In the north, weve got: Blackpool WCML Preston to Carlisle WCML Preston to Crewe WCML Liverpool to Crewe (steam) Upcoming Cumbrian Coast Northern Transpennine Manchester Airport Commuter (modern) Glossop Line (modern) Tees Valley Peak Forest (sort of northern, steam) If you notice most of these are set in the 80s except the ones in brackets. Let's compare this to the south South: WCML Birmingham to Crewe Birmingham Cross City WCML Crewe to Milton Keynes Midland Main Line WCML Milton Keynes to London Euston West Somerset (not modern idk the era) Riviera West Cornwall (90s) Isle of Wight Great Western Express London Commuter East Coastway Southeastern Highspeed Medway Valley Suffragette line Mildmay line Bakerloo line ECML Peterborough to Doncaster And here you notice the majority of these are somewhat modern (last 10 years or so). My point is the north has too much 80s traction, TOCs like northern and TPE have missed out on so many good routes because they're set in the 80s, and in the south there's too much modern traction. If you favour routes nearer to you, you don't really have much choice if you don't like the era. All I'm saying is when planning future routes mix it up a bit, like say a modern hope valley line and ecml south in the 80s.
I would like some slam-doors DC EMU, why not for a backdated BML timetable. But ECML King's Cross - Peterborough set in the 80's, that would not match with the existing stretch to Doncaster...
I'd definitely love to see some older routes from the South. There's quite a big lack of older EMUs in TSW, for example Mk1 based slam-door stock or Mk3 based stock such as the class 455 or class 317. I'd like to highlight some interesting time periods that aren't the 1980s, such as 1990s Network Southeast, or 1960s with Merchant Navy and Battle of Britain/West Country steam locomotives. A modern route in the North I'd like to see is Leeds network with the class 333.
Why not include both in the timetables diesel locos can still run on routes with OHLEs I would have liked to have driven a 390 from Preston to Carlisle
Me too ! There's a modern day timetable mod for the WCMLOS, but it's somehow WIP and there might be a lot of bugs with it, judging by the comments. Plus, it seems you have to do all sorts of manipulations to get it to work. Reminds me of the TSC era and I'm fed up with it. Now I want to play things straight out of the box. But otherwise you simply can spawn a Pendolino using tab and drive it through. However you won't have the correct EPS limits.
It wouldn't match, but it would definitely be a nice improvement. We'd find get either a Valenta engine HST or the highly requested BR Class 55 Deltics, both far more interesting than the Azumas.
Totally agree, TSW really needs a backdated route from the Network South East era. There were small periods of transition when there was a mixture of modern, Mk3-derived and slam-door EMUs. If DTG or another developer is concerned that Network South East won't sell, they could do an early Privatisation era route with a mixture of traction that draws in fans of old and new trains. Seems like a pretty obvious way to boost sales, something that appeals to more than just us older players. Waterloo to the south coast, Victoria to the south or south east coast, Charing Cross/London Bridge to the south east coast, Liverpool Street or Fenchurch Street to Essex and East Anglia. All had a mixture of modern 3rd Gen EMUs that are (mostly) in-game and the older slam-door units during the early 2000s. Some even had Mk3 derived EMUs that after 10 years of TSW are still not in the game. All three on a route would be amazing.
Yes it would be nice to have old and recent stock side by side. Maybe the atmosphere of the route won't suit those who really like it backdated (80's, 70's or older). But you can do 3 timetables for the same route, late 90's, 2000, and some time after, so as to feature only old, mixed, or only recent stock (as for ECW and the Class 313). Maybe there's a personnal bias as it's the period some of us were in their 20s... It reminds me of gare du Nord suburbs around that time, with a mix of old (inox) and more modern EMU/loco-hauled stock (Z2N, VB2N, etc), there was a hell of a variety. The french inox family (Z6100, RIB, etc) is roughly the same generation of your slam-doors units. There was a special feeling about those old trains... metal, grease, noise, smells, movements...
I worked in East Ham Depot back in the slam-door days, my office was within the shed at first, the smell of grease and that standard regulation cleaning fluid that BR used were amazing, the sound of compressors and that heavy clunk over joints in the rail that old trains used to make. The drivers told me that the units seemed to have personalities, there were highly reliable ones, units that couldn't catch a break and were constantly in for repairs/maintenance, units that had recurring faults that affected their operation, sluggish units, units with a dark history. Now they're all computers with wheels a fleet of 100 units probably all feel the same to drive nowadays.
