I've been thinking about it. Following the April Fools roadmap, and a few "teasers" here and there on the Midland Main Line. First, the April fools roadmap. It shows pictures of four roads. As said in this thread, the roads are: -The A94 (The E94 was announced today, in the roadmap) -The A142 (The Class 142 pacer was annouced today aswell) -The A420 (The Class 420 was shown in the roadmap) And the A373. As maybe for the Class 373: Now, in may of last year a thread was started "Brand New Mml Secrets". And a blueprint of the Class 373 was found on the Midland Main Line, a route created by Skyhook Games. Here it is: Skyhook Games didn't release a "true" add-on since the MML. Only a few packs, and the Scotrail Class 158. It would leave them a lot of time to create everything needed for an Eurostar-based route. What do you think ?
I don’t know if Skyhook will be doing it. It’s more likely to be a core route for TSW6. And it will go through the big tunnel. That’s if it’s happening of course.
I doubt a headline route is going to be a long tunnel. The most sense for the 373 as a UK release would just be to add it as a loco DLC for SEHS. The other option could be a GNER release with the 373 featured there.
I really can’t see them doing the tunnel, it’s 30 mins of tunnel, boring!! More likely Brussels to Rotterdam (74 miles) or something like that I reckon.
If they are developing the 373, that means we may see it on SEHS as the current timetable is set 2019ish when Eurostar still stopped at Ashford. But would that also mean the TGV layer is removed?
I don't know if this holds any significance but one of the screenshots with buses in the April fools' roadmap looked like it was on SEHS, or had overhead wires that looked like SEHS.
Okay call me crazy BUT, in the mastery challenge from this month, the numbers are 173, 8, 15 and 15 000 000. Let's remove the 15 000 000, and let's do 173+8+15=196. This is probably very stupid but 196 is the exact numbers of miles traveled by the Eurostar between London and Brussels... Edit: And also 173 Nautical miles is 320 kilometers...
Interesting theory but I can’t see them doing a route of that length even if SEHS copy and pasted plus the mileage in the Chunnel. Also ignores the fact SNCF are no longer cooperating with DTG and the fact there were always licensing issues for Eurostar anyway.
It did certainly add some variation when travelling back then - having Mk1 EMU stock and high speed Eurostar services passing each other. I'd definitely buy into that route.
Would love that. It would have definitely been strange back in the day being in a Eurostar racing a class 444 into Waterloo. There's quite a few videos on YouTube but this one is definitely worth a watch:
Yeah although I'm not too fussed, I would be extremely excited if we got Waterloo - Ashford. Winding through London is absolutely sublime. Not to mention you'd have a decent variety of commuter traffic, SWT out of Waterloo, SE out of Victoria. Sharing tracks with freight trains. Maybe that would also force DTG to finally cover the rest of the Networkers, and they can (of course) have a great use for the 375. However if it were going via Tonbridge I could see it being a whole route with the 373 as an add-on instead of the star train. The other option they'd have is only having Section 1 of HS1 open so the Eurostar only needs to run on classic lines to Fawkham Junction and then have the thrill of 300kph running to Ashford (if that did happen, not sure what the speed limits were back then). I think the latter is likely. Saying that I highly doubt a 373 would come to TSW. Eurostar are pretty tough on their license and even if DTG managed to bag the license would DTG or whoever it is really be up for funding the development of the 373? SimExpress recently dropped their attempt, I believe they say it was due to costs, and even Alan from ATS mentioned he did talk to some devs about commissioning one but the costs were far too expensive.
There was a similar thing with licensing car brands. They were reluctant to have their IP in racing games once upon a time and now look where we are! If, and its a BIG if, DTG can show what they can achieve if they put everything into it (eg. the latest Dutch route) then I’m sure there could be a chance. I’d love to see it in game!!
You have far too much time on your hands lol… …I do like how everything you’ve deduced leads to a class 373! Here’s hoping eh?!
The 373 would be fantastic, unique design and what a lovely motor sounds it makes ! I’d take the Waterloo to Ashford over the St-Pancras through the HS1, it’s more fun to me to drive slowly and there’s the possibility to have freight and London commuter services as well. If DTG ever do this (which I doubt honestly) I hope they won’t forgot to implement a nice feature of substations tripping, it wasn’t that often but the 373s were known to draw to much amps when running under 3rd rail ! I’m not even mentioning the big arcs when the third rail is interrupted and the driver was at full throttle. It’s almost mission impossible to have it on the game, I remember a third party developer was making payware contents to Trainz and the only TGV model he didn’t got the green light was the Class 373. He still sold it illegally he admitted later but yeah, no way DTG will follow the same path. We can only hope for the GNER version, it looked neat !
I think that the option of launching 373 at High Speed without a brand suited many. At the same time, the session can be started on the go from the portal in Eurotonel. I really like this idea. I don’t think that modders will keep us waiting long and will quickly hang the 373 with the necessary decals. With this solution, the route can get updates and we will get the much-needed Eurostar train traffic.
If Eurostar are not prepared to grant a licence, highly unlikely they will have agreed access to the trains themselves for research purposes either. I don’t want to rain on the parade here but I just don’t see it as a likely candidate for TSW.
A per the discussions about the Class 720 WMR in the Birmingham thread - I can't see them making a whole new unit, knowing that they won't be able to brand it or advertise it as easily. Eurostar is a well known brand, Class 373 very much less so.
The railway museum only has the power car, they don't have any passenger coaches (unless they have one in storage that isn't on display for some reason, or at locomotion) Edit; fixed spelling errors
As much as I'd love to see the 373 in the game, what route could they do with it? Do Eurostars even stop at Ashford or Ebbsfleet these days? It would have to start somewhere in France but Lille is way too far. Do enough Eurostar services stop at Calais to make that an option? I guess the only other option is to have the route be set solely in France or Belgium, but if that's the case why a Eurostar and not another TGV?
And as previously addressed, unless there has been a change in policy SNCF are not licensing any representation of their routes in TSW.
yes and dtg make a tweet on twitter X year ago on the 373 , for me Lille - Europe - St pancras could be a interesting add-ons there is not so many station howener there could be different trains and services
