FIRST CLASS SIMULATIONS - EAST COAST EXPRESS PART 1

East Coast Express (Part One) London to Peterborough, developed by well-respected team EuropeanBahn, gives you the opportunity to drive a selection of contemporary electric locomotives on one of the UK’s busiest railway lines.

The route covered by this simulation runs from London, Kings Cross to Peterborough, a distance of 80 miles.
With this simulation you may travel north, through the suburbs of London and on to Peterborough, travelling through the countryside of Hertfordshire.

The journey from London to Peterborough will run through 24 stations such as Alexandra Palace, Potters Bar, Hatfield, Welwyn Garden City, Stevenage, Hitchin, Biggleswade, St Neots, and Huntingdon before arriving at Peterborough.

Featuring 23 stations along the eighty miles of track from London Kings Cross to Peterborough, rolling stock includes: the Class 91 locomotive in both the original Inter-City and the current G.N.E.R. midnight blue colour schemes. Also included are the Mk 4 BREL carriages and DVT in both liveries; the Class 43 High Speed Train in both the original Inter-City Swallow and G.N.E.R. colour schemes and including the carriages used from the running sets for both locomotives. Local services are provided by the Class 317 featuring the Network SouthEast 317 Class EMU.

Activities include: Driving a busy morning rush hour commuter service from Kings Cross to Welwyn Garden City and keeping to a tight deadline; taking a Class 43 HST from London to Peterborough on a sunny morning; driving a 317 on a stopping service from Peterborough to London Kings Cross.

East Coast Express (Part One) London to Peterborough includes fifteen easy, medium and difficult activities staged over a variety of seasons and conditions which will challenge everyone from beginners to the seasoned professional.

The route represented in this simulation has its origins deep in the history of the railway system in England and Scotland, stemming from the pre – grouping era with such companies as the Great Northern Railway , the North Eastern Railway .and the Great Central Railway. In this era there were in excess of 100 individual Companies operating railways in the UK, a situation that applied until the mid1920’s, when these were grouped in to the four main operating Companies, the London ,Midland and Scottish ( LMS ) , the London and North Eastern ( LNER ), the Great Western ( GWR ) and the Southern ( SR ) railways.
This was the heyday of the steam locomotive, with such examples as the LNER ‘ Mallard ‘, the holder of the World speed record for steam locomotives, the GWR ‘ Castles ‘ and ‘ Kings ‘, the LMS ‘ Coronation ‘ and ‘ Royal Scot ‘ and the Southern ‘ Schools ‘ and ‘ Battle of Britain ‘ classes.
With the advance of technology, and the adoption of electric traction by many countries, proposals were put forward for the electrification of a number of the main line routes in the UK. This simulation is concerned with that route previously operated by the LNER, later by British Rail and currently, after privatisation of the railways, by the Great North Eastern Railway (GNER).
This route covers the section of the GNER main line (The East Coast Mainline) between London and Peterborough, and is now fully electrified, using the 25kV system adopted in the UK.
This simulation has been prepared with the full assistance and approval of the GNER Company, and the authors wish to express their thanks to GNER for the help received.