The Tsw World Cup: Season Three

Ladies and Gentlemen.
The first ever TSW (Loco) world cup has ended and the results have been handed to me.

3rd Place - Acela express - 8 Votes (total in competition 108 )
Bit of a surprise but unfortunately Acela express fell very short of winning but it should still be praised for being the best American Loco
2nd Place - DB br class 101 + cab car - 24 Votes (total in competition 199)
It was a very close competition between this loco and the winner with only a slight difference however the 101 has been excellent in this competition and deserves a honorable mention.

1st Place - Blackpool Branches - 31 Votes (total in competition 265)
Ladies and Gentlemen of the TSW Forum, it is with great pleasure that I announce that the winner of the TSW (Loco) World Cup, is...... Just train's class 87

Which received the most votes in this competition and thx to Just trains has now received first place making Just Trains having the honor of receiving both TSW world cups which is a feat in it's self so congrats.
Thank you to everyone who has participated in this fun little festive-season contest. Me and trainsimplayer do hope it was fun and we can't wait for next year's world cup.

 

A deserved double for Just Trains' newest entry and I do hope everyone enjoyed this year's World Cup, both the route one and the slightly disrupted Loco version. A huge thanks to gwrfan#3416 for stepping in to see the Loco World Cup through to it's conclusion and I'd be more than happy to see you involved in the same tournament next year, if you wish.

Until then, it's time to fade back into the darkness and wait for the winter to come.

Take care folks, and thanks for playing.

 

Brrr. It's getting cold out there.
It's almost like the annual TSW World Cup is just around the corner...

 

Yes!! Looking forward to it!

 

First speculation: since the previous World Cup, I have seen no serious new contenders for the trophy. The next JT release will probably be too late to compete this time round.

Edit: maybe Mittenwaldbahn for a spot in the final.

 

Woohoo!! Great stuff! JT better hurry up and release Preston-Crewe lol ….will be interesting to see who / what ends up on top. Riviera is a candidate for sure. Let’s see!

 

Looking forward to this very much. A year's worth of new DLCs, plus whatever natural forum turnover has occurred, should add enough freshness to keep things interesting. The last one was also a good source of recommendations for future sales.

 

A question as I begin to prepare the competition: Would the typical set-up (endless forum threads with a poll each, because we still aren't allowed multiple in one thread) be preferred or would a third-party thing (i.e. Google Docs) be preferred?

I've made a Google Doc for the UK Groups (using last year's) just to see what it looks like and it seems like it could be optimal. It would also let us keep everything in this thread so the conversation isn't split up all over the forum.

 

Typical set up is probably preferable. Paging candacedtg - please may you investigate with the community team to see if multiple polls in one thread can be introduced?

 

Dunno, multiple polls in a thread would mean having to find the poll you want buried in all the messages. Much easier to have the one poll at the top IMO. It's also much easier to find a particular recent thread than a particular post in a popular and quickly expanding thread.

 

With a field this deep, it would be better I think to start with group round robins like the FWC, before the bracketed knockouts start.

 

If we have a new contest this year it will be harder to vote as there’s an increasing number of DLC I simply haven’t bothered buying.

 

Surely it'll make voting easier, less to choose from!

 

How about a World Cup for Bugs?

We could all submit the ones that we are most annoyed about. Then we can have the knock-out competition as normal.
Then, when the Winner is crowned, DTG commit to fixing both finalists and both semi-finalists within a month.

Now that sounds like a "Win, Win".

 

Better than my idea for "the best route with no bugs", where no route would be eligible!

 

IIRC from when the forum had multiple polls they'd all sit at the top. Or, if it wasn't this forum and i'm mistaken, that's how most forums are set up.

The issue this year is that a poll's limit is 25, the UK alone has 29 routes (haven't checked EU/NA yet) meaning that even as it stands I'd have to do most likely five, if not six, group stage threads.

Perhaps I could still do the traditional three threads but with multiple polls within, if the DTG team could facilitate that.

 

Well, like/helpful poll for the format then:
Like this post if you'd prefer to see the old format (albeit with 5/6 Group Stage threads)
OR
'Helpful' this post if you'd prefer to use Google Forms.

My 2c would be the first option but I think the sheer number of threads needed may require a little chat with DTG, so to avoid a ban for spam

 

Thank you for checking anyway

 

Keep on the forum, don't really want to have to use Google if at all posiible, please.

 

Agreed. Might not be ideal, but it still works.

 

Forum, definitely. IIRC, some DTG staff also posted that they enjoyed the tournament last time, so I imagine they'll cut you some slack.

I'm sure it won't be too hard to come up with divisions, like geographical (East vs West, North vs South), alphabetical, diesel vs electric, or however you want.

Only suggestion I would have is to reshuffle the seedings from last time to avoid repeating the same matchups.

 

I think for Europe I may split it along the best division of Europe possible; Aldi Süd vs Aldi Nord...

France, Northern Germany, Netherlands in Nord,
Southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland (+ Italy) in the south.

Majority of routes appear to be in the South so I'll manipulate the boundaries to include Köln to help it out a little.

UK I may just divide at random.

US might get away with one, if not we'll do the typical Freight / Passenger split.

 

Up to you of course, but I would encourage you to split North America between freight and passenger. Audiences are rather different. I would not want to choose between, say, Morristown and SPG.

 

I'll be splitting the votes as in the previous comps, it's just a question of the thread.

(2023's 'Mixed' Group ended up more about Passenger v Freight than the routes so I'd like to avoid that if I can.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the European Group Stage Draw, Sponsored by ALDI!

I wish I was sponsored for this but I'm afraid that'll remain a dream. ALDI are, however, involved by providing the dividing line for the European draw, mainly in Germany.

France and Netherlands have Aldi Nord, Austria and Switzerland have Aldi Süd.
Forget Culture, Ethnicity or Religion. THIS is how you truly divide Europe.

Why divide it to begin with, you ask?
Well, if you're just joining us in this year's competition, we now have too many routes to condense it into one thread so, we've got to split.
The little strawpoll above seems conclusively in favour of using the forums, so if I get banned for spamming then it's on you guys .

Anyway, let's get into the fun stuff.

Warning: Incredibly Dry Humour Incoming

ALDI No- I mean... Northern Conference
There's nothing really Northern about this as it includes the Southernmost European route (LGV).
12 routes in here.
It could be 13 because Dresden-Riesa is still a distict route in TSW6 but DRA has always been a strong performer in these world cups so I think it's best to let it retire while it's ahead.

Three groups here - I'll explain the format more later.

Group A
Rapid Transit
Dresden - Leipzig (Debut!)
SFS Köln - Aachen
Rhein Ruhr Osten

Köln - Aachen, a veteran player from Team ICE up against it's much younger teammate, Dresden-Leipzig.
Dresden-Leipzig grew up with Rapid Transit although secured a sponsorship with TSW6 Standard Edition, propelling it's career forwards.

Spoiler: Americans look away

In this current political climate "Team ICE" may not be the best thing to call the ICE routes collectively. Suggestions welcome.

Anyway...
Group B
Ruhr Sieg Nord
LGV Méditerranée
Tharandter Rampe
Bremen - Oldenburg

The French representative comes in to take on quite a wide variety of routes. Tharandter Rampe and Bremen - Oldenburg have performed well historically while Ruhr Sieg Nord has become something of a play-off regular.

Group C
Hauptstrecke Rhein-Ruhr
Hamburg - Lübeck
Spoorlijn Zwolle - Groningen
SFS Kassel - Würzburg

Do these routes have anything in common or this just a straight shootout of what type of route you prefer.
I'm not sure if KWG falls into the North or if it's on the border, but it gives the conference a divisible number, so that's a fair move.

ALDI Süd™ Southern Conference
We now have a bit more to play with here as we bring in Bavaria and the Frankfurt/Rhein routes into the fold as well as Austria and Switzerland!

Seeding
I have seeded Frankfurt - Fulda and Frankfurt S-Bahn and Niddertalbahn and Linke Rheinstrecke away from one another. Just to spice things up.

Group A
Semmeringbahn (AT)
Bernina Line (CH)
S-Bahn Zentralschweiz (Luzern - Sursee) (CH)
Maintalbahn
München - Augsburg

It's a good day to be a Swiss voter in Group A as you have two routes to choose from here. If you're just a fan generally of this part of Europe then you're also in for a treat!

Group B
Mittenwaldbahn (Debut... I think.) (AT*)
Pfälzische Ludwigsbahn
Frankfurt - Fulda
Niddertalbahn
Salzburg-Rosenheim (AT*)

This is probably the strongest group of the lot. I would imagine the play-offs will see a third route from here going through.

Group C
Frankfurt S-Bahn (Debut!)
Linke Rheinstrecke
Main Spessart Bahn
S-Bahn Vorarlberg (AT)
Arosa Linie (CH)

That is a very hard group to call.
Vorarlberg seems to always threaten doing well and ends up shafted by it's competition. It will be interesting to see if Frankfurt S-Bahn holds up against the competition here.

Format
So it's a bit South-heavy here and I do need to balance that.

It would neither be fair to give 2 qualification spots to the North (meaning that half of the routes would go through), nor would it be fair to give one to the south (meaning that only 1/5 go through).

Ideally we also get a nice number to work a bracket from. Unfortunately we are looking at a minimum of Nine routes here so straight to 8 isn't going to work. And 16 (from a pool of 26) is quite high, so that's not happening.

Here's my plan:
North
Winners of Groups progress
Best Runner-Up (by votes) progesses
Other runners-up go to Play-Off
South
Winners of Groups progress
Runners-up of Groups progress
3rd Places go to Play-off


This means that 10 Routes qualify for the next round. 5 Routes go to the Play-Offs, from which 2 would progress into the next proper round, leaving a total of 12.

In that round, the 12 Routes will be split into two, unseeded groups of 6.
The bottom two routes in each are then eliminated, leaving 8.

After that, the 8 routes will be split into 1v1 clashes (amongst each other) and enter a bracket with the other regions, until there are two routes left which will enter the Semi-Finals, going up against a UK/US route.

>>Subject to Change/Feedback<<

 

agree

 

Right, time to cross the channel because it's fine for the British draw!

No pre-determined split like EU, we'll just go groups A-C in one thread and D-F in the other. Let's have a look at the draw!

Group A
Blackpool Branches
Manchester Airport Commuter
Northern Transpennine
Riviera Line
Brighton Mainline

Former champion Blackpool Branches comes up against long-time title challenger Brighton Mainline and a newcomer which has been tipped to go far, the Riviera Line!

Group B
Cathcart Circle Line
Southeastern Highspeed Extended
Spirit of Steam (Liverpool - Crewe)
Midland Mainline
Suffragette Line (GOBLIN)

A good number of competition veterans here, none so successful as SEHSx which regularly gets into the later stages. A very strong selection here to potential cause an upset!

Group C
East Coast Mainline
Great Western Express
Mildmay Line
WCML South: London - Milton Keynes
WCML Birmingham - Crewe

I'm pretty sure WCML South and ECML met last year, but we now have a couple of wildcards to challenge them, especially WCMLBC...

Group D
Peak Forest Railway
Cardiff City Commuter
West Somerset Railway
Isle of Wight
Fife Circle

One of two groups I would suggest will not produce a tournament-winner. Fife Circle and Cardiff City Commuter have been bolstered by business in the transfer window, bringing the Class 158 and 142 respectively. It'll be interesting to see how this helps them in the new season...

Group E
Birmingham Cross-City
Tees Valley Line
WCML Preston - Carlisle
Bakerloo Line
Island Line 2022

Another former champion in the form of WCML Preston - Carlisle up against a few weaker sides. Tees Valley Line and BCC have history of making it past the group stages and will fancy their chances to go again in this group!

Group F
Entries in Group F are excluded from the play-offs as they've got a route less to compete with for votes. It's Winner takes all here.

East Coastway
West Cornwall Local
Edinburgh - Glasgow
Glossop Line

The second of the weaker groups. Edinburgh - Glasgow is bolstered by the 158 (no relation). East Coastway has had fair success in the past, WCL is regularly a crash-out from the tournament.

Format
If we (I) decided to match the European format then we'd be able to get 12 routes directly qualifying without a playoff. But that's boring! Also, just for the sake of trying to produce the wildest outcomes possible [the UK has won twice in a row, this is justified] I've got a trick up my sleeve for the next round.

So, we'll have a playoff for 4/8 third-place + best 4th place routes to progress. That'll leave a total of 16, although that won't be as straight-forward as you think...

USA coming soon!

 

Can I just confirm that voting isn't yet open right? I cannot find the thread, and cannot work out if this is just saying what groups there will be, or whether it is saying voting is open. Either way, looking forward to finding out which route wins! Thanks

 

Voting will probably be open in a week or two. The Season of Reveals means the forum will be a bit busier so I'll try and keep this to a minimum for the time being.
I may, perhaps, stagger the votes so that one region comes before the other so things can get underway without causing too much disruption.

I'll post links to the voting threads here when they're open, though.

 

Oh Canada
The third and final draw is upon us, and we come to the Canada (with some US) section, otherwise known as the North American Section!

Well, this is more of an announcement than a draw. As is tradition, we'll split 'Freight Routes' and 'Passenger Routes' from one another, but North America still has so few routes (up 1/2 since last time I think) so there's no real point splitting them into groups.

Instead, we'll just have two conferences (Truly, American style...), with four routes advancing.

Unfortunately this means that the US has a round (or two) less than the UK and Europe but unfortunately that's a minor inconvenience for the US playerbase compared to the lack of content. Anyway, your competitors:

Passenger (9)
NEC: New York - Trenton
NEC: Boston - Providence
LIRR Commuter
Harlem Line
Morristown Line
MBTA Commuter
Antelope Valley Line
San Bernardino Line
Caltrain Peninsula Corridor

Freight (7)
Cajon Pass
Oakville Subdivision (CAN)
Sherman Hill
Cane Creek
Horseshoe Curve
Sand Patch Grade
Clinchfield RR

(I'm scared that I've missed one here, please correct me if I have or put my fears to bed if I haven't.)


The Beginning
The votes will begin on Friday the 12th of December for *ALL THREE SECTIONS*.

These will run over the weekend for 48 Hours, ending at some point on Sunday the 14th.

I will compile the results and reveal the Second / Playoff round for both the UK and EU sections - Americans get a bye.
That round will probably start on Wednesday (17th) so not to conflict with the final Season of Reveals announcement and excitement, and then it's full steam ahead to get this done before Christmas.

Stuttgart - Heilbronn will NOT be added to the list for the EU routes. I had planned to start this earlier but, y'know, Uni stuff.

Question
To give everyone their Festive Fix of Forum Fun [4F for short ] and saying as the GBR livery is quite divisive, would anyone be interested in a 'make your own GBR Livery' contest? Gives me a little something to do when I'm not number crunching on Excel if nothing else. That'd probably be Sunday onwards, just for fun.


Anyway, until Friday, cheerio!

 

EUROPE IS LIVE!

The first of the three sections is up and running!
Europe's Northern and Southern conferences are both up and running for the next 48 hours so go and get your vote in and make sure you get to take part.

Voting threads are here:
NORTH: https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/tsw-world-cup-2026-europe-northern-conference.95710/

SOUTH: https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/tsw-world-cup-2026-europe-southern-conference.95711/

Every route's history in the tournament is also shown in the thread - I didn't quite realise how much the group format can help/kill a route's fortunes!

UK will go up tonight, as I have stuff to do.
US will go live tonight too, at a time roughly suitable for our American friends.

 

Great stuff, first round of votes just cast.

 

Nice! Votes cast. Zwolle - Groningen for the win

 

The UK is Live!
Voting is live, open for 48 hours once again:

SECTION 1 -:
https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/tsw-world-cup-2026-uk-group-stage-section-1.95723/

SECTION 2 -:
https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/tsw-world-cup-2025-uk-group-stage-section-2.95724/

USA is coming very soon.

 

The power of a remaster btw

 

For anyone navigating the tournament via this thread, please ensure you read the red text in UK Section 2. I've made an error with the poll but the red text makes amends.

My apologies.

 

And North America / United States is LIVE!

Vote Here: https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/tsw-world-cup-2026-united-states-group-stage.95728/

 

As things stand, about halfway through the group stage...



Bremen-Oldenburg isn't a skyhook route, don't worry i've seen it.

 

How is Ruhr Sieg Nord losing to those two? Blasphemy!

 

I love RSN for the atmosphere, but Bremen is just such a great route for taking your favourite DB stock for a quick run, especially the 612.

It’s probably going to be interesting to compare all the yearly results against each other & see if rolling stock additions make any difference to route ranking.

 

Bremen I can understand (a bit). It got a good new timetable with the expert 101. But the other one is a bit meh.

 

To be honest I’d wonder if it’s just a case of more people owning it over RSN, by the time DCZ released I’m guessing the game had many more players in comparison to RSN’s release, plus the rolling stock was a little more exciting IMO with a new Freight operator, the first diesel passenger unit, titling technology & GNT debuts all in one route, certainly the cities the route ran between are probably better known too.

 

This is the combined table which, due to this year's format, doesn't really mean anything. But, it's quite interesting to see the threshold for routes to get through. 23 votes seems to guarantee at least joint first, 13 seems to guarantee qualification unless you are Ruhr Sieg Nord or the Riviera Line.

The lowest vote share for a route (tied) to go through is 4; Oakville and Sherman Hill are tied there. There are few ties at the moment, to be fair.

10-12 is currently the points tally to aim for in pursuit of a play-off spot (UK/EU)

*again, forgot to change the dev for Bremen - Oldenburg. I have now, next time I post an update it'll show DTG.

 

DCZ performed quite well in the first edition of this competition, winning with 54 votes in a fairly similar group with Main Spessart Bahn, Hamburg - Lubeck, Luzern - Sursee and Maintalbahn. MSB is probably the closest equivalent to RSN, Hamburg is similar to Bremen and LGV is the unique non-German route to replace Luzern.

So it seems like DCZ trumps those types of routes. Maybe it's just the tilting train.

Interestingly it completely bombed last year in a group with DRA and Frankfurt - Fulda, so it's a bit of a 'best of the rest' route by the looks of it.

 

Not to mention Cardiff City a close second in its group. To go back to the heady days of It's a Knockout, they must have played their Joker!

 

Cardiff has the lucky draw, it's the only explanation that makes sense. I voted Fife Circle there. Reluctantly.

 

East Coastway presumably only doing so well due to it being in UK Group F with Stale Bread, Traffic Jams and Syphilis as the other options!

 

Not sure If I'm just blind but, is Riviera listed? disregard. I was just surprise to see it that low