Hello everyone, it's been awhile since I've written a suggestion, so hopefully I'm not too rusty and at least some of you find this of interest. As I've mentioned in some other threads, I'm a train simulator player from back in the MSTS days. MSTS was my first real exposure to railroads and railways outside my little corner of New England, broadening to the rest of North America and overseas to Europe and Asia. I went from seeing the blue, red, and silver Metro-North FL9's, Shoreliners, and ACMU's my grandparents would take me on, to driving glossy green British steam, sleek Acela high speed trains I wouldn't even see until my high school years, and funny Japanese trains where the engineer had his cab up over the front of the passenger area. As I've gotten older, my tastes in railroading have expanded. I've learned scores more about not just the topic in general in my own country, but the history and nuances of rail transportation of various countries across the globe. This is in no small part due to my experiences with not just MSTS, but Trainz, Railworks, TSC, and now TSW. While the UK has always been my favorite source of rail fandom outside the US, I've slowly been gaining interest in the railways of Japan. This leads me to today's route suggestion, the Odakyu Odawara Line, as previously included with MSTS... The Map: For this DLC, I would like to see the Romancecar route, from Shinjuku to Hakone-Yumoto, totaling about 55 miles of narrow gauge electric railway from Tokyo to the beautiful scenery of Kanagawa prefecture. While not the ultra high speed railroading of the Shinkansen that people are generally drawn to, I feel the mix of busy urban rail commuting synonymous with peoples' ideas of train travel in Tokyo and the rural mountainous backdrop of the outer reaches of the line past Odawara would be a big hit and enough to please a large crowd of railfans with varying tastes. The Trains: Unlike the MSTS version of the route, I would like to see it in its present-day configuration, including the current active fleet of commuter and the unique Romancecar trains. To achieve this, I feel one example of each would be sufficient to achieve both a good service pattern and enough AI trains to make the route feel full, without the expense of multiple classes of commuter and Romancecar trains. For regular commuter trains, I'd like to see the Odakyu 3000-Series. First introduced in the early-2000's, the fleet consists of nearly 50 trainsets that see vigorous daily service across the Odakyu Electric Railway. While there are more modern sets on-line, they are far fewer and would leave a gap in AI services. Having undergone refurbishment in recent years, these cars are a true commuter workhorse. For the Hakone and Super Hakone Romancecar services, I feel the Odakyu 30000-series would be the most appropriate for the DLC. Introduced in the mid-90's and refurbished starting in 2016 these trains are a common sight on Romancecar services. With comfortable seating and large windows these trains provide spectacular views as they traverse city skylines and cling to mountainsides. Future DLC: The Odakyu Electric Railway fields a pretty diverse fleet, both past and present. Future DLC could feature other Romancecars, past and present, as well as other trains in their commuter series. MSTS featured the 7000-series Romancecar (retired) and 2000-series commuter car (refurbished, in-service), which could feature in a nostalgia DLC. More modern introductions to the fleet could also include the 4000-series and 70000-series Romancecar, the latter featuring an elevated driving position to allow forward passengers an unobstructed view from the front of the train. A true luxury railfan window! The Route/Scenery: From Hakone-Yumoto to Odawara, the line utilizes trackage of the Hakone Tozan Railway to get from the mountain stop at Hakone to the start of commuter territory in Odawara. Despite being a unique dual-gauge to accommodate both Odakyu and Hakone Tozan trains, this portion of the route will seem very familiar to players of the Arosa Line DLC. Long portions of single tracking are broken up by double-track stations, the tracks hug the mountainside as road and waterways pass below, and steep grades abound. The section between Odawara and Ebina has a more suburban vibe as you cross over some impressive bridges, green fields, and buildings no more than a few-floors tall. From Ebina through to Machida and eventually to the terminal at Shinjuku the line becomes more active and urban. The line ebbs and flows between elevated, below-grade, and at-grade (with roadway crossings), all as tall buildings and cityscape encroach upon the multi-track mainline. At Gotokuji the line dips into a tunnel before reaching the final stop at Shinjuku. Several stations on the route feature yards and storage tracks. I highly suggest anyone interested in this article watch the below video. At just over 90-minutes it features a real-time Romancecar journey between Hakone-Yumoto and Shinjuku, shot from the front window in high quality. It truly captures the vibe and uniqueness of this route! Conclusion: Obviously there are two large elephants in the room with the suggestion. The first, is licensing. The Odakyu Electric Railway is a private company and may not license their image easily. That said, they have licensed in the past with MSTS, and seem to take pride in enthusiasts enjoying their railway. Odakyu boasts an impressive Romancecar museum in Ebina, where visitors can explore preserved trainsets and even use simulators housed in full-cab mock-ups. Japan is proud of the efficiencies and technological prowess of its rail network, and has a massive tourism culture. Encouraging Odakyu to license more modern train simulator content after more than two decades may prove beneficial to all parties involved. The second, is content production. If this does get made, it would almost certainly have to be produced by Union Workshop. If they even decide to tackle this project, it would most likely end up being so far down the pipeline that TSW has evolved to TSWX by then. However, Union has proven themselves a fantastic producer of quality Asian content, and would truly do this rail line the justice it deserves. Thank you to all who took the time to read this suggestion. Even if you don't agree with it being an appropriate addition to the TSW collection, I hope it encourages you to explore trains and rail networks you would otherwise ignore or not even be aware of its existence. We live in a large, connected world, why not explore it by train? All photos are courtesy Wikimedia Commons. If ever in Japan, I highly recommend a visit to the Romancecar Museum; see https://www.odakyu.jp/romancecarmuseum/ for details.
