I think a class 800 is a must have for Great Western Express to be honest. All the HSTs are just about gone so why not have the iconic trouble played class 800 as a add-on.
Excellent idea and your special paint train is 800 008 Pride but Taboo and not as is is 800 321 due to it having a face mask paint like WCML safe travels 390 122 & 390 042
Would rather have a Paxman engined HST. 800’s have been aptly described as Japanese Knotweed. Not to mention you will need to swap out your comfy computer chair for a wooden stool, to match the experience travelling on the wretched things.
It'd be better off added to an all new route rather than GWE as that route is set during the period where electrification was being installed and HSTs were running. I believe this was the state of the route in real life when DTG developed it for TSW. I'd prefer the TPE 802s personally, that livery is gorgeous
TPE Class 802s run on Huddersfield Line the NTP for that to work it must be modernized with 25kv 50hz overhead contact system dating from 1989 at Leeds City Station and Manchester Victoria.
Besides the issue of no power for them past Airport Junction, the 800 as a train design apparently has been trademarked by Hitachi.
GWE is a "time capsule" just as much as NTP is, or Cathcart, or Main-Spessart- it's set in late 2016/early 2017, when the electrification work on the route was being done but not yet complete, and necessarily before the advent of the 800s.
For a new DLC perspective, I think they can revamp the existing GWE to a modern era and extend the line towards Devon and Cornwall.