One of DTGs goals is to provide variety in the game, and yet most European rolling stock is from Bombardier at the moment, especially on German routes. I could imagine that being a licensing thing, but I would really love to see a more diverse rolling stock landscape, where not the same type of rolling stock is recycled between routes (such as done with the Dostos, Talent, TRAXX or BR143): - for German routes something like the Stadler FLIRT or KISS, Siemens Mireo or Desiro HC, Alstom Coradia Continental or LINT, and so on. Loco wise, the Siemens Vectron or Siemens BR152 would be very interesting. And especially some more German Diesel would be amazing, that could even be from Bombardier like the BR245 - fur UK routes, Siemens Desiro UK , Hitachi A-train bi-mode Diesel/AC units, Stadler Flirt, and so on. Maybe future route selection could take this into consideration as well, choosing routes that would allow not only for diverse gameplay, but also different rolling stock. How do you think about that? Which trains would you like to drive?
Interesting point. In the UK, most of the trains we have are old locomotives/units from British Rail days. The only modern units in TSW are the Class 395 (Hitachi) and Electrostars Class 377/375 (Bombardier). It would be good to see others: Siemens: as you said Class 350/450/444 Desiro. Class 700/707/717 Desiro City Alstom: Class 390 pendolino, Class 180 Adelante and Class 458 Juniper CAF: Class 397 used by Transpennine express and Class 331/195 used by Northern Bombardier: Class 701s aventas, Class 22x Voyagers, Class 345 Crossrail trains BREL (British Rail): Class 15x Sprinters, Class 14x Pacers. Stadler: Class 68s/88s for Transpennine Express as well as for freight. Direct Rail Services (DRS) use them, not sure about other freight companies Hitachi: Class 80x (obviously not an exclusive list, there’ll be plenty more from each manufacturer, they’re the ones that popped into my head)
The CAF trains are a good proposal, I really like those, how could I forget Maybe with some more modern routes we could see some more diverse modern trains, not more Electrostars
For the US it might be a problem, as most modern freight locomotives all come from 2 builders, GE and EMD. Passenger equipment is a little more diverse with Siemens, Bombardier, MPI and Alstom however. Of course if we get more retro North American routes, then freight locomotives can also come from the defunct manufactures of ALCO, Baldwin, and Fairbanks-Morse.
I don't really care about the manufacturer of the trains. It would add a lot more diversity if there we had more historical rolling stock, especially for Germany.
DTG is apparently firmly set against doing vintage German anything, because their market data says that German players are overwhelmingly interested only in modern. The flaw in that analysis is that a lot of German content fans/buyers aren't German. Anglophone players seem to have a great deal of interest in the Bundesbahn era. Which is a shame, because, while I love the German routes, I find modern DBAG robo-trains sterile and boring.
Well it's good that they want to satisfy the german players but if alot of the german content buyers are not german then maybe they should satisfy those that want a historic german route. Personally I like the modern german content and don't care if a historic german route doesn't come because I wouldn't buy it anyways. Modern German Trains are better in my opinion
Okay, maybe to rephrase it a bit, this was less about the manufacturer itself and more about variety in rolling stock (which we would get with more manufacturers for sure)
I think it would be cool to get more variety of rolling stock. The reason why alot of the german trains are recycled in german routes is because they pretty much run everywhere, apart from the 422 in ska.
I think it’s what you know and the era you enjoy - I see lots of people on here likening the very new stuff but Regarding interest, I think it’s different peoples eras, locality or niche interest. The timeframe in stock from what you wrote above is over 20 years! Personally I’d like to see units from the 80s and 90s from Alexander Barclay, Leyland and BREL but as they say, each to their own. With what DTG are doing with GWE and the New 70s pack, we may well get a new route with new trains with an additional timetable with stock added to represent a different time period. This would help satisfy more players
Well, I don't know, how long this point of view could last, as there aren't that many modern locos left Drilling around in Germany, that they can build. Actually, at some point, they seemed to be 'forced' to model something vintage for Germany. Would German users really refuse to buy a route because it would come with a BR 103 and a BR 140 with n-Wagen instead of a 193 and a 147 with Dostos? I doubt it. Actually the BR 103 marks the beginning of modern German railways. Maybe a DLC with E94 and E18 would be too ansieht for German users. But when I take a Look at the loco DLC, they are most vintage like the 363, 204, 155, 232 or 420 and I haven't heared any German complaining about them being not modern. Maybe DTG will someday jump over their shadow and do a vintage route despite their market analysis.
Of course., if they go with the 110/112/139/140/141/150 Einheitselektroloks, there is another diversity issue...... But seriously, I would LOVE the 103 hauled TEE Rheingold on Koblenz-Mainz,
Well, as long as not a single engine of that family has made it to TSW, it would add some diversity. I´m not thinking in the dimensions of British routes, where every route is turned in a BR Blue route (In some terms of similarity, even it adds a lot of classes, these are only 50/60ties diesel traction, no matter if it´s a class 45, a class 47, a class 52 or a class 37, some have more power, some have less power, but actually all the same, diesel-powered traction wasn´t reinvented for every class on it´s own...), anyway, a vintage German route would open the German tracks to more colours, some fancy stuff like the ETA 150 or the VT 98 on a branch line, or even a 'Lollo' could replace these 'Quietschies'...
Hmmm- a wine-red V200 with a string of green m-Wagen, except for the bright red Speisewagen! Oh- and a blue 1st class coach off an F-Zug stuck in there because it was what was available (yes, I've seen this).
My mouth is watering just thinking about all of the awesome stuff you guys are suggesting. I honestly wonder where they got that data from. I have a background in the German H0 rail modelling scene and from my experience in that, it seems we Germans are opposed to modelling anything new. Most of the stuff is Bundesbahn era or at least pre-2000. I know the train sim community may be a bit younger in age on average, but I highly doubt that there is so little interest in German vintage rolling stock.
In my experience model railroading is something for the older generations. I rarely see any young people jump into the hobby. The price tag doesn't make it really attractive to get started either :P