Although this is quite a compact section of Yorkshire’s railways the traffic using it is very heavy and very varied. Frequent tram services operate between Rotherham Parkgate and Sheffield Cathedral, and both passenger and freight services having widely diverse sources and destinations use the routes, several working through Rotherham Central but most bypassing it.
The timetable is largely based on the 2021 summer working timetable with some adaptation using repeats to avoid too many individually defined services. Data was sourced from the Real Time Trains site at realtimetrains.co.uk.
The timetable begins just before 07:00am with a single tram waiting at Rotherham Parkgate, and runs until just after midnight. To maintain proper timings care will be needed in interleaving services through Rotherham Central, and also through Aldwarke Junction. Many but not all freight services incorporate substantial slack time, so many can be held back to avoid passenger delays but others have to proceed to keep time. Watch out for freight entering from the Tata Steelworks. The services that run through Rotherham are permitted (in this simulation) to use the ‘wrong line’ as far as Parkgate to avoid having to reverse, but others do need to reverse at Aldwarke Reversing Point, and care will be needed here to minimise delays to other traffic. In these cases services can use the ‘wrong line’ towards Meadowhall when a freight is waiting at the reversing point. It is advisable to route all trains that don’t need to call at or are booked to pass Rotherham Central via the bypass lines, as Rotherham traffic is quite heavy for most of the time. Freight services entering and exiting via the Doncaster link should avoid Swinton when possible, using the lines through Thrybergh Junction instead.
This route is available for further enhancement on the GitHub development site at https://github.com/Railway-Op-Sim/UK-RotherhamAndDearneValley.
Download it here