I remember the first TSW came out. I started to wonder if PC games was coming to consoles. Typed in Train SIM, before you know there was the HST cover and Paddington to Reading. Now Its snowballed into this massive game and community. It's like marmite.
I had a similar starting point too, I went into YouTube (I think 2017) and in the recommendations was a Train Sim World founders addition showcase, I had look into the video and thought this is got to be the closest to a train sim for console, so off to the store page I went and bought it, followed by future dlc purchases and eventual decision to move to TSW 2 after being convinced by both scernario planner and preserved collection
It was just driving the trains for me. Going 125mph in an 125. I'm not keen on scenario planner but liking the preserved collection.
My starting point was a friend recommending the game to me. Moved to tsw2 nearly a year ago now because I had a £20 GAME store voucher, that was about to expire, so I bought the collectors edition on special offer. As well as that I wanted ecw and hrr looked interesting