Hi All I’ve been active here for a few days and not gotten around to doing an introduction post yet so aiming to rectify that now. I’m being playing TS since around 2010 on the PC, but unfortunately battling some rather serious ill health at the moment meaning I’ve no access to my PC as I am living on the ground floor of our house due to minimal mobility, and the PC is located on my study upstairs. For that reason I purchased a PS5 and PS Portal, and have converted to TSW4 on the PS5 on the advice of a friend of mine in Denmark who highly recommended the sim to me, but did explain the issues with steam locomotives that are outstanding at present with TSW.I am absolutely hooked on TSW4 to the extent I bought around £100 of sale items in the PS5 sale and spend around 5 hours a day on TSW4. My chief interest is the GWR in the Big Four period 1923-1948, and have an N gauge layout of approx 9 feet by 3 feet set in 1944 sharing my study with the PC. I also enjoy visiting heritage railways around the country with my wife, studying railway history in general and am a member of the Great Western Society. I also volunteer at Didcot where I help to look after the non operational locomotives (those without a current boiler ticket) cleaning, lubricating and doing general maintenance work on a variety of locos from many GWR Classes - my own personal favourite class are the Castle’s but I have a soft spot for 6998 Burton Agnes Hall at Didcot, which was delivered to BR in Jan 1949 just post nationalisation. The first steam locomotive I ever saw as a child was 4073 Caerphilly Castle at the science museum in London where I was taken by my grandfather and she is without question my favourite locomotive, hence the username. Profile photo shows me on the footplate of a 57xx Pannier in the shed after a friend and I had worked our magic with paraffin and cleaning rags. I have been fortunate enough to have cabbed a few locos, not just the wide variety of those at Didcot but a few heritage diesels such as a Class 52 Western & 33 Crompton and have driven Battle of Britain class Bulleid Pacific 92 Squadron at the Nene Valley Railway, where I was outdriven by my wife !. Sadly due to ill health my model railway, volunteering and PC aren’t possible at present, TSW4 is doing an admirable job of providing my railway ‘fix’. I enjoy the British routes and locos in particular, and especially heritage British diesels, the West Somerset Railway (our favourite heritage line) and Spirit of Steam which while having its flaws is superb. I am hoping more steam locos and routes are added soon once the auto firing issue is resolved, and would love to see GWR locomotive power in game. If I’m not playing TSW I’m studying railway history (mainly steam) and military history where I have a particular interest in WW2 armour and a large library of reference works. My wife and I love to travel so hoping to return to that soon too. I find TSW4 very relaxing and it allows me to slip into the world of railways as it is so immersive for hours on end, which I enjoy greatly. I also was very happy to come across the forums, lots of interesting topics, help and discussion and a very welcoming community. I think that covers everything, all the best ! Sean
I have been playing TSC since 2010, just not at present. I’m sure your comment wasn’t intended as gatekeeping John, and was intended to lament the lack of an introduction section on both the TSC and TSW sections as I would gladly have posted in both. In fact, I’l raise that over on the TSW forum……..
