So these came to mind at various points, thought I'd collage a few together here. Yesterday I was playing London-Brighton and, while looking at London-Waterloo, realized there are stations within London not explored. I now see that one is part of Portsmouth. So I am now looking at Charing Cross. Bring it out through London Bridge (which can also be a route terminus for some travel west, like South London Network) and continue it south along the network past New Cross. Meanwhile, stay on the eastern path and bring them together to Charlton. It can continue to Northfleet to meet the London-Faversham High Speed. Add a New Cross link through Lewisham along a track to the south of the first to join the track heading to Northfleet. Finally, another possibility is continue past Lewisham south, using Lewisham as a terminus if you don't go east, and continue past Chatham/Medway to Hayes. Another link can be added to this for the track to the east to Tonbridge, taking part of the Chatham/Medway lines and meeting the terminus of the alternate route of that line. To the north, we have a near circle around Edinburgh, Glasgow, Carlisle, and Newcastle. Let's finish it and go west of Carlisle! You can take the track all the way to the water and Whitehaven and continue south and around to meet the Stainmore, Shap & Eden Valley line, which itself is a pretty beefy line, but this one might need two DLC. All sorts of route merge options exist in the Workshop for Danny from this pair if the stations get the correct matching points to the existing ones. Generally, we need more US routes, but also without BNSF branding. I want to be able to acquire them if I so choose. To that end, international versions of Cajon, Marias, and Stevens are still needed. Maybe update the graphics around the route and release it as a new item? With the track and trains being identical except for a BNSF variant, I think everything would still fit Workshop scenarios except for the locomotive in question. We also need more Canadian routes, and I would not mind more Japan options too. And finally, there is a London in Ontario, Canada. We should feature this. The best way is to route to a historic landmark an hour west, in Sarnia: the St. Clair Tunnel. This can be extended to Flint, Michigan. This allows freight operations on both sides of the border (plus international freight), and there is also a set of tracks heading into the City of Sarnia that leads to a park, providing for some railfan ideas there by bringing photogenic locomotives to the area. The cereal plant in London (closed 2014) would be the feature in addition to the freight yards in London, Sarnia, Port Huron, and Flint (RBJets would be thrilled), with options to extend to Windsor and Detroit if desired, but then it would be perhaps long for one DLC. (Besides, going through Detroit into Canada and also to London would be another option, allowing again for international freight and a little network there.) After this one is done, you could continue to Battle Creek, an iconic Michigan city, and add the western trek from there to meet The Racetrack. We need to get North Wales Coastal back. The best way to do so is either take a new route to the Trent Valley line originating at Crewe, or to make a pack from Crewe to Shrewsbury. The DLC from North Wales Coastal can be added, perhaps with a different stock train added to the scenarios included with those versions of it (or even use the train that gets included with the new route). New versions would be made for those owning the Arriva content, naturally, but the edited versions can replace the originals and be bundled with the new route to form one mega route. Seems like the best way to get these back since we can't really add any other routes in that direction. There are some of my ideas. Hopefully they lead to things. I want first dibs beta-testing the Canadian one as I'm familiar with the area. EDIT: I expand ideas on Toronto in reply to a post below.
I want more BNSF (or ATSF) content. An updated Cajon Pass route, Tehachapi Pass, and maybe part of the Seligman or Needles Subdivisions would be great. Seligman is 300 miles long, so DTG (or whoever makes the route) would need to make it in two or three sections, plus later extensions, like they did with the Peninsula Corridor. A new Canadian route with better engines is also a must.
Yes, I think Ontario would give a good option for that as we have nice engines. A better model of the ES44AC or SD40-2, whichever it is we have, can then replace the one from Castle Rock and be included with the route. You mention an updated Cajon Pass. How about an extension through metro parts of California, say Los Angeles to San Bernardino? This area is iconic worldwide so would be neat in a different lens. Also, DTG will NOT do more BNSF content for the time being. They cannot distribute it worldwide. they CAN do the route without BNSF equipment, provided BNSF is not referenced, I believe.
Nice UK ideas, but I'm a North America fan right now, from Canada. I like the idea of non-BNSF routes, so I can buy them too. For another Canada route, I don't want an Ottawa one, even though I live here and there were a lot of small industries in the area. I'd prefer Toronto, and west to Hamilton, similar to the TrainSim one. Non-Canadians know of Toronto, and it's a very busy hub, with lines in many directions and lots of industries.
I agree with Toronto. I know it can also connect to London with a 150-200 km route (London has the 402 merge at the 401 at exit 183 on the 401, and by 355 you're in the express collector portion of the Toronto 401, about 172 km by road, rail routes may vary), so having that with London to Sarnia to connect Toronto to the tunnel is an option, and still smaller than the South West China route by Just Trains. I wanted to propose US freight with it, however, and try to get a train from each side of the border. We shall see if something happens in that area, but I do think Sarnia to Toronto is also a good single DLC as a passenger run DOES exist once a day in each direction along that path with possibly others coming along the way to increase passenger traffic. Of course, one can also do Toronto by itself as the focal point. Greater Toronto is made up of numerous cities. You can go as far as Oakville, a beautiful city I have been to. This can connect Etobicoke alone to the massive rail yard along the water in Toronto itself. Mississauga is passed from Milton (too far away perhaps, that's around exit 330 on the highway, which I think is the 407 toll route by car) and eventually is met via a stub north before the Etobicoke yard. This track continues to that Pelham Park junction and goes south into Toronto. (The CPR Toronto Yard is near White Haven, north of Scarborough, and accessible from Pelham Park; several tracks continue here and may connect to the rest of the network, but I am not sure.) If we cover all of Greater Toronto, follow the Pelham Park junction out to Georgetown, and the Brampton rail yard eventually veers to meet it (no direct access from Toronto, it seems). Brampton passes the 404 near the very busy interchange with the toll highway, and I guarantee you will need one way roads implemented to show that correctly as it is going to look like a mess if cars go both ways here. The MASSIVE CN MacMillan Yard in Vaughn is a turn to the north from here, and terminate here at Jane St. Continue the other track connection to the east from Brampton to another northern turn for passenger rail to Maple. Perhaps the passenger setup can be researched from here, and this might be TTC or GO; I'll stick with freight. The single line east from here curves through Markham (where I can't identify much freight) and continues to Pickering, and travels along the GO Network to the rail yard in Oshawa; a disconnected segment is crossed under along the main track which can be accessed from the back of the prior rail yard via a single connection, and eventually runs back to the main track going east. You can go slightly along this for scenario purposes, but this could be a good terminus, possibly continuing to Port Hope and ending there as well (most of the track is basic after this). Going back to the west, we travel with a nice water view and eventually meet the Entertainment District back at the freight yard of Old Toronto, where we earlier merged into from Etobicoke. So that is a huge rail network. Note that southwest of North York near the 401 and Allen Road interchange, you find the Wilson Yard complex, but I think this is mainly for passenger traffic at Allen Road on the subway system and there seems to be no freight access (that complex would be the starting point for the TTC in Toronto, however). You can't really cover part of Toronto without covering all of it, so this might be a nice freight DLC on its own, and I guarantee you RBJets would put together a good storyline to keep people playing this one. I would also daresay, if you cover all of Toronto in one fell swoop, this one would definitely be worth the full price and should not ever be discounted beyond 20%. Just make enough scenarios to cover every part of the route. You could also go from Oakville down to Burlington (think we're retracing TSW at this point) and continue into Niagara Falls on the U.S. side (the track seems to end before Rochester), but that is way too long by this point given all the network within Toronto.
Great assessment. There are lots of possibilities in the area. I was thinking that since DTG already has done Oakville-Hamilton as part of TrainSim, it would be a little easier to add it to TS 2021. But maybe they would see it as competing with themselves. Who knows.
Yes, you can suggest they wouldn't add it mainly because then there is no reason to buy it in TSW. But at the same time, they have multiple versions of routes for both games already. And some only have TSW, some only have TS. So maybe they can add it to the line to bolster the value further. Niagara Falls would be too far, though, and would then dip into international freight, and with no real extension to Rochester there is little point continuing there anyway, so Burlington can indeed be the furthest terminus. With at least five rail yards identified from Oakville, however, we don't necessarily need Burlington.
