Henry this winter and Toby early 2027, pity no Edward or mention of the Brendam branch but deffo good news that new content is coming
As I said earlier, I’m personally not worried about Edward right now. I think he is more than likely to be announced next and included with the Brendam Branch whenever Dovetail decides to add additional branch lines on Sodor. I think the exact same thing is going to happen with Duck and the Little Western. I’ve noticed that in TSW, whenever they announce new routes or extensions, they always include at least one locomotive to go with it. Seeing as how both branch lines are owned by Edward and Duck respectively, I think they are more than likely going to be included as part of those two expansions. I can see these getting announced early next year after Toby gets released. As for Henry and Toby, I’m excited to see what they’re going to do with them. I think Henry will probably have a story centered around the flying kipper (not the episode itself since WOS hasn’t included any stories with crashes), and probably an episode or two that is based on the television series. Toby will likely get a similar treatment. I feel like Double Header is an obvious one to go with. Possibly another story that’s centered around him and Henrietta.
Henry will have some form of Flying Kipper scenario, I can see Henry’s Forest and maybe Whistles And Sneezes being used as other scenarios… the sad story of Henry requires Edward so I can’t see that happening yet unless they swap him for James or Thomas… there is also Henry And The Elephant Double Header is the obvious Toby story, Dirty Objects would be good too as would Thomas In Trouble
So this winter lasts until march 2027, and early 2027 goes until june 2027. I'm placing my bets: one will ship right before christmas, the other sometime in april or may. Do you guys not think the Henry will include brendam docks? How would you recreate the iconic flying kipper episode then? I don't see where they would put toby tho, maybe on thomas' line with henrietta going back and forth all the way to the quarry?
We do have the Knapford Harbor in the game, where the story takes place in the television series. Brendam Docks is located on Edward’s branch line, and as reiterated earlier, that will most likely come in a DLC pack with Edward since Brendam Docks is on Edward’s branch line.
Oh man i thought he departed from brendam docks for the longest time! that makes sense then. I reviewed the text used in their post And indeed it doesn't mention any map extension.
Knapford Harbour to the main line requires reversing down the branchline from Toryreck to Knapford… not impossible but awkward manoeuvres
Actually true! how would that work? henry would go into the docks, pull his cars up onto thomas' branchline and then run around the consist? wouldn't it be too long to run around them in a station there? Also the tracks don't go toward vicarstown from thomas' branchline so you'd need another runaround in Knapford yard. Diesel has a lot of idle time around the docks, maybe diesel could get additional services to fetch the goods train from the docks and bring it to Knapford where henry can take it down the mainline?
I know it’s probably early for me to say this, and I’ll probably be called ungrateful or selfish, but I honestly feel like this Direct could have offered a lot more for Wonders of Sodor. Dovetail hyped it up so much that many of us expected a substantial amount of new content. While I’m very happy that Henry and Toby are finally coming, especially since fans have requested them for ages, I still feel like something was missing. I understand that game development takes time, especially for new models, routes, and features. But without Edward or a route extension, it feels like the Direct missed one of the biggest things the Thomas community has been asking for. I’m still excited for what’s coming, but I really hope we don’t have to wait until we’re wrinkled and gray-haired before Wonders of Sodor finally gets the core characters and locations it needs to feel complete, especially from a Railway Series perspective.
There interestingly is a loop in the RWS, but it's only ever mentioned in one book and completely ignored after.
A Flying Kipper service could start at Tidmouth Harbour, were they to add that. This could give a more atmospheric straight through run, and go past the sheds like he did in the TV series. But I don't think we'll see the actual story as there haven't been any planned crashes in WoS. I think these two are an excellent choice. It's important to pad out what we have, make it more alive, before adding new lines.
It's also unlikely to be a story because I don't think Henry's old shape will be coming to the game anytime soon and it would feel wrong without it. Maybe a story tied to the Kipper, just not the iconic one with the crash.
So I Had to Put Up A Vote Whether Edward Is Getting Added As The Very Final DLC, Or Getting Added After Toby, So If You Want To Place A Vote, Then Go Right Ahead.
I think Edward will indeed be the next engine added alongside Brendam. What's been announced and what we've had so far is decent; this year gave us the core game, a cosmetic and technically 3 DLCs (James can come with the game). Henry and Toby make sense; one is a Mainline engine and the other is a Ffarquhar branch engine at the core. Next year, WoS's team has the core game finished meaning it's all DLC and updates from now on. My predictions right after Toby are Edward & Salty with Brendam, maybe a cosmetic of original black James and whoever else makes sense to come next for what we have by then.
Keep in mind Toby's release might be as late as may-june 2027, so year to date from the release of WOS may be 3 DLC total yes, but not 2026. I'm more hopeful they fix bugs by the end of this year, especially the ones that were listed as fixed in april's patch. What i'm really curious to see is how they will extend the map because it's never happened with TSW.
Swinging back to this, the mention of Elsbridge did remind me of something in the game. Between the station and the bridge, there's a bit of track leading onto the bridge that just ends with no buffers. The bridge is one track in RWS, two in TV. It's most likely set dressing (and an opportunity to derail), so I doubt it would be used for the Knapford loop.
A loop from Tidmouth to between Crosby and Wellsworth via Elsbridge would make sense from a practicality standpoint as shown below
Could be, and I hope we get it Q1 rather than Q2 but "early 2027" could be anything from January to June. Same with henry's "winter" release; Could be before Christmas 2026, could be in march next year. My guess is they don't know yet how long development/testing/Mattel approval will take exactly hence they have these fairly loose release timeframes.
I am so hyped to see Henry and Toby as the next DLC, I really hope we also get Henrietta along with Toby as well.
What do you guys think the timetable services for Toby and Henry will look like respectively? I can see Henry doing freight runs on the mainline and stopping at his forest. For Toby i'm not so sure, just up and down Thomas' branchline?
My hope is that Henry will take half of James's passenger services, with them both running mainline freight the rest of the time. Some fast goods, some slow goods. Toby should take over some of Percy and Diesel's services towards the quarry, freeing them up for more shunting at Knapford and Tidmouth.
I see Henry being predominantly main line freight with occasional passenger services stopping at Ballahoo Toby will have Henrietta with him, deliver milk on the Ffarquhar branch in the morning, take trucks from the quarry to the harbour and/or Knapford yard I’m not sure how easy it would be to take services off James and Diesel?
They'd have to redraw the timetable to some extent but I think it would be worth it to get the most out of a new character.
I don't think they would remove existing services from the timetable, but I think it would be smart to have underused characters like diesel get extra services to assemble trains for say henry that then does the mainline run. I don't know if I remember right, but I think James is the character with the most timetable services -and fairly varied services too while being coherent with the character- so I hope they keep the same enthusiasm for all the DLC characters.
