Really? There's been steam Fort William to Mallaig for years now from the 80s to present day. The branding and name has occasionally changed and now its 2 trains because of the popularity of a certain film franchise (Not Fast and Furious). To do it current day means no freight. Sprinters on Scotrail trains which to be honest means waiting for the sale at best in my book. Wheelslip in the autumn through the many tunnels is a experience like no other but needs a 27 or 37 for the best experience. Not sure steam in TSW is all there yet either.
Fair enough. Until rivet proove they can make a sprinter it would probably be better in the loco hauled days. But dtg now...
Actually there is freight on that line and alot of shunting opertunities as well for the Jacobite as well as the Caledonian Sleeper.
Pretty sure it still does. I saw some freight pass through creinlarich from fort William at least. Maybe not to Mallaig but that's still gives yard services for shunting at fort William for the route.
North Blyth to Fort William Alcan tanks is the only freight on the West Highland Line now. It runs one direction one day then the other the next. Doesn't go in Fort William yard AFAIK. It reverses into Alcans and reverses out the next day. It's not a compelling argument to have an already quiet area with today's limited traffic and Sprinters. Set it in the mid to late 80s or early 70s for the max amount of trains. Set it now and it will be quieter than Cane Creek.
Well IMHO would be more interesting than Glossop, particularly if the line up Filton Bank to Patchway and Bristol Parkway plus the Hallen Marsh freight link were included. Weston SM probably too much to ask… It’s actually quite a scenic run with the climb up to Clifton Down, then dropping down through the long tunnel into the Avon Gorge, the industry around Avonmouth and finally, the classic “you’ve heard of sod all, but never thought you would see it”, metropolis of Severn Beach. Most of the stock to run the route already exists in the game, with a bit of tweaking and reskinning and changed interior.
I'd buy that for a dollar. Or two. Certainly right on the potential. Set in more interesting times then much freight around Avonmouth.
Best time to set it would be when the Avonmouth Bulk Handling Terminal was still sending 9 or 10 coal trains a day up to Didcot Power Station, with the odd trip over to Aberthaw too. That era would probably require a 143 for the Beach line service though a 2 car Class 150 would do, provided it was reworked.
If we get WCML (or one of its branches) it would fit perfectly into the "Matt Master Plan" of re-using as many existing assets as possible to increase playability. For example, the Pendolino (Class 390) could provide additional AI layers for existing routes such as Bakerloo (Queens Park - Harrow & Wealdstone), Glossop (Manchester Piccadilly area), Birmingham Cross City (Birmingham New Street & Lichfield Trent Valley), Cathcart Circle (Glasgow Central area), Edinburgh-Glasgow (Edinburgh main stations), and (Just Trains' possibly upcoming) Preston-Blackpool route (possibly playable layer). SOS (Liverpool-Crewe) not included in the above list due to the different era (but could be adapted).
Don't believe that Pendolinos have ever been to Queen Street or Edinburgh to my knowledge unless you use them in Scenario planner.
I wish lol. Would be cool to get WCML North Glasgow to Carlisle. Then you could use the 380's on the Branch to Lanark and have all sorts of freight moves going on at Carlisle with the new freight packs. Could be very promising. Would love to see an AWC Pendolino in the game. (Would basically fully populated Glasgow Central on cathcart now). Yeah. Could be a good shout but idk
Knowing what they did with ECML, if we were getting west coast they would do some Stafford to Wigan part But I agree that Glasgow - Carlisle would be good, and also perhaps the suspension update could help to implement the tilting feature?
I personally think they would do WCML south (I.E Euston to Milton keynes or Birmingham.) Birmingham would be pushing it for what DTG can do, though I definitely don't think it's impossible. And it would probably end up being one of the best selling tsw routes of all time. We have the 1972 stock and now the 710 to populate the section out to Harrow and wealdstone and Watford junction, so who knows what DTG could be up to.
I think there’s a good chance. If not it’ll probably be one of the more highly anticipated routes anyways.
my bet is no, I’m not privy to what they will end up choosing but I think it’s too similar to the kind of gameplay ECML caters to, and that’s why I don’t think they would want to do 2 similar style routes in a row for an iteration. Maybe TSW6
As I've said in a previous post, we have a section of the ECML, we have a small section of the MML, so the WCML is the only one missing? So I'd put a bet on WCML from Euston to Milton Keynes or Rugby... Ideally it would be the perfect opportunity to go all the way to Birmingham, but I really can't see it happening unfortunately...
Hopefully it’s been left alone for so long until they could implement a nice long section of it. Trent Valley section would be a decent back up. Even Trent Valley (Rugby to Stafford), with a daring attempt at the Birmingham loop.. wonder what the route mileage for that would be. Rugby to Stafford via Nuneaton, and Rugby, New Street, Wolverhampton to Stafford too!
For me the trouble with the Trent Valley is the two stations at each end aren't particularly major. Assuming it is till the case as in the past, many trains don't stop at Rugby and I am sure some don't stop at Stafford. There used to be local services along the route but as far as I know all the "stopping" services are now through services. For me it would be like ECML, which I hardly every play now as it doesn't feel like a logical journey.
If Just Trains are doing the North of England part of WCML, albeit in the 80s rather than modern, I would be surprised if DTG are also doing any of the route. It would be a bit strange if a core route of TSW5 is WCML when it will be immediately followed by the Just Trains route.
dtg also did 2 routes out of dresden only a few months apart, i know it’s not the same but still similar concepts
The eras question is interesting. When a new TSW route is being created which adjoins an existing route, the temptation, I would have thought, is always to have the new route set in the same era as the existing route. It allows use of the same rolling stock and licences and avoids re-building the stations at the point(s) where the two routes meet. So at the moment we have part of the East Coast in the modern era, part of the Midland Mainline in the recent past, and part of the West Coast in the 1980s (at the moment a very small part, but hopefully more soon). Will we end up with a number of sort of geographical islands set in different eras, with all of the West Coast (for example) ultimately being set in the 1980s, while all of the East Coast is set in the modern era? That may make more sense than ending up with a mainline which is complete - over several different routes - but each of them is set in a different era.
You’re right, and I did think about that when posting, but concluded that as steam appears to be dead it probably wasn’t relevant! Just imagine Euston-Crewe set in steam days, though!
Modern era has a clutch point around 2002-04 where the line was modernised/optimised and the older MK3 loco hauled stuff was being replaced with the shiny new titling multiple units. Silverlink, Virgin Trains, Centro/Central etc. I certainly wouldn’t complain if we had a route from this precise time!
Or Inverness 1954 district, like the SIAM traffic control game. Maybe something around Carlisle @1974, again with homage to one of SIAM’s best traffic simulation (well the best was Lincoln 1952 but don’t see us getting that in TSW any time soon).
Scarborough 1960 was my favourite - releasing and turning locos from all over the network on numerous summer specials, getting them coaled and watered, then getting each one back onto a train going to roughly the right part of the country to get it home! All of those we’ve mentioned are DOS only I think. I’ve never tried one of their Windows simulations. Part of the problem is they’re pretty pricy, so it feels like a big commitment to buy one.
I use a utility called D Fend reloaded which is a front end for DOSBox. But you are right, the price of some of them is eye watering, compared to buying a TSC or TSW DLC!
I'll think I'll add this here... But, when we were teased the Cathcart Circle, there was a image of a destination board with 'Avanti West Coast' as an operator, (although this incorrectly showed as a 7 car service. Maybe to put us off of the scent of a full lengh Pendolino), and we were told this was just 'marker' and not a hint for any future service. Now, Having played Cathcart Circle a fair bit recently, I'm still yet to see Avanti listed as an operator at any time of the day on the destination boards at Glasgow Central. In the teaser image of the destination boards at Glasgow Central, we were given prior to Cathcarts release we clearly saw Avanti as a name on the destination boards... I'm now of a firm belief a modern section of the WCML is going to he announced as one of the routes coming in the Dovetail Direct announcement.
I'm sure this was debunked by the team making the new timetable. It's the same as the Lumo, Hull trains etc on ECML, I think just to have the gaps and routing available if it does come along.
I'll disagree for the moment. I'm going to put my money down at Paddy Power that it'll be a modern WCML route!
I'm not really excited about the WCML because, like the ECML, it's just part of the main line with a branch line in. It would be great if DTG could run a line from London to Glasgow.
I think someone needs to ask DTGLegal if we can even mention a certain mainline anymore. Pretty good conversation was being had, shame really.
This post is speculation only. If we ever had Euston to Watford part in game, what existing trains could layer on it? Of the top of my head I can only remember class 710 and bakerloo stock? (To be honest I am just counting how much money I'll need to have all layers but tsss)
The most obvious one would be the 377, unfortunately the 377/4 in the game isn't the dual voltage 377/2 variant, so maybe have it substituted with a debranded Class 387?
