this is just a list of Japanese trains for a more diverse selection with the current Japanese routes Wakayama-Sakurai Line 201 Series 221 Series Hidaka Main Line KiHa 40 Series Story of the Forest Line KiHa 31 KiHa 52
As someone said earlier, JR is extremely strict about licensing outside of Japan. They are afraid that anything, such as a recreation of a train crash, such as the Amagasaki or similar, could harm their PR, and image.
Taking a look at the Japanese wikipedia page on rail incidents in Japan, there seems to be an average of 12 incidents a year across all operators. This list includes derailments and other incidents causing significant damage to the train. Suicides are not included in the list. At the very least, JR group companies are known to put their drivers under a lot of pressure to be punctual, which is seen as being part of the cause of the derailments. While it may be difficult to get the group as a whole, some of the 7 companies that make up the JR group may be a bit easier to convince to provide licencing than others. Pehaps a better angle would be to get licencing agreements with some 3rd sector companies, like Seibu, Keio, Keisei, Keikyu, Toei, Tokyu, Tobu, Meitetsu, Hankyu, Hanshin, e.t.c. If some of these 3rd sector companies are willing to provide licencing, maybe it would soften JRs stance on the matter. Out of these companies, Seibu have appeared in multiple anime, and Keikyu, Toei and Keisei all had their own train simulator game on the PS2 (now worth around £120). For 3rd sector routes, I would suggest the following: Seibu Ikebukuro Line: Ikebukuro - Hanno Keisei Sky Access Line: Keisei Ueno & Oshiage - Narita Airport Enoden: Fujisawa - Kamakura Oigawa Railway: Kanaya - Ikawa Noto Railway Nanao Line: Nanao - Anamizu Toei Isesaki Line: Asakusa - Kasukabe Keio Line: Shinjuku - Keio Hachioji Tsukuba Express: Akihabara - Tsukuba Nose Electric Railway: Kawanashinoseguchi - Nisseichuo & Myoken-Guchi Fujikyu Railway: Otsuki - Kawaguchiko (Features JR trains, but these aren't a requirement) Izukyu Railway: Atami - Izukyu Shimoda (Features JR trains, but these could be unbranded as the branding isn't that prominent on most trains that run here) Kashima Rinkai Railway: Mito - Kamisu (Passenger trains only go as far as Kashima, but the line continues to Kamisu Freight Terminal. The containers carried by the freight trains would usually require JRF licencing, but they could just be left unbranded.) Alternatively, the routes could be done in the JNR era (pre-1987) instead, as licencing would probably fall under similar circumstances to British Rail. (Which is possibly how they got around any licencing issues in Rail Wars) For JNR era routes, I would suggest the following: JNR era Tokaido Main Line & Tokaido Shinkansen: Tokyo/Odawara - Shizuoka (111 Series, 113 Series, 153 Series, 165 Series, EF60-0 Series, EF60-500 Series, 0 Series Shinkansen + AI ONLY 101 Series (Only if Tokyo included)) Mainline and Shinkansen routes run relatively closely between Odawara and Shizuoka. This is the route that the famous picture of the 0 series in front of Mt. Fuji was taken on. JNR era Kobe Line & Tokaido Shinkansen: Kyoto - Osaka (80-0 Series, 80-300 Series, EF60-0 Series, EF60-500 Series, 0 Series Shinkansen + AI ONLY 101 Series) The southern section of the original shinkansen route. Both the mainline and the Shinkansen run side by side between the 2 cities. The Hankyu railway also follows the route, albeit at a slight distance, but it's still close enough that the vast majority of the Hankyu Kyoto line would need to be modelled. Could also include heritage JGR steam locomotives and heritage Hankyu Railway rolling stock. JNR era Yamanote Line (101, 103, 201, and 205 Series playable. AI ONLY 0 Series Shinkansen, 111 Series, and/or 113 Series trains are seen at some stations) Rolling stock seen around the Yamanote line was relatively uniform during this era, making it one of the easier periods to model this railway in. Iwaizumi Line: Moichi - Iwaizumi (KiHa 52) Note: The KiHa 52 was used on the line between 1983 and 2007. While it did have a JR colour scheme, it also operated in the original JNR livery, which never featured any branding. Prior to the KiHa 52s, there was another type of diesel railcar that operated on this line along with a freight service. Information on this is scarce, although it was likely that the freight trains were steam hauled. I'll expand on some of these ideas in the route suggestions, but you can see just how much is possible for Japanese routes, even when you cannot use JR stuff. One last thing to mention is that anime companies tend to make minor alterations to brand names to make something that's recognisable while avoiding the licencing issues. Such as JR -> UR, KEIO -> OKEI, Mc Donalds -> Mg Ronalds e.t.c. Perhaps this could be done to provide off-brand liveries that can easily be photoshopped into the real one.