Realistically, when a train is used for an extended period of time (I’m talking in years) it starts to get a lot dirtier and messy than when it was delivered. This is due to the train picking up a lot of grime and mud from the ground, and when the train passes at high speeds on a rainy day, you can see it starts to spray wet dirt around, that gets stuck onto the trucks, fuel tank, and other underbody (as well as upper body) components. This gives it the “weathered” look, as how railfanners call the process. I would like a feature that lets us have the same realistic effect on trains in TSW. This can be toggled on or off in the settings menu for those who like to keep their trains brand new. It would make a nice feature in TSW 2021 or future versions of the game to make it more realistic. Another thing, as you can see in TSW, when a train starts to emit large amounts of exhaust (when a train revs up to high throttle in TSW you can see the cloud of exhaust), it tends to gather up around the exhaust stack and around the engine doors. A feature like this would be great for TSW and would make the trains look more weathered out, as you can see on top of real locomotives there is a black spot on the exhaust silencer. Of course, everything can be toggled on or off in the menu.
I’m not sure what I’d prefer. Shiny new trains look nice but battered ones have more character. The only problem I see with weathering is having the exact same weathering on each train, like when you get a long rake of wagons with the same graffiti on them it starts to look unrealistic. Some trains are modelled with some degree of wear and tear on them but a lot do look a bit sterile. They could have weathered as a livery option for those who like the grime.
Nice idea. It was interesting when GWR repainted a HST power car 43002 into the original BR blue and yellow livery, it didn’t feel authentic initially because it was just far too sparkly and clean. A few months out on the mainline and it looked authentic with all the dirt and grime The same can be said about 43185 repainted in the BR Intercity Swallow livery and when LNER repainted an entire HST set (2 power cars, 7 coaches) into the old BR colours. Clean 43002: Dirty 43002 (and 43185 next to it) Clean 43185 Dirty 43185 (For those that don’t know, BR stands for British Rail which existed before the railways were privatised in the mid to late 1990s) (not my photos)
View attachment 26046 Yea, you have a point, a “repeated” graffiti or weathering design does look unrealistic, unless DTG adds at least 2 more designs (it depends if they want to anyway) to make it a little more realistic.
They should give a us this as an option before we start a service. They already have a livery select button so they should use that.
