I have always been a strong enthusiast in steam locomotives and British Railway's branch lines based around the 50s my entire life, and have always enjoyed the content available such as that on TS. I would love to see more historical 50s British Branch lines on TSW like what we have had in the past on TS. I am aware that the west somerset railway is on TSW as seen in the current day, but I can't help think to myself how much better the route would have been if it had been based in the 50s in-game rather than modern-day. I know steam locomotives are not yet available on TSW but I thought this would be a good suggestion for a route that could release alongside steam locomotives. When looking at old 1950s OS maps of the West Somerset Railway side by side with Google maps, I personally feel that there would be so much more playability out of the route during the 50s rather than modern-day. Not only that, it would bring the golden age of steam to life in a way that no other game could as TSW is perfect for that true-to-life immersion. I know I may speak for myself but I would love to hear other peoples thoughts on this, and what other 50s British Branch Lines they would like to see in TSW? I myself would also love to see the Helston Branch in the 50s going from Helston to Gwinear Road Station, which is just outside of Connor Downs. The route could also include the main line from Penzance to Truro. I hope that one day the golden age of steam will make its way to TSW Would love to hear everyone's thoughts Thanks for reading.
Nice suggestion though personally rather than a rework of the WSR I would rather see something different for a steam era line than what's already in the game. (Somerset and Dorset probably top of my list). The big Achille's Heel however is that steam traction still seems a long way off in the TSW lifecycle.
If they could make the routes in the early 1960s, they could use early DMUs and perhaps put steam in at a later point. There are many branches and lines from this era that no longer exist. Aside from WSR, there is (amongst my favourites)... Paignton to Kingswear (BR) Maidenhead to High Wycombe/Marlow Southall to Brentford (1940s) West Drayton to Uxbridge Vine St West Drayton to Staines West Denham to Uxbridge High Street Slough to Windsor Central (larger station) Twyford to Henley on Thames (larger station)
A 1950\60s route would be great. I wonder though if TSW2 could cope with all the possibilities. As an example, my local railway line is a typical modern rail route. A station every few miles, no sidings or yards, all the passenger trains are DMUs, very occasionally, a freight will pass, it will consist of a long rake of the same wagon pulled by a 66. In 60s, each station had a goods yard with a daily or twice daily pick up goods train. There were industries with private sidings. There were long unfitted goods trains with a variety of wagons, passenger trains were both units and loco hauled. It's a world away even from the typical TSW2 route but I hope they manage to pull it off one day.
I would love to see the Looe Valley Line in the 1960s or the Bodmin and Wenford Branch in the 60s; there would have been so much more to see and do!
100% agree with you. I used the West Summerset Railways as a conversation-starting point but I would love to see any 1950s route. I think what's important to me is that to best replicate the era, a 50s route would need to include both mainline starting at A, ending at B. But also include a branch line coming off of that mainline similar to what they did with the East Coastway DLC. This would allow for so much more replayability considering there would be much more rail and sidings to play around with and create your own scenarios. Not only that it would bring the golden age of steam to life where there were pretty many railways everywhere.
Surely TSW could cope, it's a more modern engine than ts classic, it ought to cope (!). I think the variety needed in traffic would be offset by frequency of traffic being lower on branch lines. The variety a branch line could give would be a great balance between being interesting to play and keeping it straight forward for a first route in steam. It's a great suggestion for a 50's branch and I'd love to see it happen. I'm totally sure that TSW loses out on a lot of new custom because of the lack of steam.
Some great suggestions here. Anything pre-Beeching would be worthy I should think. Today we are left with around 1/3 of the routes from this era. We could definitely start with first generation DMUs or other applicable stock until we finally get steam. I would personally love to explore the old long gone routes to see what they were like as very little remains to see today.
The 50s is one of the eras I wish I was alive to see and hopefully in the future TSW will be able to allow everyone to explore and immerse themselves in as if you were actually there in the golden age of British Railways and steam. Gameplay-wise you would be spoiled for choice as during the times there was plenty of both passenger and freight trains running through the beautiful countryside on branch lines and mainline. Shunting in the many yards and across the railway moving goods wagons from A to B. I just hope that when steam is introduced to TSW it will be released with a route based in the 50s that include both a mainline from A to B as well as a branch line where plenty of goods and passenger services could be taken advantage of giving a true-to-life immersion of British rail networks. This allows those both who was and were not alive at the time to experience something unique and a true representation of the period.
