Route Thames Valley Branches

This should be included whit GWE remastered

 

£14.99 for a route like this is brilliant, especially when you consider Cardiff is £29.99

 

While I am also pleasantly surprised by the pricing on this, surely Cardiff isn't that bad of a value? 20 miles of track, two pieces of rolling stock, it has a network style services, failrly expandable through layers and add-ons such as the pacer, no? I mean - I get that around 15 miles of track in TVB are fine for a price like this, but the fact that it is so disjointed is not really contributing to much gameplay. That 2-mile branch will give you how much content? It'll probably be similar to Reigate services on London-Brighton, which is OK as an extra on a full route like that, but it is really limited in a product like this, with no GWE integration.

 

What it should have included is the short part of the GWE that links the branchlines.

Having to "hop" after every 15min service or go back to the menu, rather than jumping on a HST for instance and travelling (or even driving) down to the next branchline would have been my preferred option.

 

Cardiff came with a hugely upgraded 150 and brand new 153. DTG then went back again to add new sounds. The route itself lends itself to some decent length runs. The JT Pacer timetable also adds more variety.

 

Brilliant Price. Great route too.

 

Train sim society has come out with an interview with Johannes, and it contains over


100 NEW SCREENSHOTS

 

This Route Need to be an official Paid Expansion for the GWE Route.
It’s a pretty Bad idea to have no Connection, because Route Hopping is a terrible Feature.
So why is this DLC Not an Expansion?

 

While I agree it could in theory "route hop" between them, it's still a lot of work by the ONE developer doing it, so he deserves to be paid like everyone else. It's not an "expansion" because the one guy doesn't own GWE (which is how route expansions happen in this game. The original creator adds onto their own route.)

I don't see the issue. It's a decent price for three quaint little lines, so each is just a few bucks.
Fun for a rainy afternoon.
Seriously, for that price you'd do what... have one supper or watch a movie in the theatre for 90 minutes?
If you can get at least 90 minutes of gameplay out of it then it's decent value. It's a nice first project for one guy to tackle.

Personally I probably won't get it until it's on sale because it has nothing but passenger play with a single EMU and that's not my thing. (I didn't see any mention of layers) However, if it's maybe $10 on a sale, sure... can't go wrong for that lazy afternoon.

 

I really like this route Irl, having been on all branches and from the screenshots, I am so looking forward to this route. (Sorry to be a bit biased as these are other local routes to me)

- The price is really good
- These are the sorts of packs I would invest my money
- Detail is exceptional
- Branches are definitely my cup of tea, back and forth makes it fun, especially if I have a limited time of play
- Doesn't really matter for me to route hop to this route from GWE, in my opinion, since its branches, and GWE was created earlier preventing it getting extended, I think its not a problem having the route hop

Conclusion: Day one purchase. Johannes, keep up the hard work, your doing an incredible job with this dlc.

 

£15 is really a fair price for this route...
£5 per branch

In a world where routes are £29.99 or £32.99 in cases, this is a welcome addition

 

Not to mention the arguably best quality and range of new features.

First time im thinking about buying a non german route day one.

 

That's just ridiculous. Especially given the really high quality of this new pack.

 

The price is fair for what is on offer.

However. After the blurry mess that is the Mildmay line, this is a wait and see.

 

Waste of Money!

Where do I start with the most frustrating release of 2026 for TSW?

Well, let’s start with limited playability - this route only contains three very small mini routes and each of them is completely isolated from one another. Within a week you will have covered them all, and then what? Just go back and forth? It’s a waste of money…

Maybe we should also mention that it’s not actually ALL of the Thames Branches - so even if they are claiming that is all the route is, it’s actually factually incorrect because they have neglected to include the West Ealing to Greenford branch. So the ONLY selling point this route has is also another lie. [EDIT - Jan - Insulting]

So, enough complaining, what should’ve happened then? Well, let’s start off with research. The route is extremely minimal with only 13.5 miles of track across three routes. It’s not exactly hard to include the Greenford branch - that is unless they purposefully didn’t include it so they could release an add on in the future, in which case this makes the route extortion! And this should’ve been released as an extension to Great Western Express Remastered - purely so you could go from one ‘branch line’ to the next without the extremely unrealistic approach that is ‘Route Hopping’ (an excuse for poor development). There are ECS (empty coaching stock) runs missing as a result, as well as other things (rail tours have visited these branches in the past). This COULD have been a decent release and improved and already improved route - add the Airport branch and you’d be laughing, easily allowing this release to cost £20 if not more and people would pay simply for the playability - that is the important word here

But oh no, it had to be done this way. What a farce, and this sums up the direction Train Sim World is going to a T.

 

^^^^
I mean you can just not buy it lol

I wish it was connected to GWE as well, but you're just going way overboard with saying the dev must be on drugs- come on man.

 

Come on man, seriously? You could have just said you don't like the concept and won't buy it.

 

Whilst you are correct it's only three branches, and it's fine to be disinterested due to this. (I was at first). That is however reflected in the price being its half the price most routes these days sell for. The flip side is it from the pre-release screenshots is going to be one the most detailed routes in the game.

As for the "just go back and forth", aren't basically all routes just going back and forth...?

Greenford branch probably should've been included - I agree. As for railtours (not) visiting the branches - how do you know there isn't any? And even if there isn't, you can just replicate them yourself in free roam. The airport branch likely isn't possible due to security concerns, this topic has been discussed on this forum multiple times

 

One person has made this... Just route hop...

In real life, those routes would probably have a few drivers and conductors going back and forth over a period of time (maybe 4 hours) then pass back to depot with an ecs in the morning and late at night (if there wasn't a working that used the mainline to get the train home). Bet you would complain if it was only twyford to Slough was included.

 

Technically Greenford isn't in the Thames Valley and doesn't go anywhere near the Thames.
It has dull scenery and is pretty boring

Heathrow can't be done as it is owned by Heathrow Airport Limited who won't give anyone access for research or allow their brand to be used

If GWE was included it would be double the price

 

Sometimes I enjoy doing some runs on IoW or Brighton-Lewes. So probably I will like this route as well, giving us three options and nice quality scenery for a price for a Burger King menu (with extra dip and mozarella sticks). Even if I'm not overly hyped, I can understand why GWE isn't included and it's probably a day one purchase for me.

 

no thanks, it would significantly increase the chance of performance issues. i’d rather take just the branch lines for the cheaper price

 

Including the part of the route to connect the branch lines would have been nice (and worth an extra fiver imo). But at £14.99, it's not a turn off

 

Complaining about an incomplete network while all 3 branches are end to end runs irl and connecting it to the mainline or using route hop would be wasted time.

After reading trough the rest and especially looking at some deleted insult of yours, i might ask,
How can one be this disrespectfull?
You do know others arent emotionless machines?

 

So.....that's your opinion on a route that has not been released yet.

I think it's a fantastic route for the cost of 2.5 pints of beer.

It's also done by one of the developers who is pushing the boundaries of the game and bringing in new innovations to each route. Hats of to the single person development team.

You have to remember that this game has to cover a huge array of personal likes. Not every DLC will suit you and as such you just have to ignore some of it. A bit like I do with any content outside of the UK.

 

Unfortunately he didn't listen as he just did it again on the Facebook group, https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EaCQU1wky/

 

The price is fair but have to agree with the (politer) sentiments expressed above that the concept is not really for me.

As a minimum the stretch of GWML between Slough and Twyford should have been included, even with just a generic HST and Turbo service to permit travel between the junctions. Route hopping is horribly broken and not only a bit bogus but just cannot be relied upon, as I discovered on my trans Britain journey a couple of weeks ago.

With regard to the other branches, Greenford yes but also Southall to Brentford and West Drayton to Colnbrook which would definitely have added to the value.

Ideally there should have been some joined up thinking between Incredible Trains/Grumpdog/DTG and integrated this with GWE Remastered.

I just don’t see the legs on this as regards replay value, maybe the Marlow branch with reversal and token exchange will be a novelty but will inevitably wear off after three or four runs.

So with all respect and kudos to the developer, this will be waiting for some sort of sale discount.

 

I like end to end routes, subject to performance feedback will likely pick this one up. Yes it would be better if it linked to the full GWR route opening up depot moves etc too, but still think it has its merits to stand alone.

 

Personally I like having the option of a few shorter routes in the game to choose from. I don’t always want to commit an hour plus to a route or having to use the dodgy save game feature. The level of detail is also a big selling point and the price makes it a no brainer.

I also don’t see the need in having this connected to GWE. Wouldn’t that just create performance issues for both routes?

 

I said at the time, I felt it was an opportunity missed.
Had Reading depot to Slough been included, but moved forward a year, it could have had a fully electrified mainline, and you'd have a a chance to run a GWR 387 on stoppers and have limited services involving HST/IETs that used to stop at Slough. Plus you could do the ECS services for the DMU. That would have set it apart from the existing GWR.
Even though this route is really local, I'm sticking by my original intention to give it a miss. I know I'd get bored really quickly.

 

It's very easy to throw these areas around, yet the decision to include any stretch of GWE would severely impact this product in many ways. We know Johannes did some pretty groundbreaking things due to relatively small scope of each separate branch, that allowed him to utilize the budget in pushing the limits of what's possible, such as parallax interiors, different crops at different seasons, extra LOD etc. These features are possible due to smaller scope, and might have never existed if he built upon GWE.

 

But the dirfferent stages of fields dependant on the time of year had already been done on the original East Coastway route. Also on a couple of other routes since. So its nothing new.

Hentis

 

MSTS also supported seasonal textures for terrain paint and foliage assets and that was 25 years ago. Crikey, it was, about this time in 2001.

 

I get your point in broad terms, just not the tone but alright… I also think the price is too high. I’m wondering how repetitive this will be. After driving it twice, you’ve probably seen everything it has to offer. I’ll let the livestream decide, but for me the price is simply too steep. It’s a nice little project, but definitely not worth €18 in my opinion. If it were €10, I’d probably feel very differently about it. I’d rather wait for the Mildmay Line extension.

I also don’t think the comparison with the Cardiff route makes sense. That one included an almost completely new train, and the route itself is about twice the size of Thames Valley Branches.

 

It can only be a 'waste of money' of your money if you actually buy it. No one is forcing you to buy it and if it isn't for you then don't buy it... Comments like these are just so unnecessary and spiteful. It doesn't read as criticism, it just reads as "I'm not getting my way with a route, so I must throw my toys out of the pram". Embarrassing behaviour. Anyway I'll leave that there, as it seems most of the community have covered the sentiments of the majority...

Anyway, it terms of the branches themselves, I'm actually excited and looking forward to the way this is packaged. A 3 - in - 1 setup is interesting, and opens up opportunities as a sort of spin off of GWE that gives you access to the branch lines as a separate DLC and could potentially open the door to feature the branch lines on other routes that couldn't be included in the original because of memory... (Bedford to Bletchley, or Watford to St Albans Abbey branches on WCMLS as examples of the top of my head). I'm quite invested in the idea of doing branch lines in such a way.

Johannes has already mentioned that the reason he has developed the DLC has single branches without the mainline is to be able to give each branch and intense amount of detail without it effecting performance and developing them as single branches gives him a lot more room to play with the memory budget, which personally I agree with.

I'm looking forward to seeing this in the game, and how such a new type of DLC will operate. It opens up a lot of potential for other routes as already mentioned. I'm also looking forward to the Class 165 which I hope will also layer into the appropriate services on GWE.

I listened to Johannes on Train Sim Societys interview and he comes across as a very intelligent, articulate, and naturally creative individual and his reasoning is also on point. I trust his judgement, and I certainly admire him as a solo developed.

Johannes mentioned in the interview that Greenford and even the Heathrow branch were considered, but the amount of work both would require was extensive. Although I don't want to put words in his mouth and highly recommend watching the interview he done.

So yeah, really looking forward to this one and I am fairly certain it's going to be a cracker... This is perfect for me for what I call one of my 'Sunday' branchline moods and style of driving. And I'm looking forward to actually being able to drive the branch lines of GWE which I've been after since GWE released.

 

What an utter load of nonsense.
so what if he releases a route like this?
As long as its detailed and at a fair price, which it is, then I see no issue with it.
Don't be so negative and downright hateful to johannes.

In TSW we have a SEVERE lack of UK branch lines in game, it's a welcome addition in my eyes.

You've clearly been way too comfortable with the 100 mile mainlines we've been getting.

Dip your toes into something new, give it a buy, you may like it.

 

I think dtg_jan has made his point here. Letting the discussion escalate again won’t help. It’s not worth that, is it?

 

Then don’t buy the DLC —- problem solved. I find your reasoning flawed, but it is your opinion, so that is fine. But your insulting the developers is unacceptable.

 

I don't play British content at all, but this one looks quite interesting to me at this price, as I typically don't play for longer sessions, and don't have very much other British content for layering.

Are these journey times roughly correct? Numbers based on current timetables:
* Henley-on-Thames <-> Twyford - 12 minutes
* Windsor & Eton Central <-> Slough - 6 minutes
* Marlow <-> Maidenhead - 23 minutes (with 4 minute planned direction change in Bourne End)

And, is the 165/166 "satisfying" to drive in its current state? Good sound, feel, suspension, etc? How does it feel compared to like a German BR642?

 

I get the nostalgia...but are we still comparing TSW to MSTS?
Settle-Carlisle in MSTS


As much as I loved playing the Nintendo 8-bit in the 1980s, I'm not going to try to pretend it's anything like a modern video game in graphics or performance. It's not like we have no seasons or snow and the like for TSW. Saying that MSTS offers something TSW doesn't is just disingeuous.

That or you're being REALLY dryly sarcastic and I'm missing it. That's possible too.

In any case, it was fun rewatching MSTS content for the nostalgia and realizing how far we've come... and people still complain.
Imagine telling yourself in 2001 that we'd have what we have now (like this) and I think you'd have been blown away and salivating over it.

We often lose sight of just how much we DO have in game, while we focus on getting what we don't.

 

I can't speak for the route that I haven't played yet, but in general I really like the 166 the one in the route is based on (and improved on) so I can't imagine it's worse. To ME it's better than the 642 (which I also quite like)...but again that's a personal taste. Neither is "bad."
Don't know if the travel times are right, but they sound reasonable. I almost think given how short they are they should seque into a return trip as a "round trip" for the full driving experience, but you can always load the next run up I suppose easily enough.
As with the "hop" feature, there's often some "sitting around" in real life waiting so I don't get pulled out of the "immersion" by loading up the next run. Gives me a chance (like a real life driver) to get a cup and hit the lavatory before setting out again.

 

I'll save money for the class 70 instead

 

Was just making the point that seasonal textures are nothing new. I just wish we could get the same in ETS2 and ATS!

 

I think it'll happen.
They've really done a good job on the franchises.
Can't wait for buses.
Which is admittedly odd for me since I generally like freight, but I already have freight for the rest of the game in ATS/EST. That's literally all there is, so in this case the tiny passenger bit would be the spice of something different =-)
Normally in TSW the freight is the afterthought!

 

This product DOES include ALL the Thames Valley extensions. Greenford is NOT in the Thames Valley Greenford is near London, so Leo Martin, please get your facts right before you wrongfully criticise.

Well done to Johannes for producing an excellent addition to the game which includes my local station a mile from my home. You have worked hard on this and I am grateful for the excellent price too.

 

Watching the stream, the route looks well made. Will be waiting to see if it has blurring issues.

 

Watching the stream now too and it looks amazing. I might wait to see if any Xbox players take the plunge and see their feedback. Sorry, but I won't take the risk at this stage.

For it are the level of detail, points of interest in each of the routes and potentially increased immersion. And the 165 was a good drive before it got all the updates in this DLC.

Against, I just feel I might get bored more quickly and even learning to play hud-less won't add too much more. The 165 and route feel is already familiar too.

I definitely like branchline gameplay and the route lengths are no issue to me, but I think I'd be more likely to buy a DLC like this (at a higher price) if it was set somewhere new to TSW and possibly with a new train.

 

Loving the Marlow Rugby Club pitches! Now we just need someone to do football piches to this quality. The current ones aren't great. Sorry, pet hate.