Britain Without Beeching

[Pale-Blue-Dot]

Premise

Imagine a Britain where the railways did not slowly go into decline in the 20th Century; where investment continued to grow with future rail projects approved to their fullest extent; and where a certain Dr Beeching and Minister Marples didn't have a chance to rip up swathes of the network. This is Britain Without Beeching. [share.nimbyrails.com]

Scope

Here [share.nimbyrails.com] is my work thus far on my modelling of this world. I have researched the stations, track layouts and services from past, present, future and what might have been to create a save that stretches thus far from Ireland to Marseilles.

Every passenger line past and present in Great Britain is complete, including all Underground, metros, and light rail. Some heritage tram networks have been added but nowhere near all! The extant rail network in Northern Ireland is complete (though little of the original survived the 20th century) along with the railways around Dublin.

I've also been expanding the high-speed network to Marseilles, Turin and Aachen, all with direct trains to London and some continental high-speed services.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3428986556

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3232215227

Many of the future projects are also added including:

• HS2, in full (in a hybrid interpretation of the pre and post William-Shapps Review)
  
• NPR/ HS3 (with some creative liberties owing to lack of detailing plans)
  
• Transpennine Route Upgrade (this mostly just re-quads historical track but there are new adjustments)
  
• East-West Rail

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3232217337

Stats

• ⌛ 3000+ hrs to make
  
• 📅 Began save in May 2022
  
• 🚉 ~10000+ stations
  
• 🚅 1800+ lines
  
• 🙋‍♂️>3 million pax either at stations or on trains at any one time during weekdays

Caveats

This isn't 100% accurate -- far from it! Many stations and track-layouts have been altered for game-play reasons and in most cases, the track layout is a simplified version of the historical layout (excluding things like most sidings, goods sheds, cattle pens etc.)

There are also cases where I have taken some creative liberties -- though not too many! One such case is Calvert Interchange which is my interpretation of a HS2 interchange with the old Calvert station on the GCML here and with platforms for EWR services to Aylesbury.

There are many other cases where I've re-interpreted things like loading bays as passenger platforms to simple added much needed capacity, or push quad-tracking/ track doubling farther than it every was in the past. My justification for this is that my alternate history world premise is that rail continued to be prioritised over roads so it is logical to assume that there would be additional infrastructure added over time.

Also, the service pattern is generally based off the off-peak services for the existing operators -- but there are cases where the frequency has been increased or services extended over what is now disused lines. For the historical services, I have had to interpret how these would be operated in the modern world, with modern traffic demands and a modern timetable -- so are not that close to a reflection of how things would have operated circa 1900.

I have also added in most of the proposed Open Access Operators from the past 20 years -- but not all. In some cases, their proposed services were in essence taken up by the TOC of the route, or their proposal was superseded by a later OAO.

And finally, as I have been working on this for over 2 years, I've learnt a lot about how the game works, while at the same time the game has evolved significantly since then. As such, there are still some rough bits remaining but I have now fully-refurbished all the older parts of the network.

Checklist

By Nation

• ✅ England
  
• ✅ Wales
  
• ✅ Scotland
  
• 🟨 Northern Ireland
  
• 🟨 Republic of Ireland
  
• ✅ Isle of Mann
  
• Channel Islands

By Trunk Mainline/ High Speed Route

• ✅ WCML
  
• ✅ ECML
  
• ✅ MML
  
• ✅ GAML
  
• ✅ WAML
  
• ✅ LTS
  
• ✅ GEML
  
• ✅ GWML
  
• ✅ GCML
  
• ✅ SWML
  
• ✅ SEML
  
• ✅ BML
  
• ✅ CML
  
• ✅ HS1
  
• ✅ HS2
  
• ✅ NPR (HS3)
  
• ✅ LGV Nord
  
• ✅ LGV Sud-Est
  
• ✅ LGV Rhône-Alpes
  
• ✅ LGV Méditerranée
  
• ✅ LGV Interconnexion Est
  
• ✅ LGV Lyon - Turin
  
• ✅ HSL1
  
• ✅ HSL2
  
• ✅ HSL3
  
• ✅ HSL4
  
• ✅ HSL Sud/Zuid

By TOC

• ✅ EMR
  
• ✅ Avanti West Coast
  
• ✅ LNER
  
• ✅ CrossCountry
  
• ✅ GN
  
• ✅ ThamesLink
  
• ✅ Southern
  
• ✅ SWR
  
• ✅ South Eastern
  
• ✅ GWR
  
• ✅ LNWR
  
• ✅ WMR
  
• ✅ Chiltern Railways
  
• ✅ Greater Anglia
  
• ✅ c2c
  
• ✅ TfL (including Underground, Overground, Elizabeth line, DLR, Trams and Cable Car)
  
• ✅ TfW
  
• ✅ MerseyRail
  
• ✅ Tyne & Wear Metro
  
• ✅ MetroLink
  
• ✅ NET
  
• ✅ Edinburgh Trams
  
• ✅ Blackpool Trams
  
• ✅ West Midlands Metro
  
• ✅ Sheffield Supertram
  
• ✅ Glasgow Subway
  
• ✅ Northern
  
• ✅ TPE
  
• ✅ ScotRail
  
• ✅ Eurostar (Thalys)
  
• ✅ Lumo
  
• ✅ Grand Central
  
• ✅ Hull Trains (including new Sheffield services)
  
• ✅ Grand Union (with GWML services transferred to Lumo)
  
• ✅ Go-Op Rail
  
• ✅ WSMR
  
• ✅ Glasgow Trains
  
• ✅ GSR
  
• ✅ Virgin Trains OAO
  
• 🟨 DB Rail (proposed London - Frankfurt service)
  
• 🟨 Virgin Trains (International)

Future

With Great Britain complete, attention has now turned back to consolidation. Some refurbishment work is still outstanding and over half of all lines are not scheduled. Other additions still outstanding are the limited number of railways on the Channel Islands, along with adding the missing ferry routes in Scotland.

Focus has mostly turned on building the existing rail network in Ireland before moving on to the disused railways.

I also have ambitions to add some proposed rail projects:

• Bakerloo Line extension to Lewisham
  
• DLR extension to Thamesmead
  
• Crossrail 2
  
• Brighton Mainline 2 (partly implemented via construction of disused lines)
  
• Thameslink 2

The main barrier to these is a lack of detailed plans for me to work off.

Beyond this, I also have ambitions to begin to add elements to the game that have never existed or been seriously considered, like an extension to HS2 tracks to Scotland -- what I'm dubbing HS2 Phase 3. Split into 2 sub-phases, 3a will extend HS2 to Carlisle, while 3b will then take it through the Scottish Southern Uplands before splitting into spurs for Glasgow and Edinburgh.

3a starts by branching off the Golbourne Link, bypassing Wigan and re-utilising disused lines, some tunnelling and a viaduct then travelling beside the WCML till it joins south of Preston. HS2 services will continue to use Preston Union station. From there, HS2 tracks will branch off north of Preston, around Barton, and continue north on an alignment that takes HS2 up the River Condor to the east of Lancaster (in reality I imagine there would be significant opposition to such a project going through the Forest of Bowland) using a combination of viaducts and cuttings before tunnelling through to Caton. Then swinging right, HS2 would traverse the River Lune, mostly hugging the right bank of the river before diving into tunnel near Sedbergh (again driving through the Yorkshire Dales would likely kill this idea). This would be the Shap Base Tunnel, taking HS2 deep under the Cumbrian Fells and re-emerging north of Penrith. The alignment would then roughly follow the WCML before joining it south of Carlisle.

Phase 3b then starts north of Gretna, taking a more northerly course than the WCML. Soon, it would enter the Borders Union Tunnel taking HS2 all the way under the mountains till it re-emerges south of Carstairs Junction. Here, HS2 would split (as the WCML does), with a mostly surface level spur to Edinburgh, terminating at Edinburgh Princes Street. The Glasgow spur will head round the north of Lanark using cuttings and viaducts, before it dives into a tunnel that heads all the way to Glasgow city centre. Here, it will terminate at a set of new 4 underground platforms below Glasgow St Enoch station.

Additionally, a set of west to north and east to north chords will be built on the HS2/NPR junction to allow HS2 and NPR services from Manchester and Liverpool to serve Scotland.

This project will allow me to fully utilise the capacity of HS2 and alleviate the massive congestion it suffers from.

Acknowledgements

This project wouldn't have been possible without the numerous resources I have had access to:

• RailMapOnline [www.railmaponline.com]
  
• OpenRailwayMap [www.openrailwaymap.org]
  
• 1:25k Ordnance Survey mapping from circa 1900 held by the National Library of Scotland [maps.nls.uk]
  
• RailUKForum [www.railforums.co.uk]
  
• DisuedStations [www.disused-stations.org.uk]
  
• Wikipedia [www.wikipedia.org]

Thanks must also go to the numerous creators who have made the many mods that really help bring this save to life.

Version

Save Version	Game Version	Notes
1.0.0	1.15-beta	Initial Release
1.0.1	1.15.16	Refurbishment of WAML, Liverpool Street, Brill Branch, South Yorkshire
1.0.2	1.15.16	Full refurbishment of TfL services and SWML
1.1.0	1.15.17	Most of West Midlands refurbished. Major expansions in Scotland
1.2.0	1.15.7	GB complete
1.3.0	1.16.15	Various additions. Fixes for 1.16-beta features

v1.3.0

This update mostly encompasses various fixes and improvements to handle the changes introduced through game version 1.16. As collision issues are hard to diagnose across a network as vast as this, it is likely many still persist but the ones that have presented themselves thus far have been rectified.

As for expansion, the existing rail network in Northern Ireland is complete, along with most of the network around and radiating from Dublin. The Isle of Mann is now complete with all existing and past railways (other than miniature and a tramway). Extensions have been made to the continental network with high speed links now reaching Marseilles, Turin and Aachen. Paris Gare de Lyon has been constructed and connected to the LGV network to handle continental services, along with a short section of the RER to facilitate interchange with Gare du Nord. All Eurostar services are now complete with the completion of the line to Bourg-Saint-Maurice for the winter skiing services. Brussels Midi/Zuid station has finally been completed to alleviate the bottleneck generated by pushing all existing services using just 5 platforms.

v1.2.0

Great Britain complete! This update sees all railways completed in Scotland, thereby completing all of GB after 2900+hrs of work! 9500+ stations, 1700+ lines and 440,000km of track.

v1.1.0

29.01.2025

Most refurbishment works are now complete, with the West Midlands receiving a major overhaul. Some works are outstanding, including most of the Liverpool City region, Manchester Victoria Exchange and bits and bobs around the Midlands, Yorkshire and the East of England.

This update concentrates more on expansion than refinement, with major additions in Scotland:

• Most of the remaining sub-urban network in Glasgow
  
• Most of the lines in Fife
  
• Completion of the Highland Mainline to Inverness
  
• Completion of the line to Aberdeen

Also added was the proposed schemes connected with Heathrow such as Heathrow Southern Railway[heathrowrail.com] and Heathrow Western Link[en.wikipedia.org], including the proposed services and diversions. With the government's new commitment to a third runway, these schemes seem more likely to get the go-ahead to cope with the anticipated additional demand generated.

v1.0.2

13.01.2025

This update completes the full refurbishment of all TfL services.

Refurbishment works to:

• London Underground
  
• London Overground
  
• Tramlink
  
• DLR
  
• Elizabeth Line
  
• SWML
  
• SEML

v1.0.1

08.01.2025

Refurbishment works to:

• WAML including Kings Lynn, Northumberland Park, Broxtowe, Harlow etc.
  
• London Liverpool Street and Bishopsgate
  
• Victoria Line
  
• Circle Line, including Edgware Road
  
• Bank
  
• Baker Street
  
• most of the Weaver Lines
  
• Hertford East Branch and Buntingford Branch
  
• Dunstable Lines
  
• Chelthenham to Yate
  
• Golden Valley Line (GWML) and branches
  
• Honeybourne Line
  
• Cotswold Line
  
• Lines around Malvern
  
• Brill Tramway
  
• Lines around Barnsley, Doncaster and Wakefield

Also, updates to EWR to reflect recent plans, along with several new yards and sidings.

v1.0.0

Initial release. All of England and Wales complete, much of Scotland and parts of mainland Europe and ferry links to Ireland.

[anthony]

This is an amazing piece of work. Purists might quibble about double-tracking the Brill-Quainton branch and I would have done Uxbridge differently (the projected line from High St to Vine St, round the west side of the town, should be there) but never mind, it looks great.

[Louping Madafakaz]

Great work, I will for sure follow your work and look at your network !

[Pale-Blue-Dot]

Originally posted by anthony:

This is an amazing piece of work. Purists might quibble about double-tracking the Brill-Quainton branch and I would have done Uxbridge differently (the projected line from High St to Vine St, round the west side of the town, should be there) but never mind, it looks great.

Thanks Anthony! The latest version of the save includes an updated and far more accurate Brill Branch (it was one of the oldest parts of the save). Thanks for pointing it out, along with Uxbridge which I'll definitely have a look into (also one of the older parts of the save).