This sounds utterly ridiculous, but hear me out. The Island of Sodor or at least sections of it in different routes you can buy. As a big model era Thomas the Tank Engine fan, and since there is a Sodor route in Trainz, I've always wanted a Sodor in Train Simulator. So much of Sodor in Thomas feels kind of real in a way, and it would be very nice to traverse a Sodor route, after all the scenery in the show is actually really beautiful! Here are some examples of the scenery: And the thing is we don't even need to have special Thomas characters, it could just supply what the locomotives would look like in real life with real life colors, or colours like in the show, but with no face on the smokebox. It would be good as a whole route, however if not here are some suggestions for different areas of Sodor as routes. Before I get into the specifics here is the map and the 2 videos I used for this: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1c6g0KlOWVtVsnsUuD57SJ_uSF6JQGASm/view The North Western Main Line: Knapford - Vicarstown The 3 track main line that goes from West to East in the Southern portion of Sodor. It also includes a bypass section that goes along a portion of the coast that connects once again to the main line at Tidmouth. Stations: Knapford Harbour, Knapford, Lower Tidmouth, Tidmouth, Elsbridge, Crosby, Wellsworth, Maron, Cronk, Killdane, Balladrine, Kellsthorpe Road, Sodor Airport, Crovan's Gate, Ballahoo, Vicarstown. DLC included for this route: LMS Black 5 to represent Henry, a L&YR Class 28 to represent James and a LNER A1 or LNER A3 to represent Gordon. Ffarquhar Branch Line: Knapford & Tidmouth - Ulfstead A nice, moderate length 2 track branch line (that becomes 1 track about half way down the line) with nice scenery. It starts from Knapford and Tidmouth, and ends at Ulfstead. Thomas' Branchline also includes the bypass section that goes along a portion of the coast that connects to Tidmouth. Stations: Knapford, Tidmouth, Dryaw, Toryreck, Elsbridge, Maithwaite, Hackenbeck, Ffarquhar, (after Ffarquhar there is a split, one goes to Ulfstead Station, whereas the other one goes to Ulfstead Castle Station). DLC included for this route: LB&SCR E2 to represent Thomas and a GWR Avonside 0-4-0ST Saddle Tank to represent Percy. Ffarquhar Quarry A route that includes the quarry area that comes from a junction right outside Ffarquhar. Stations: Ffarquhar (Although there will obviously be no passenger stops here as this is a quarry route). DLC included for this route: British Rail Class 04 to represent Mavis and a British Rail Class 08 to represent 'Arry and / or Bert. Callan Branch Line: Tidmouth - Arlesburgh Harbour & Callan Castle A 2 track branch line that starts at Tidmouth, and ends at both Arlesburgh Harbour and Callan Castle. Stations: Tidmouth, Tidmouth Hault, Haultraugh, Arlesburgh, Callan, Callan Castle. DLC included for this route: GWR 5700 Class to represent Duck, and a GWR 1400 Class to represent Oliver. A separately purchased DLC could be a Caledonian Railway 812 / 652 Class to represent Donald and / or Douglas. Harwick Branch Line: Callan - Harwick A branch line which is essentialy the branch line of the Callan Branch Line, it goes up North on the coast. Stations: Callan, Bluff's Cove, Seaside Village, Harwick. DLC included for this route: LMS Ivatt Class 2 2-6-2T to represent Arthur. Arlesdale Branch Line: Callan - Ulfstead Castle A scenic one track branch line that goes from Callan to Ulfstead Castle. Stations: Callan, Lower Arlesburgh, Marthwaite, Arlesdale, Arlesdale End, Ulfstead Castle. DLC included for this route: GER Class C53 to represent Toby Brendam Branch Line: Wellsworth - Brendam A two track branch line that goes from Wellsworth to Brendam. Stations: Wellsworth, Lower Suddery, Upper Brendam, Brendam DLC included for this route: Furness Railway K2 Class to represent Edward. Sodor China Clay A clay bed area that is down the line from Brendam. Stations: Brendam (however no passenger services, only freight runs to brendam docks). DLC included for this route: Bagnall 0-4-0ST "Alfred" and "Judy" to represent Bill and Ben. Peel Godred Branch Line: Killdane - Peel Godred A mostly one track branch line running rom Killdane to Peel Godred. Stations: Cronk Abbey, Abbey, Peel Godred. DLC included for this route: LMS Black 5 to represent Henry. Kirk Ronan Branch Line: Kellsthorpe Road - Kirk Ronan A short 2 track branch line including a landmark called "Rolf's Castle" Stations: Kellsthorpe Road, Rolf's Castle, Kirk Ronan. DLC included for this route: GWR Avonside 0-4-0ST Saddle Tank to represent Percy. Great Waterton Branch Line: Crovan's Gate - Great Waterton A short branch line to Great Waterton, a mining town. Stations: Crovan's Gate, Great Waterton. DLC included for this route: LB&SCR E2 to represent Thomas. Norramby Branch Line: Ballahoo - Norramby A scenic branch line to Norramby. Stations: Ballahoo, Bluebell Valley, Norramby. DLC included for this route: LB&SCR A1 Class to represent Stepney. Skarloey Railway: Crovan's Gate - Elephant Park A beautiful narrow gauge railway that has a wharf south of Crovan's gate, and passenger services start at Crovan's gate up to Elephant Park and the Mountain Village. Stations: Crovan's Gate, Cros-Ny-Cuirn, Glennock, Rheneas, Skarloey, Lakeside, Rumblin Bridge, Mountain Village, Elephant Park. DLC included for this route: No. 2 "Dolgoch" to represent Rheneas and No. 1 "Talyllyn" to represent Skarloey. Mid Sodor Railway: Peel Godred - Valesbridge Another beautiful narrow guage railway however in Thomas the Tank Engine timeline, is now disused. It doesn't just go to Peel Godred and Valesbridge, after Valesbridge there is a junction that splits off to a gold mine that connects to the Ffarquhar branch line, and a while after that junction there is another junction that goes up to Peel Godred but also goes to Mountain Village Station which connects to the Skarloey Railway. Stations: Valesbridge, Duke's Village, Old Bailey's Station, Old Station, Mountain Village, Peel Godred. DLC included for this route: Ffestiniog Railway 0-4-0TT to represent Duke, No. 2 "Sir Haydn" to represent Sir Handel and No. 4 "Edward Thomas" to represent Peter Sam. Sodor Cement Works A cement works south of Killdane. Stations: Killdane (Due to it being a freight route, no passenger stops here). DLC included for this route: Aveling & Porter "The Blue Circle" to represent Fergus. There we go! That's everything I have to say, if you're reading this, thanks! Because this took me a lot of time to research and type. Also, if DTG or any other developer made routes like this, I would definitely buy them.
Nicework but there could be another licensing problem as the rights to “Thomas the tank engine”, the concept, is owned by a subsidiary of Mattel. When it was owned by Gullane, bought by Mattel in 2002, they vigorously “protected” their rights and every model maker, heritage railway or anyone else they could find wanting to use any of the characters had to pay a fee for doing so. This is why heritage railways held/hold “Thomas” events only as you would think it in their interests to always have a Thomas on hand - too expensive. I don’t know if Mattel have changed things but doubt it as cash cows are hard to find. Models of the series were regionally licensed, Hornby for UK, Bachmann for US, we’ve been here or similar before.
Well they don't have to license it right? I'm not an expert on licensing but like I said they can just make the locomotives, just without the paint schemes and faces, for example like Henry as an LMS Black 5 could just be in regular Black livery, Gordon as a regular Green LNER A1/A3 etc. Sorry if I'm wrong.
The Isle of Sodor is part of the concept, the model makers made playmats for the track to be fitted showing some locations, there have been tea towels showing the island and they carry/ carried a copyright acknowledgment which means licensed. I wish the world wasn’t so greedy but.....
Ah I see, that's disappointing then. I don't know the exact licensing requirements for Sodor but if it's a case of it's only a problem if you make profit from it, then I guess they could make the Sodor / Sodor Trains DLC free, like other developers for Trainz have done. However I'm pretty sure DTG would want to make people pay for it.
Freeware would be a possible way but as you say.... Just thought - you might have sparked a TSW dlc, a good way to get children and their X boxes into it. DTG - you read this here first.
You forgot the HST Pip and Emma. What do you do is attach the face to where the Coupler Doors and Eyes Headlights
Problem is it's fictional. While third party makers have done fictional routes and this could happen again, I can't say that one will pick this up because of the licensing issues.
I second (or third or fourth) this idea. As someone who grew up on the original books, it would be amazing to have the Island of Sodor to drive around. It is such a complete package with standard guage, narrow gauge, and even the mountain railway. Although I am always surprised at the resistance some people have to the idea because it "isn't realistic". I also agree that licensing would be a huge issue for DTG or any commercial release (you thought BNSF took a while to solve ). However, if you want to see an example of Sodor in TS, there is a Youtube streamer called "The Humble Gamer" from the UK who features runs on his custom made Island of Sodor. He has not publicly released it and it is still a work in progress in some areas, but it is cool to see the "really useful engines"™ chugging around the island. The link to his Sodor playlist is:
If this interests you, the best Sodor route I've seen by far is the one by GlennockCreations. Its beautiful, I downloaded the route myself, but I struggle to play it because it isn't on the quick drive menu and I don't know how to make it appear there, and I don't know how to set things up in the editor so I just kinda have it, but I can't play it, which is disappointing.
It looks very interesting, but I don't have a lot of the required DLC from the UK. I will check it out sometime in the future when I have it.
