Well, we're here. It's been a fantastic edition of the TSW World Cup this year with a few shocks, a number of dark horses and a number of really awkward and interesting draws which have produced unique results. 71 routes were in the competition at the beginning, now three remain. 8 countries (10 if you split the UK) were in play at the beginning; only one: the UK (specifically England) remains. In the Green corner... Riviera Line Debutant The newcomer from Devon is the Riviera Line: reviving the Great Western Railway brand in TSW and bringing railway modernity to the south-east region, Riviera Line has joined the illustrious company of Blackpool Branches and WCML Over Shap in being a route which has reached the final in the first TSWWC since it's release (anything TSW3 or before doesn't count for the 2023-24 edition). The 802 and 150 have been thrown into the player of the season debates and the Voyager has been nominated for the Train d'or, but can they see it over the line and take the crown? Road to the Final Group Stages: 2nd in Group A (22 votes) R2: Riviera Line 67 : 17 Cathcart Circle R3: Riviera Line 43 : 15 Midland ML QF: Riviera Line 52 : 21 Morristown Line SF: Riviera Line 58 : 23 Great Western Express Now, In the blue corner... WCML Over Shap 2024/25: Champion The reigning champion has made it to the final, coasting it's way towards a title defense bar a near-miss against Southeastern Highspeed. Improving since last year with the signing of the Class 86, this route shows few signs of stopping. Will it's rivals be able to knock it down and take the crown for themselves? Road to the Final Group Stage: Group E Winner (55 votes) R2: Over Shap 59 : 29 Blackpool Branches R3: Over Shap 33 : 29 Southeastern HS QF: Over Shap 53 : 24 Linke Rheinstrecke SF: Over Shap 50 : 35 Frankfurt S-Bahn And finally, in the Red corner... WCML South 2024/25: Quarter Final WCML South, having finished in the quarter finals last year, has rallied onto the final. It's not been easy for this dark horse - with many pundits going on record as saying it had little chance - but it's here. The 377, 350, 390 and 710 have become a close-knit squad under the management of the 1972 stock and they have worked together and never lost belief. Now they've got just one match to go until, they'll hope, the crown is theirs. Road to the Final Group Stage: Group C Winner (33 votes) R2: WCMLS 73 : 11 Cardiff CC R3: WCMLS 44 : 10 Manchester Airport QF: WCMLS 42 : 30 Frankfurt - Fulda SF: WCMLS 45 : 38 Mittenwaldbahn Rules You CANNOT change your vote, and you only get one. Choose wisely... And now, That's all that's left for me to do. Honourable mentions go to Frankfurt S-Bahn, Great Western Express and Mittenwaldbahn for their generational runs which got them as far as the Semi Finals. A huge thanks to everyone who has joined in with this competition it has, as ever, been very fun to do. Now... Let's find out our champion...
Vote cast for Shap, no surprises there. Thanks again to trainsimplayer for organising and hosting this.
Great fun as always. A bit unfortunate that it's ended up with two modern UK routes in the final against Shap as I feel that will split the vote somewhat and give a less close final result, but hey ho!
I can see Shap making it 3 in 3 as well next year. I’m not sure if will ever be surpassed in terms of popularity (although I actually voted Riveria)
WCML London to Milton Keynes in the final 3. Who'd have thunk it, back when it was released. Not playing Shap much any more so I voted for Riviera which I really like. Pay attention, those erstwhile critics of Rivet Games.
Compared to WCMLOS particularly WCMLS had a relatively generous run to the final. Riviera may have had it easier, arguably, bit as seems to be typical a bit of recency bias comes into play. Stuttgart - Heilbronn, had it been included (for anyone just joining us - it didn't as it released after the cut-off) would've at least got to the knockouts, regardless of it's quality / flaws, due to that factor - unless it was in an absolutely horrendous group.
I really don't get the massive love for Over Shap. Sure, it's very high-quality; but head to head against the equal quality Blackpool Branches, a far more interesting route, it won handily, which I simply cannot understand. And then stomped over the very highly polished Mittenwaldbahn, another route with more interest. TBH, Over Shap is like a highly detailed GWE- one straight shot, very little traffic variety, little service variety.
It says a lot that it was nearly beaten by Southeastern High Speed. Which is obviously less polished but far superior in terms of gameplay and variety.
I agree with you on all points. For me, over shap is only interesting for shunting operations, where you travel along parts of the route that the Class 87, which travels strictly in a straight line, can't access.
Shap has lots of variety. I’m fairly sure those who say it hasn’t aren’t playing enough of the services. It is the best route in TSW by far and it has the best UK trains in it. There are 13 different traction types in the timetable, many of which have multiple variations in the livery or model. What it doesn’t have is a station every mile. It’s actually amazing the variety it has in the services given the small number of stations but it has a great mix of passenger services with different stopping patterns, loads of loco swaps and depot runs and some of the best varied freight action. There’s so much to do, lots of gems of services. It has qualities beyond variety as well. Some of that can’t really be put into words. The route itself is great with its gradients and twists and turns, and the scenery is the best made in the game, I’ve done 16,000 miles on the route and am not even close to getting bored with it. Like all railways there is repetition but not like every service is the same kind of repetition. Freight actually has to pull over to let passenger services pass. Every siding on the route is used in the timetable. There’s so much going on. You could easily have hours of driving multiple different types of service without doing a single full route run but the full runs are some of the best driving in TSW. It’s the full package.
Blackpool branches was okay and a good proof of concept for JT’s style. However you could only really enjoy the loco hauled element over roughly 1/3 of the route with Blackpool South and Ormskirk other than the Railtour just Pacer or DMU. Doing a complete all stations run from Blackpool South to Ormskirk did become a bit of a chore at times. Scenery wise, the Fylde Peninsula and the route out to Ormskirk is fairly dull. The main attraction of going to Blackpool is… Blackpool itself. Well certainly in years gone by, maybe not so much now. Specifically for transport buffs the Tramway as it was before modernisation. Balloons, railcoaches, Coronations or the OMO cars which followed them either along the Promenade, the cliff top past Cabin to Little Bispham then the reserved interurban section to Lord Street followed by the street running in Fleetwood. That’s as iconic to Blackpool as fish and chips! Whereas Shap, there is something about winding up an 86 or 87 and taking on those long sweeping curves through the edges of the Lakeland Hills.
Fair enough. I should revisit it sometime. While I have played this route quite a lot upon release (aiming to do different types of services), it has been a while. So I might fire it up soon.
What I like most about Blackpool are the loco release services with the class 08, right in the middle of the busyness of Blackpool North station. And, to a lesser extent, the shunting stuff at Preston. Like you said, the regular passenger services get boring after a while.
