Time for me to publicly demonstrate my ignorance -- yet again. As I drive the GWE route, I see long stretches of track without any sign of electrification, some with what look to me like supports for electrification but without cables, and some with full cantenary equipment. Since all three engines included with this DLC are diesel powered, what's the point of having any electrification, much less cantenary in various stages of development?
As far as I know, the route now has electrification in real life, however (for whatever reason, I don't know) DTG created the route from based on how it was a couple of years ago when the work on the electrification hadn't yet been completed.
I think it's based circa 2015. I'm sure they have their reasons for basing it then; they may have wanted to avoid doing the route when Crossrail construction was heavy, to keep asset numbers down, for example.
The actual Great Western Main Line is currently being electrified, the decision to do so was taken in July 2009. Since then, there has been a lot of going back and forth ("paused"/"unpaused") and scope changes as costs spiralled out of control. In GWE you see a snapshot of the route, presumably showing what the GWML was like when Dovetail started the project. Given the huge construction work going on at the GWML, I can't see any other way of doing it. "Looking outside" while the route was being built by DTG's developers would have been impossible, as the route changes looks every day as more wires go up.
We based the route in mid 2016 when electrification of the route was still in progress (which was when we were conducting our research) and we wanted the route to be as accurate to that time as possible. Plus, who knows, we might completely electrify the route some day down the line... - Jay
