Expansion Should We Wait For Asian Routes?

Greetings, railfans!
Is there any information about Asian routes in TSW? I've seen a few in TSC.
For example:

1. South West China High Speed Route Add-On;
2. Lingbao - Mianchi Route Add-On;
3. Tokyo Commuter: Keihin–Tohoku & Utsunomiya Lines Route Add-On.

Should we be expecting anything like that? I don't follow the news from Dovetail, so I thought I'd ask. I actually still have a lot of untravelled content in TSW, but would still be interested to know about the Asian ones.

 

I believe Union Workshop ( or some other dev) is working on the Tadami Line in Japan( also found in TSC), although it is not a high speed / dense traffic route like the examples above. It is a slow speed rural line.

 

This is actually a good thing, I know that in Japan they have narrow gauge electric trains, 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) for example. It would be interesting to see it, to feel it while travelling.

 

There's one the Tadami Line. What we need is HK to Guangzhou HSR line

 

Looked it up, Tadami is also only in TSC.

I think both slow and high speed routes are needed. It will add to the variety.

 

I am waiting for some ALCo in TSW.

 

This is very interesting, I live in Russia and I would be interested to see Russian made trains like EP2D/EP2DM or ED4, but still this is a topic about Asian routes. Look at the Shinkansen, wouldn't you like to drive such a futuristic vehicle with airliner-like cabins?

Spoiler: Shinkansen trains

 

So far as we know, only UW are actively developing for Asia and their current focus is on Tadami which still seems some way off. Of course there are various issues that might preclude some areas, not least licensing but it would be nice to see something from India in the future.

Oh there was also the devs who did the Turkish route for TSC, recall they said they might be interested in doing something for TSW but nothing more heard on that.

 

Yes, totally support the idea about India! I don't know much about their railways, but the country is very distinctive. It would be funny to see passengers riding on the roof, just kidding.
By the way, I saw a programme on TV recently and they said that China has given a lot of support to build some railway lines in India.

 

I agree for the Hong Kong to Guangzhou sadly if you want a sleeper train you would have to use the High Speed Line for it. In the slower route Hong Kong to Guangzhou you would have 1982-2022 Metro Cammell EMU Rotem R stock with SS8 loco. Remember you cannot operate HXD-1 HXD-2 into Hong Kong for one specific reason pantographs will damage the 1980s KCR wires which themselves are designed by British Rail for Hong Kong. That's why all freight traffic on the slower route Hong Kong to Guangzhou use SS8 locos due to them having KCR East Rail equipment

 

The October roadmap came out yesterday and I saw some good news about my question. The first Japanese route, the Tadami Line from Union Workshop, is coming soon. Shame there's no information on trains.

Your information was correct and we won't even have to wait long.

Spoiler: Tadami Line

Tadami Line from Union Workshop – TSW's first Japanese route!
Experience the beautiful and scenic Tadami Line: AizuWakamatsu – Tadami in TSW5, featuring stunning environments and key railway landmarks, such as the “Miyashita three brothers”, a famous train spotting point featuring three bridges within a single picturesque scene.

 

Hate to burst the bubble but it has been “coming soon” for several months now. Lots of images of the scenery but reading between the lines seems they are struggling with the train (Kiha 140?). Time will tell.

 

Slightly offtopic, but if you knew old Blizzard, then "comming soon" could go on for a very long time.
But seriously, all we can do is wait. I was glad to see the announcement yesterday.

 

It will be the KiHa 40. I don't believe they are any sings indicating that they are struggling with it though? It's still in development - the only screenshot we've seen of it so far didn't even have any interiors.

 

Perhaps I was being needlessly speculatively pessimistic, but still given the time this has been in development we would hope to see something by now.

 

Suddenly I was wondering, is the railway track width modelled in TSW? I wrote at the beginning of the thread that it would be cool to test narrow gauge trains, but do these mechanics exist in principle here?

 

Yes because we already have the Arosa and Bernina RhB Lines which are metre gauge. As Japanese gauge is 1067mm shouldn’t be a problem.

 

For the Slow line do you mean the KCR Kowloon Canton Railway East Line? FYI the Electric Locos need to be the SS8 since those have KCR East Line Equipment but for HXD1D HXD2 only to Shenzhen/Lo Wu on Z99/Z100 past those stops SS8s to Hung Hom. At Hung Hom there's a traverser for the SS8 loco

 

I wasn't talking about specific routes as I don't know what routes are even out there in China, Korea and Japan. I'd just be interested in trying out different ones.

 

like with other non-Uk routes, it depends on if a developer based in that country is willing to be a TSW 3rd party dev hence why we don't have many North American routes because there is no American or Canadian developer doing North American dlcs for TSW.

This is one thing that bugs me slightly when people ask for more countries in TSW as they don't factor in who would develop a route in that country. If DTG are wanting to bring a new country to the game, that involves planning a business trip to that country and the respective railway line which would be expensive and most likely would need to hire a translator if no-one from the railway line speaks english so (all in all) it would be best for a developer based in that country to a route in that country. This is also why most of the german DLCs come from Train Sim Germany because they are based in that country..

 

Because it's not up to us to figure out how to make supply meet the demand.

 

I'm hoping for some heavy freight routes in China, Russia, and Japan.

 

That's not what I meant. I meant that people don't realise how difficult it could be to get a new country into TSW. If you read on, I explain that it would be expensive for a company like DTG to do a route in a country they are from i.e cost of flights, hotels etc whilst all that a native developer would have to worry about is things such as getting the licence and arranging times to get reference images and audio of the route and included train(s)..

 

Yey especially the HXD1 double locos with it's 12.900 hp.

 

We are more likely to see steam return then get a route is Russia

 

Trainz Simulator has russian stuff already and didn't withdraw it after 2022.

 

correct and theres also the BB37000 based HXD 2. FYI those double section locos on the Hong Kong Beijing line via Guangzhou are prohibited from entering Hong Kong only to Shenzhen/Lo Wu. Which means they're only for Guangzhou freight services from Beijing same with Z98/99 train. Due to KCR East Rail Line being designed like a UK Main Line therefore it must be the SS8 loco to Hong Kong

 

The consumer should not care about the producer's costs, but on the other hand ‘demand begets supply’. Personally, I am only expressing my wish to see what I would like to see. Of course, I can't demand anything. However, if a person is not an idiot, he should realise that game development is first of all a business like any other.

Not in this universe.

Or a space lift. We can't wait for it in ETS 2, and in TSW it's probably not even worth dreaming about..

 

Ironically most of the Russian content in Trainz was developed by a Ukrainian! So I suspect that came into play. The frustrating part is there are actually many scenic routes in Russia, such as the BAM where you get a choice of going through the Severomysk (sp) base tunnel or across the older route which winds and spirals through the mountains. They also have some righteous looking and sounding locos, both diesel and electric. But even if politics hadn’t intervened, the chances of getting close to those for research is next to none.

There’s also a fascinating collection of narrow gauge railways, such as the Asperonsk (again SP) Forest railway but many have closed in recent years so the information is fairly sparse.

One solution might be to do a TSC Seebergbahn and replace the Russian infrastructure and trains with something from Germany or Austria, but even then can’t see a developer going down that road.

 

I’d be surprised if we ever got a route in Russia and China. I don’t think anyone would be allowed to examine a route closely enough because of draconian national security and secrecy measures in those countries. Maybe I am talking rubbish though!

 

We've already seen a few Chinese routes for TSC, so I wouldn't rule out China just yet.

Russia however, especially considering current events, seems more unlikely then ever.

 

Even the MCC and MCD look interesting, Moscow and the suburbs are quite beautiful and vast. There was once a long time ago they wanted to run a rail bus along the MCC, but it was never realised.

 

ok but were those routes released before or after the Russian Invasion of Ukraine?

 

Years before and as I mentioned, nearly all done by a guy from Ukraine - in happier times.

Also the biggest issue with the Russian stuff in Trainz, unpoliced by N3V, was (is) the massive amount of cloning and copying by other Russian (or Ukrainan) members of assets which they then reupload to the Download Station under their own name/KUID number.