A fun idea could be a triangular Crewe- Chester- Shrewsbury- Crewe route. There are stopping services from Crewe to both those places, in addition to the long distance trains. Prime opportunity to reuse the 153 with the 197 as the new train. It would be unique for a route, and it would technically count as a Welsh route since it would go through Wrexham (cardboard cutouts of Ryan Reynolds as a collectible?). I'd definitely take it over Crewe- Derby.
Yeah that’s definitely a good scope, covers shuttles, expresses & stoppers with multiple start & end points, basically a blown up version of CCN. One thing they did say was they weren’t afraid of going big, so quite hopeful, and with the current fleet of UK stock in TSW we can certainly look forward to a busy Crewe.
Would love that as it is my Local line as well, Do travel Shrewsbury to Crewe quite often and its a nice fun Journey a 50 minute or 33 min Journey depending on the service as you have the stoppers and then the fast to Crewe which is Non stop.
So yeah I initially thought North Wales coast to Holyhead....but I didn't realise how far it was, So don't it's that. So I'm thinking Crewe to possibly Hereford?
I think we may have to lower expectations on just how big this will be as this is their first route on TSW as per ATS on the Manchester Airport route.
Crewe to Hereford has some scenic sections but a lot of it is surprisingly flat - Crewe to Shrewsbury and around Ludlow and Leominster. The scenic section of the North and West plus the famous Llanvihangel Bank is Newport to Hereford. Still, I'd probably take a Day One punt on the northern section all the same.
Won't be truly modern day since the platform textures at Carlisle are still the old texture. Definitely still over shap
I get what you are saying about Rail 200 but that’s a celebration of railway, ultimately it isn’t really going to help sell railway DLC especially when the large majority of the player base is the younger audience on console! The best selling route is BML so not sure where the Liv-Crewe steam route suggestion came from in this chain that it was the best selling as it’s not and unfortunately steam or back dated content doesn’t sell, well certainly not aswell as modern routes and locos atleast! And ultimately whilst I understand people want nostalgia and variety, but ultimately this is business and people need to make a living and companies need to make profit and like any industry you make what sells so whilst I totally understand most of the comments on here I wouldn’t expect to see much back dated stuff other than JT and even then there may become a time where they switch
While I totally understand your thought process, I also feel you have a leaning bias towards modern stuff so you probably don't want retro eras from other people's golden ages of railway history. But I can confidently guess that in 20 years you would probably be mighty annoyed and bit salty if it was always present day stuff and not set in the current time we are living in right now if this is your golden age of railway action......
I was looking at Don Coffey's FB page earlier and he updated the cover photo to a Class 150/2. Staggering to think they are getting on for forty years old, in fact older now than the heritage units they displaced were on their introduction. And the 158's aren't that far behind - 35 years old this year. So what might be thought of as modern is actually quite vintage!
Just Trains seem to be proving otherwise and showing their is a market for retro stuff, and in actual fact are probably the only developer whos content is met with highly positive reception and appraisal...
Time doesn't just march on, it bloody sprints as we get older, I remember them from when I was a kid, I'm 45 now......
I'm not sure why people are so pessimistic about historical routes, both JT and TSG have been making them consistently and doing it to a high standard, with generous amounts of stock and route mileage, and are showing no signs of stopping - which suggests they are popular commercially as well as critically. A lot of TSW players, and potential players, are older, and those that aren't are more interested in historical stuff than you'd think. History is a big part of rail fandom.
I totally get your perspective and understand it, my point is actually from a business and commercial point which is forgotten about a lot of the time, I would love some ex Virgin 86 content but I also understand that may not be as popular with younger audiences who like the modern fleet! So I understand your point and I’ve seen a few other comments about source and how JT are proving otherwise and they’ve done excellent and their content is brilliant! I won’t talk about other 3pp’s content specifically from a financial or commercial perspective my point is just that steam doesn’t sell aswell and the majority of the Audience on TSW is much younger than that of TSC
Steam doesn't sell as well because there's hardly any steam to sell so far! I am sure there's an army of TSC players who would migrate over to TSW if the locos and routes were being made. I think you may have a bias against steam content here because it's not your cup of tea!
Okay well I’ll respect your outlook, I saw a conversation on steam content and why we don’t get it and thought I would explain an element that rarely ever gets mentioned, if you’re not interested in the commercial and business perspective then that’s totally okay
Crewe - Shrewsbury is roughly 35 miles, stations Would be 8. Crewe to Derby would be too long for a small team. Crewe to Rugby would also be a huge undertaking. Crewe is Hereford also massively long with multiple stations. Crewe to Preston would top out around 55 miles, 8 stations (Preston already modelled assuming JT licenses it). Given the length I would see this being more JT or DTG territory.
The comment on Spirit of Steam being the best selling route came from Matt himself on a livestream back around TSW3 releasing. I didn't just pull it from nowhere, whereas the BML comment does seem to be out of nowhere. If end of year statistics put out by DTG are to go by, SEHS is more popular than BML. Also, there's a whole third party market of steam locomotives on TS Classic and the steam community on it is constantly growing. JT are compromised of BR enthusiasts, I don't see them switching to the monotony of modern routes anytime soon.
If steam was done properly it would've sold well. I'll die on that hill About 50 odd people showed up at my dodgy little train station to watch Clan line going through and there was a real mix of young and old.
With all aboard trains I wonder what the plan is because the article snippet they left said: "Our focus is on delivering high-quality British railway experiences, capturing the atmosphere and character of real-world operations with the level of detail and realism that players expect. We’re not afraid to take on ambitious projects, and we’re committed to raising the bar with everything we do" Are they going to push the boat out a little?
Yes, we've already witnessed the struggles - outside their internal politics - ATS are having to bring their little Manchester Airport route out. So unless All Aboard have recruited a route building work animal, would suggest unlikely to be more than 30 miles. If it is indeed a Crewe based route that takes us to Shrewsbury, Chester or Stoke on Trent. I don't see them duplicating some of what ATS is doing by going towards Manchester and it's more than 30 miles to Liverpool, Preston or Stafford.
I was thinking more that we'd get a modern day Carlisle station, with the Pendolino being at the current one to tease it all.
Oooh, just had a thought. Crewe-Derby via Stoke on Trent. Most of the stock needed for it is already available Crewe, 390s, 350s, 321s, TfW 150/2, 153, EMT 158 plus freight. Could be a 156 or 158 as main traction with HSTs and 158s at Derby.
This. Even better if late 70's or early 80's but i would take the Provincial era with a mixture of Sprinters, Pacers, loco hauled and the odd heritage DMU.
I can’t be the only one thinking this.. The ATS route has stalled massively and for some fairly unknown reason, despite seemingly being in a QA phase, one of the final phases, of development. Ex-ATS ‘employee/s’ appear/s a few months later with a station the previous ‘employer’ decided was too much and too difficult for a first attempt. ATS have an informal back n forth on various forums / social networks regarding financial matters and what not. …So, what if the original planned-for-ATS route is actually, legally, technically, in the hands of this new studio and being developed properly and in good working conditions. What if ATS and AAS are now in an arms race to see who can finalise this route quicker? After all, teasing Crewe, for a first glimpse is certainly more than a coincidence. What a dumpster fire that would be if so!
DTG would not permit two groups to develop the same route, it would be in no ones interest to do so. ATS as a first time route builder its perfectly feasible that QA and testing has thrown up more bugs than a more established team might see.
DTG have made it pretty clear they only advise. I think it’s unlikely we’ll actually get 2 routes that are mostly the same thing, if they are making Man-Crewe, they probably have info that ATS won’t be releasing theirs. At the end of the day, this route has another end point, it’s possible they chose Crewe either as a subtle dig, they knew it would create a talking point or just that they’ve seen every time a route has released which could potentially go near Crewe, people ask for it. Of course we don't actually know the route ends in Crewe, just that it’s featured.
So many speculations and theories on what the content could be and where it could go, keep them coming folks! I need to get more popcorn
Would love for it to be Crewe-Hereford (with a 67/197) as it’s another line and set of trains I work IRL. I doubt it’ll be that, though. There wouldn’t much in the way of ai traffic for the majority of the route, if at all other than at Crewe. Crewe to Brum?
I'm all for another TfW route, a modern day version of Crewe would be very cool to see AI WCML traffic. I have no idea which route exactly it could be but it looks exciting! One thought, if it is Crewe, would they bother modelling the APT at the heritage centre?
If JT made a modern day P2C, they would have to make TPE or Northern with the route, otherwise you would pretty much need the 390.
no not really.. EMR withdrew the 15x trains from that line in 2023 I believe in favour of EMR 170s, some of which still have their London Midland green interior
Yeah I think they lasted a bit longer than the 156 but they were replaced by the 170 and 158 on that route. Personally I think that's an upgrade.
Although this seems to be a modern route, on the wrong side of the country I think I will keep my eye on it as the ambition is there. If its for me great, if not nice to have another third party. At least it's not in the south east!
I would love Crewe to Hereford but I'd take Shrewsbury which is slightly more reliastic mileage with a lot of nice scenery.
All these people claiming historic sells better than modern and vice versa I would like to see both sides sales numbers you all seem to have. Oh wait you don't so you all are really just guessing because only DTG knows what sells and what doesn't and they don't publicize that info. But it seems to me if Historic and steam sold well then DTG, who most claim on these forums are just money grabbers, would create what they would make the most money on, would make more. So that makes me think that the modern group are right. But until numbers are given none of us really knows how well an item sold. Each 3rd party will have a different level to what they call a success. So if JT sold 60% of what a DTG modern route sold to them that migjt be considered a success. They have less staff and expenses than DTG have so that might set the bar on what they call a success at different levels. So until we actually see numbers both sides are just talking out their...
I've only repeated what Matt said on a stream a few years back. He did say at the time of that stream that Spirit of Steam was their all time best seller and that it did really well, which isn't surprising as steam had a LOT of hype and expectations... That it didn't meet because of DTG's implementation of the physics and a poor choice of first steam route, but DTG clearly labelled it as a success on the sole factor that they made lots of money off of it I guess. Peak Forest probably didn't do anywhere near as well. DTG shot themselves in the foot by admitting that there would be no improvements to the physics, which was the expectation of the community. While it was good to come clean about it so people knew what they were buying, it was still disappointing and would've put people off buying it. I think Flying Scotsman was only made to cash in on its centenary year and nothing else. They didn't even bother to do an animated fireman for it. To me, a customer. All I know is I want more variety with a bit more focus on historical content, especially steam traction. I know I'm not the only one either, so the best course of action is to keep talking and showing there's demand for it. JT must be selling well enough to deem the BR era worth making content for otherwise Shap would've been in the modern era instead. Personally, I'm extremely glad Shap wasn't wasted on the modern era, as WCML South has modern covered and we would've missed out on the engaging to drive Class 87. This is the same reason I'd rather see a future ECML route in a different time period, it gives you more rolling stock diversity and represents the history of the route better. That's not to say I don't like modern content. It's just that I want to see a little bit more variety in releases. This is why the situation with steam is infuriating. DTG should at least sort their core physics out so that third parties can jump in and make content. VictoryWorks, one of the most well-known of third parties for steam traction on TS Classic had shown interest in making the Hayling Island Branch with an LBSCR Terrier. You can see some WIP shots on his profile before he stopped working on it due to DTG's decision on steam.
