Favourite Mainline?

[fgwrich]

No love for the Bournemouth (BML) / Southwestern mainline it seems!

 

[brad465]

As soon as I saw the polling options my first thought was "the absence of so many routes with 'mainline' in the name will be causing uproar."

 

[Russel]

WCML Because it's scenic and the tilting tech is simply impressive.

ECML To me has always seemed dull, flat and straight for a lot of the route, never had any interest in it.

 

[Sad Sprinter]

I think I'm going to have to instantly say the Great Eastern simply because the Brighton Main Line is my favourite, well the Southern Region system in general. And the Great Eastern is the closest thing resembling it. I suppose my love for the other lines have been soured from my childhood criteria of what makes a line great; sprawling suburban system/lots of branches. The West Coast falls down in that regard, as does the Midland (although I was always extremely impressed with the Kentish Town to St Pancras corridor as a child during the Thameslink blockade). I always thought the Great Western, despite it being the line I most use and being from a long line of Great Western men, was always a bit of a joke with their 2 car Turbos seemingly ambling to nowhere. So the Great Eastern it is.

The Midland would be a contender if they managed to get it to Bradford, and if the GOBLIN went to St. Pancras.

The East Coast has the best suburban system, but has bland stations and a boring route.

Pre-nationalisation, the LMS would have been my favourite of the Big Four. But I think the West Coast is almost too big with too little suburban traffic.

If only the Great Eastern still had the same rolling stock as it did circa 2019 - I could never get bored with it then. If I could make 1 change with the Great Eastern though, it would be to make a bigger, more interesting Chelmsford station.

 

[consettman]

Speaking as a local, i can't help thinking that the northern end of the ECML is oversold. Yes there are some brief spectacular moments - Durham, the Bridges at NCL, the cliffs north of Berwick (you need to be lucky with your seat for the latter), but for a lot of it (e.g. Holy Island) you're squinting at the occasional flash of something in the distance. It's mostly just a drag through a generic UK rural landscape, occasionally rolling a bit, often just a plain. The newspaper/phone/laptop will get a rest for about 5% of the time. On the WCML, they'll all be put aside 100% of the time between Preston and Penrith.

 

[cactustwirly]

I put the Midland Mainline as it's interesting than the southern WCML, better scenery especially through the Chilterns and Derby to Chesterfield on the edge of the Peak District.

Operational interest with Thameslink, Trent Junctions and Toton

Interesting station architecture, a lot of the WCML is nasty 1960s concrete, the MML maintains original Midland Railway stations, Nottingham is a great example of this

ECML is flat and boring, GWML is a less scenic. Although I enjoy Chippenham to Bristol through Bath, Newbury to Castle Cary and Goring Gap.
GWML probably serves more interesting places to visit.

 

[philosopher]

Speaking as a local, i can't help thinking that the northern end of the ECML is oversold. Yes there are some brief spectacular moments - Durham, the Bridges at NCL, the cliffs north of Berwick (you need to be lucky with your seat for the latter), but for a lot of it (e.g. Holy Island) you're squinting at the occasional flash of something in the distance. It's mostly just a drag through a generic UK rural landscape, occasionally rolling a bit, often just a plain. The newspaper/phone/laptop will get a rest for about 5% of the time. On the WCML, they'll all be put aside 100% of the time between Preston and Penrith.

On the north ECML almost all the good scenery is on the east side, so if you are sitting on the western side you will to some extent miss out on the good views. On the WCML, the views on both sides are good.

 

[jfollows]

No love for the Bournemouth (BML) / Southwestern mainline it seems!

I lived in and around Portsmouth 1984-1994 and I used the BML out of preference, it was faster and once I had a car and had to drive to a station anyway it made sense. Old Winchester Hill for the drive Winchester-Clanfield, for example. It was definitely a more interesting line than the Portsmouth Direct, pretty although the latter was in places.
The 92 to Eastleigh for a DEMU to Fareham worked well.

 

[Sorcerer]

Sodor mainline

No doubt a great mainline with a great history, but in it's early days it was quite uneconomical in it's operations such as using a three-cylinder Gresley Pacific for an 80-mile journey.

 

[Nottingham59]

No doubt a great mainline with a great history, but in it's early days it was quite uneconomical in it's operations such as using a three-cylinder Gresley Pacific for an 80-mile journey.

No more inefficient than proposing 300kph+ High Speed Rail for NPR with four intermediate stops between Liverpool and Leeds (65 miles as the crow flies)!

 

[norbitonflyer]

No doubt a great mainline with a great history, but in it's early days it was quite uneconomical in it's operations such as using a three-cylinder Gresley Pacific for an 80-mile journey.

Two cylinder - as Awdry decribes (and he discusses with Flying Scotsman in "Enterprising Engines") he had a rebuild at Crewe.

In reality this is to explain why he looks different to an A1/A3

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ECML for sentimental reasons.
MML for superior rolling stock experience (at least until it succumbs to the all-conquering IEP)

 

[Harpo]

The Cambrian mainline to Pwllheli.

 

[Sorcerer]

No more inefficient than proposing 300kph+ High Speed Rail for NPR with four intermediate stops between Liverpool and Leeds (65 miles as the crow flies)!

You can tell it's part of the UK network then.

Two cylinder - as Awdry decribes (and he discusses with Flying Scotsman in "Enterprising Engines") he had a rebuild at Crewe.

In reality this is to explain why he looks different to an A1/A3

Yeah but he was built and running express trains before his rebuild. But of course your second point trumps all in this case.