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BRs ECML - London - Peterborough

This route is meant to give the 'feel' of what the southern end of the East Coast Mainline was like pre electrification. I created it to cater equally for steam and BR blue era diesel fans alike. The route itself has been fully 'de-electrified' and has been subtly 'de-modernised' where possible.

I would like to clarify that that this is not supposed to be, 100% accurate. If you are jumping into this thinking "Oh my, i'd love to see what xxxxxxx station looked like in the mid '70s....", you are going to be dissapointed, that's not what this route is meant to be. Most of the station models are all one asset and cannot be altered without some extensive re building with 3d modelling software and you can't upload custom assets to the workshop anyway.

To clarify, here is a list of what has been done.

Entire route has been de-electrified, including the removal of all related gantries and overhead wires.

As many modern assets as possible have been removed, including flashing electronic displays, GSM masts and all modern cars and buses replaced with more period ones, etc.

Most TPWS grates have been removed.

All modern LED repeater signals have been removed.

All platform end driver's CCTV displays that are not part of the physical station models have been removed.

In a few places, 1980s style digital clock displays have replaced the modern electronic displays. I felt it would be nice to have some functioning time shown at a few stops and these do date from the end of the '70s so are close enough. Unfortunately, I just couldn't get any manual clocks to function properly, the way they are done in TS means you have to physically place the hands on a blank face and if you dont get it spot on, it wont function.

Many modern buildings along the route have been removed or replaced with older buildings. The most notable of these is the removal of the Emirates stadium as this was obviously only built recently.

A great deal of modern signalling has been replaced with the old style 'semaphore signals'. This has been done mainly in the northern half of the route, from St Neots towards Biggleswade and from the Welwyn Tunnels north through and past Stevenage. I decided that as the entire route is a bit of a blur where eras are concerned, it would be best to give a mix of signalling. I have used the correct 'lattice frame posts' with the upper quadrant signals where I can but these are old Kuju assets and there simply isn't the variety to cope with more complicated junctions so I've kept them to more basic locations.

Functioning water troughs added in their historically correct location just south of Stevenage.

The cutting between the north side of the Gasworks and Copenhagen tunnels has been extensively reworked, the brand new entrance to St Pancras International's HS1 line had to be removed and is it was a full scale model, the only way to get rid of it was to delete the entire model and the rebuild all the surrounding terrain, embankments, trees, etc. as well as placing a new bridge to carry the North London Lines four tracks over it. The bridge is not correct but does fit with the architecture of the area.

Hornsey and Bounds Green depots extensively reworked. The new sheds have been replaced with older ones and diesel and water fill points added to both. Bounds Green also has had a coal stage and turntable as well.


This is where the largest amount of work has been done and is why I chose to title this 'ECML Kings Cross'. I have been restricted enormously by the main station model, as non of the main buildings can be altered with the game's editor, so in some cases I have had to be 'creative'!

The biggest change is on the East side of the station, this is now almost unrecognisable and (I think) very accurate to the period as well. The biggest change is the addition of an extra station! 'Kings Cross York Road' was served by trains heading south towards the city, stopping at a single platform before disappearing underground on their way to Moorgate. These were usually 2 car DMUs like the class 105 but in my research the class 31 with 2 or 3 coaches was not an uncommon sight as well. Unfortunately, there is no room to recreate the return line (known as Hotel Curve) on the other side due to the new buildings.

I have not only managed to recreate the station but also the tunnel in the right place, extending the entrance to it so you dont see the train actually going through half a brick wall that is part of the main scenery! This line is long enough to hold a decent consist and fitted with a portal to help scenario writers with AI. To serve this stop, I have re - installed twin track into the disused third Gasworks Tunnel and there is also a functioning water fill point in between the station and tunnel as there was in real life.

To the north of Kings Cross York Rd is the modern day signal center, an ugly grey box structure, this has been disguised with more period building placed over it. Before it existed though, of course Kings Cross had a more conventional signal box. This was placed in the middle of the tracks at the end of the platforms and once I'd found out about this, I had to recreate it!

I have managed to get a pretty accurate likeness by manipulating some standard assets, in this case, overlapping FOUR normal signalboxes so that not only is it big enough but it has windows on all sides too. It should be noted that in real life, the box was at the end of platforms 4 and 5 where as here, it's at the end of 6 and 7. This is due to the modern placement of the platforms and something I cannot change.

I also removed the large signal gantry that spanned almost the entire width of the station, relocating the signals to individual mounts.

Platform '0' has been removed. This was only added to Kings Cross as part of the major refit the station had in 2010 so had to go! However, the squared off entrance over the track was actually the entrance to an engine shed originally, so it has been returned to this status by partitioning off most of the old platform and adding a driver's rest room next to the opening roughly as it was back before it was removed. I took the opportunity to install a diesel fuel point inside.

Inside the main station, there was little I could do as nearly all the items like modern ticket barriers, signs, help-points, etc. are all part of the model and so are fixed. I did manage to cover over many of the modern displays however with period adverts and removed the electronic displays. The track ends have all been given crossover points as well to enable loco drivers to 'run-around'.

Finally, the West side of the station there were a couple of very bland and modern looking buildings that are again, part of the main model and so cant be moved. This is a shame as this where the main engine sheds and the turntable once stood and it would have been great to include them. Instead, I have covered them over with more rundown looking period buildings and various billboards. Not to be outdone, I ended up creating a semi fictional engine depot up on the site of the original one known as 'Top Shed'. This includes coal, Diesel and water fill points as well as a turntable and engine sheds.

Requirements

You need four items,

ECML London to Peterborough

South London Network

Exeter to Kingswear Riviera (1950s)

European Loco and Assets Pack


http://steamproxy.com/app/24010/discussions/7/412446292770563653/?tscn=1455711312#p1

I do hope you enjoy this route, I learnt a HUGE amount making it and would like to credit forum member 'LNER' for the original inspiration and helping with local knowledge and Beta testing. If you have any comments, please post in the section below.