ferry, and decided to connect it to Lime Street in Liverpool as part of a high speed network from Holyhead and Chester/Crewe.
The Wirral Waters loop is entirely fictional, but there is a proposal for at least one station there linked to the Merseyrail Network at some point in the future.
A new station and sidings were created at Broughton adjacent to the Airbus manufacturing site, as a nod to my son Richard who works there.
You may also notice that the Wirral Waters Retail Park station
is show also tagged as the Tranmere Rovers Stadium. This is potentially the proposed new site for my hometown football team. I live literally a 5 minute walk from Bidston Station, and re-added some sidings there that were once part of a steel mill, that is now a Tesco Megastore!
I have added a Header code and location index on the map to help you when you first get started, as its quite complicated, and very busy. Due to the size of the network, once it starts getting busy I suggest running at half speed, due to the physical time it takes to jump around the map setting routes.
Also the continuations are numbered, with a reference in the headcode description, as they can be a bit confusing at first.
Its a varied mix of high and low speed stopping and non stopping passenger services. with a healthy freight schedule, especially from Seaforth and 12 Quays ferry terminal.
No failures are programmed in, its difficult enough!
Note that the ‘3’ prefix on the headcodes from Capenhurst Nuclear facility are my own invention. For fun I treat them as a priority service, and try to avoid any hold for them if possible.
Enjoy having a go at this, I apologise in advance to any railway purists for my signalling and junction skills! Its been fun to create/tweak/tune/troubleshoot this project, please enjoy. I would welcome any of your feedback good bad or indifferent! to kevin.smith990@ntlworld.com. If anybody knows of a really good you-tube video tutorial on shuttle services let me know, as i struggled with them, and in the end didn’t use any 🙂
Regards and Enjoy!
Kev Smith
Download it here.