North Downs Line West
The North Downs Line is an unelectrified route running along the North Downs from Reading to Redhill. Great Western Railway operate services along the route and on to Gatwick Airport. Currently class 165 and 166 turbos are used, although plans are in place to introduce class 769 tri-mode units that can make use of the limited stretches of electrification; from Reading to Wokingham, Aldershot North Junction to Shalford Junction, and Reigate to Gatwick Airport.
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| Description | North Downs Line from Reading to Guildford, and Waterloo to Reading line from Reading to Staines. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country |  United Kingdom | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Time period | 2022 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Train Operating Company | South Western Railway | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Simulation difficulty |   | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Author | Oxalin | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Website | North Downs Line West | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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This simulation includes the western section of the North Downs Line from Reading to just before Guildford. The map expanded significantly during creation, and so it has now also ended up including part of the Waterloo to Reading route as far east as Staines, and the Chertsey and Frimley branches from this route. South Western Railway operate services along these lines, using class 450, 458 and 707 units.
Timetable
A timetable for 3rd August 2022 has been included, with all services from 04:30 until 01:00. The standard off peak services are:
| North Downs Line West Services | |||
| Train Operating Company | Origin | Destination | Frequency (tph) |
| Great Western Railway | Reading | Gatwick Airport | 1 |
| Redhill | 1 | ||
| South Western Railway | London Waterloo | 2 | |
| Weybridge | 2 | ||
| Ascot | Aldershot | 2 | |
| Guildford | Farnham | 2 | |
Both companies operate some additional services during peak hours - most noticeable are SWR's peak Frimley line services - instead of shuttling between Ascot and Aldershot several services run through from London Waterloo.
Occasional freight services have been included to various destinations, and the daily ECS move by CrossCountry to retain driver knowledge is also present.
To add some complexity, all scheduled test runs for the new class 701 fleet have been included. Typically it would be unlikely for these all to operate on a given day, but this adds some interest to what is otherwise a standard repeating timetable during the middle of the day.
Operational Tips
Reading
- Some trains may need to platform share - make sure to route the last train in front of a train that isn't scheduled to depart until much later.
- Especially in the evening, keep an eye on GWR services approaching Reading - some are scheduled to use the main station so they can access the depot rather than the usual three platforms.
Virginia Water
- Typically trains from Weybridge will have a long dwell scheduled at Virginia Water - take care not to set the route ahead too early or it will block up the network.
Ascot
- Trains from Aldershot will typically terminate in platform 3 (the bottom platform in the simulation).
- Be careful with platform allocations, especially for the 701 test runs (under 5Q__ headcodes), as not all platforms can access each route.