Gwe Remaster: Appreciation And Discussion Thread

THIS

 

I'd be ecstatic if we got that.

I would love to have some sort of old Reading in game. We have a good one in the JT SWEX but that doesn't go to Paddington or Didcot. I wouldn't mind the FGW Barbie/Blue transition either, mix of engines and liveries is always very nice.

 

Who would own the rights to Great Western Trains? I assumed it would be First, but most or all of the registered trade marks for GWT seem to be owned by the DfT which would make it attainable. The DfT do own quite a few old TOC brands, like SWT/EMT and London Midland. That said it's probably a lot more complicated than it seems.

Interestingly, GWT had to license the InterCity name and logo from the British Railways Board. I don't know why they chose to use the brand on their trains, it seems a bit redundant. Still, Merlin is a top-tier livery.

 

I would imagine it would be just as much of a minefield getting the Virgin logo and liveries into the game. I would donate a kidney to get Virgin XC 47s, HSTs etc into the game, but I know it will never happen.
I expect GNER would be the only big defunct name with any kind of shot of it happening, I’m not even thinking about holding my breath though.

 

Virgin is an absolute no-go (unless you're JustTrains who has never had an issue with Virgin branding in their Voyager pack). GWT is plausible. I have a feeling GNER might be more complicated though. If it's any indicator, the recently released AP Valenta HST pack has branding by default on the GWT, GNER and Midland Mainline liveries, but not the Virgin livery. Virgin is of course an edge case considering the drama they had a few years ago. It isn't in the branding batch, but other brands are.

 

I noticed Virgin had been excluded from the branding download, same with VTEC and the MTU addon. I don’t have the money or space for a desktop PC, I would be spending all my time on the new Valenta pack.

 

One question?

is it being extended beyond Reading?

 

No.

 

Thing is, Virgin is a brand still in use, like the First liveries.
GWT, GNER, MML, Northern Spirit, Valley Lines, Alphaline, Wales & West, etc are defunct brands - still technically must be licensed but they're less likely to be sued for it.

As for GNER, it's complicated because their owners went bust. If the person on Reddit is to be believed (bag of salt, please), then the trademarks etc are preasantly owned by a private individual.

 

I seem to recall a bloke on Twitter being rather annoyed with Accurascale for using the GNER livery and branding on their OO-gauge Class 89 without his permission. That was some time ago now, I haven't heard anything more, and the model is still up for pre-order, so I guess it was all resolved in the end.

 

That is disappointing.

 

Why? It was never implied it was going to be extended and Liam has said on more than once occasion it wasn't going to be extended.

 

It's a free remaster, not a paid update

 

Being used actively as a brand isn't relevant. The East Coast livery is unbranded despite it not being used for ten years now. There are plenty of other examples.

 

Precisely. DTG couldn't use Deutsche Bundesbahn or Santa Fe branding without the permission of DBAG and BNSF.

 

Come on #DTG get on board!, this is incredible!.

 

It would certainly be interesting getting the insight from one of the team who have an in depth knowledge of licensing, and how feasible defunct operator liveries would be. One of my fondest memories is taking the Highland Chieftain, all the way from Kings X to Inverness on a GNER HST back in the early 2000s.

 

Even if it were a paid add-on, where would you extend to though?

Newbury, Didcot or Swindon would be possibilities although not all services stop at these and they would require as much modelling as many whole routes to cover the milage.

The Thames branches would be nice but relatively minimal operational working potential. Greenford branch has interesting freight operations but a rather obscure route to add in.

 

?


The only exceptions I can think of are EWS (yet DB Cargo is unbranded), and GBRf (who I assume have granted a licence as they seem to work with AP for sound recordings)

 

Whoopsies.

The general statement is still true though. London Midland, Northern, SWT, Anglia and SPT are all defunct brands that aren't included by default in at least one pack. It has changed over the years; Anglia and SWT have been included in later packs but not some earlier ones despite both being defunct at the point of release of those packs. There are probably more.

 

Bringing back on topic by casually reposting this. I’m slightly giddy over this remaster and can’t get over how good this screenshot is.

 

1. Since they have the license back will trains be branded ?

2. Will there be a GWR 230?

3. What Liveries will the 166 have FGW/GWR/GWL ?

 

Another shameless replug of screenshots for those who haven’t been following, this is what FGW Blue will look like, what with the dynamic lines also being subject to the limitations of the license.


Also another gorgeous one of the viaduct at Maidenhead, shared by Liam a while back.