Okay, like it or not Thomas The Tank Engine is coming to TSW and the pros and cons are being debated ad infinitum in the main forum area. So here's a couple of thoughts as to what DTG could do to make the pill easier to swallow for the wider user base. 1. As you're building the E2 Tank Engine anyway, why not task the authors with making a normal, conventional version with the correct (so far as it goes in TSW) physics and performance. This could then get its own timetable layer on WSR - accepting the licence that none survived into preservation in reality. 2. It should be coming with its own route based on the Isle Of Sodor, or a cut down model style railway that captures the quintessential nature of the stories. Is the target audience really going to want to crawl along the WSR at 25 MPH or less for 80 minutes, without getting horribly bored.
A Ffarquhar Branch with Percy, Daisy, Toby, and Mavis would be fun, and be a better fit than the WSR. Also, if we get Duck, and then not an actual Pannier tank, I will start fires lol
I see this idea tossed around, but the early TV series models (which the CGI series in turn largely stuck with) really aren't that similar to their real life counterparts though. They're based on the earlier illustrations of the Railway Series, which by extension were rather notorious for not being especially accurate to their basis. Even Gordon who looks relatively A1 like even in the early series still has things like a different running board and tender, and has a overall simplified look. The amount of work needed to adapt them into the real engines likely would be just as much as just making them from scratch, so I don't see that being viable.
Really depends which approach DTG are using, I guess. Though personally I would prefer to see a Jinty as it has more application on the existing steam routes, obviously.
It would be cool to get Gordon, Henry, James, Percy, and other well-known characters in the game, along with Thomas. More freight and passenger rolling stock, including Express Coaches, the Flying Kipper freight train, etc. are needed.
