Southeastern Network: SEML, Mid-Kent & Bromley North. v.1.1

WIP Southeastern Network: SEML, Mid-Kent Line and Bromley North Branch
This is a work in progress route, in a close to finished state. A lot of effort has gone into to trying to make the route look as accurate as possible, but do not expect payware quality/perfection. This is an entirely freeware project, performed in my spare time. Please do not redistribute the route elsewhere in any way shape or form.

19/02/22 V.1.1 released: Swanley to Sevenoaks completed. Eynsford, Shoreham, Otford and Bat & Ball added.

Route description:
This route adds The Southeastern Mainline from London Charing Cross and London Cannon Street to Tonbridge/Paddock Wood. It also includes The Mid-Kent Line to Hayes, and The Bromley North Branch from Grove Park to Bromley North. v.1.1 adds Swanley to Sevenoaks. This has been achieved by merging the new Chatham Mainline (excluding anything east of Faversham to improve stability), the northern part of the South London Network, the Medway Valley Line and parts of London to Faversham. The missing pieces of track and scenery has been added in between, and equates to about 38 miles worth of new track.
The route has been worked on for two years and was initially just going to be The Bromley North Branch but has since expanded to encompass more than that.
Track for parts of The North Kent Line is also included, although without scenery or signaling at this time. This will hopefully come at a later date.
Track has been relayed in some places where the merges has had overlapping tiles.
The setting of the route is between 2012 and 2022. This is due to the span of where references has been taken from, and the fact that the merged routes are set in different years. London Bridge is also in its old layout which complicates things a bit.

Requirements: All essential
– Chatham Main Line – London-Gillingham
– Chatham Main & Medway Valley Lines
– Chatham Main Line: London Victoria & Blackfriars – Dover & Ramsgate
– London-Faversham High Speed
– South London Network
– Portsmouth Direct Line: London Waterloo – Portsmouth

Credits and resources
Please let me know if I have forgotten to give someone credit!

– Dovetail Games and the people involved in making the original routes and assets.

– Danny at DTG who originally layed the track for City Thameslink/Blackfriars to Loughborough Junction on the New CML for his South London and Thameslink route. And also the connection between Catford Bridge and New Beckenham, which was added as an extra in the New CML.

– Cab ride videos for lineside and station layout references was sourced from these YouTube channels:
https://www.youtube.com/@emmo999
https://www.youtube.com/@BPMR

– Speed limits and track layouts: Network Rail’s Sectional Appendix.
– Signal numbers/placement: OpenTrainTimes.
– Lineside and distant scenery: Google Maps in game API and Google Maps’ 3D view.
– MattyT for providing me with resources that has helped with providing more accuracy. Also for providing resources that will help with the completion of Swanley to Sevenoaks.

– Myself for laying the new track and placing the new scenery and scenery along the route.

New Stations List (26)
– London Charing Cross
– Waterloo East (Track existed from the new CML, but it has received makeshift scenery in this route.)
– London Cannon Street
– Deptford
– St Johns
– Lewisham
– Blackheath
– Ladywell
– Hither Green
– Lee
– Grove Park
– Elmstead Woods
– Sundridge Park
– Bromley North
– Elmers End
– Eden Park
– West Wickham
– Hayes
– Chielsfield
– Knockholt
– Dunton Green
– Sevenoaks
– Hildenborough
– Eynsford
– Shoreham
– Otford
– Bat & Ball

What to expect
At the start of building the route I had no route building experience, thus one can see that the earliest parts of the route hasn’t aged that well. The track laying and gradients aren’t perfect for The Bromley North Branch and Hither Green to Elmstead Woods, but it’s perfectly drivable and has working signaling. On the other hand, newer parts of the route like The Mid-Kent Line and Chelsfield down to Tonbridge has much better track laying with super elevation, and closer to accurate gradients.

Performance on my desktop and laptop is good, and pretty much the same as a default DTG route. I can’t guarantee that the route will run smoothly on all computers at high settings despite it doing so on my systems. With too much AI the framerate will be dragged down regardless for example.
It is recommended to run this route with scenery density set as high as possible.

Wishlist/To do list
– Fix rough track in certain places.
– Start working on The North Kent Line.
– The Maidstone East Line, SEML extension from Tonbridge to Ashford(Maybe) and Tonbridge to Tunbridge Wells.
– A more comprehensive quick drive.
– Fix any issues raised by users, if possible.
– Rebuild London Bridge and surrounding track infrastructure. Most likely as a standalone 2.0 version of the route.

Known major inaccuracies
– The South London Network is about 150 meters offset from the google maps overlay. Because of this, New Cross to St Johns is about 200 meters longer than in real life. The same goes for Nunhead to Lewisham, and Deptford to Greenwich (Greenwich does not have scenery yet).
– Siding naming and numbering. For the cases where I did not manage to find accurate sources for this, I applied what I saw as the most fitting.
– Bromley North Gradients. I’m aware that The Bromley North branch has inaccurate gradients in this route. This was the first track I ever layed in train simulator, this it’s not up to par with newer track.
– Some signals between Waterloo East and London Bridge are fictional. This has been done to help both Southeastern and Thameslink services to get through smoother.
– Missing station signs at certain stations that weren’t included with the extra signs from Medway Valley.

Notes to scenario creators
When starting a scenario outside of default DTG areas, you have to manually place down a scenario marker at the intended start of scenario. This is because I have yet to add scenario markers for these areas yet.

Due to London Bridge being in its old layout it’s difficult to funnel both Southeastern and Thameslink trains through it. Thus, I have created makeshift platform (7) to allow for 2 platforms in each direction. What recommend is to use platforms 4 and 5 for down services from Charing Cross and Blackfriars, and 6 and the makeshift 7 for up services to Charing Cross and Blackfriars. In some cases you will have to leave some services out.

2 part scenario tips:
Since anything east of Faversham isn’t included in the route for stability, I recommend to do 2 part scenarios for services from Charing Cross/Cannon Street to Dover or Ramsgate, splitting the scenario at Faversham. And then continuing in the new CML.
The same goes for scenarios/services bound for Tunbridge Wells or Hastings, where you can split the scenario at Tonbridge, and continue on the 1066 Line by Backdated Train Sim.

In areas with many crossovers it’s wise to use go via markers to avoid trains zigzagging between the fast and slow lines.

Feedback
Any feedback is appreciated! Good or bad. Enjoy!