Hello all! I would like to start off by saying that I have thoroughly enjoyed playing Wonders of Sodor. I generally give the game high marks and look forward to seeing what else awaits the game in the future. I do have some feedback on some parts of the game as they stand now: 1: The timetables Gordon's express timetable structure, while certainly faster than the local service, feels more like a semi fast than a true express, calling at several stations before arriving at Vicarstown. The one named express service that we do know about, The Wild Nor' Wester, is included (which by itself is an amazing reference because I'm pretty sure the WNW name never featured in the show) and uses a 6-coach set while the rest of Gordon's express services use a 5-car set. From what we do know from the series both from Wilbert and Christopher Awdry Gordon's express only calls at Crovan's Gate on its way to and from Vicarstown. May I propose adjusting Gordon's timetable architecture, at the very least on the Wild Nor' Wester service, to only call at Crovan's Gate in the up and down direction to make the service feel more like a real express service which has little to no stops in between endpoints? Related to my comments about Gordon, while James is a mixed traffic loco at home on goods trains or passenger services, I think Emily's stopping service is frequent enough for the size of the route in its compressed state. Gordon's current style of timetable, with it feeling more like a semi fast than an express, would actually be quite appropriate for James who does his fair share of pulling fast trains and would savor the opportunity to show off running at higher speeds than he can on local passenger services. May I propose adjusting James' timetable structure so that either Gordon's current timetable structure becomes James' timetable, or perhaps some of his current local passenger services become semi fasts akin to Gordon's current timetable style? I feel like it makes more sense for Diesel to be taking care of shunting coaches and such around Knapford instead of Percy running back and forth between Ffarquhar and Knapford during the day to handle pilot duties. Percy is the Ffarquhar branch's dedicated goods loco and it should be Percy looking after shunting at both Knapford Harbour and Anopha quarry (since there is no Toby or Mavis currently) as a natural part of running the branch's goods services. Tidmouth, while an operable station, currently has no trains serving it. Is passenger service for Tidmouth waiting for the (hopefully) eventual addition of the Little Western? If so, no notes! Makes perfect sense. Ballahoo also isn't served by any trains as far as I can tell. Wouldn't it make sense for it to be included on Emily's local timetable? 2: Opinions on additional characters: I've looked around everywhere and it seems everyone is clamoring for either Henry or Edward to be added to the game next. I would propose that of the two, while each would be a good choice, go with Henry. Why? Simple: it would complete the mainline trio of Gordon, Henry, and James. Henry's introduction can also add another dimension to operations currently missing on the mainline: goods work. Currently the only goods trains operating on the mainline is James' first and last train of the day, which is a tanker train. Other than that, there are no goods trains on the mainline despite there being some industries and goods yards along the way. Henry could bring more goods trains to the mainline, from a daily pickup goods train in either direction, The Flying Kipper fish train, or other types of express/through freights operating on the mainline, as well as some local passenger services alongside Emily throughout the day. Edward would be a great addition, but if Edward is brought to the game, it should be if and when the Brendam branch is added to the game as Edward would be the one to spearhead operations on the branch while being based at Tidmouth. Having Edward before the Brendam branch just wouldn't be right. Along the same thought process of completing trios, Toby would be a really great candidate for a new character as he completes the Ffarquhar branch trio of Thomas, Percy, and Toby. Toby, along with Henrietta, would take over the morning and evening quarrymen shuttles and can handle some of the branch's passenger services alongside Thomas while Percy handles the branch's goods working and shunting at Knapford Harbour. These next proposals depend on how future route additions will be handled: If the route additions are going to be paid addons like route addons for TSC and TSW, then Edward, BoCo, Bill, and Ben should come with the Brendam branch (which would include the China Clay pits at the end of the Brendam branch). Edward and BoCo would handle passenger and goods trains between Knapford and Brendam while Bill and Ben handle work at the clay pits and shunting at Brendam docks. Edward could be based at Tidmouth while BoCo could be based at Brendam with the twins. Similarly, Duck, Oliver, Donald, and Douglas should come with the Little Western. Duck and Oliver would handle passenger services while Donald and Douglas would handle goods, their timetables floating between the Little Western, the mainline, and the Brendam branch as they are the railway's go-anywhere utility engines filling gaps wherever they're needed. With the route as condensed as it is and how thick the timetable between Ffarquhar and Knapford already is, I don't have any personal proposals on how Daisy and Mavis could be included without making another engine sit around for a while with nothing to do during the day. Mavis traditionally handles shunting at the quarry and ever since "Toby's Tightrope" has been allowed to ferry loaded stone trucks between the quarry and Ffarquhar for Percy or Toby to collect while bringing back empties. Daisy, meanwhile, handles passenger traffic with Thomas on the branch. I don't really have any proposals for the other branches or tv series characters because I largely stopped following the show after series 5 and focused more on the original books, and while information about the Culdee Fell, Kirk Ronan, and Norramby branches are touched on in The Island of Sodor: Its History, People, and Railways and Sodor: Reading Between the Lines none of these branches were featured in the Railway Series books or the TV series (though Kirk Ronan did appear in series 5). This is already a lot longer than I thought it'd be so I'm going to leave it here.
I've taken some time to gather my thoughts on this next proposal, and that is on representing "The Other Railway" in Wonders of Sodor. One of the elements of the Railway Series that made it feel authentic was that British Railways was represented in the books and in the early TV series by "The Other Railway", which exchanged traffic with the North Western at the Big Station at the end of the line (implied to be Barrow-in-Furness in the books, but in the show and in recent lectures on the Railway Series is now Vicarstown). North Western engines were not allowed to run on the mainland beyond North Western metals (except under specific circumstances - see "Gordon Goes Foreign", "The Fat Controller's Engines", and "Gordon Proves His Point"). Goods and passenger trains between Sodor and the rest of Britain swap engines here. For example, the Wild Nor' Wester and Sudrian travel to London, the Flying Kipper runs to Manchester, and until recently Sodor imported coal from Britain until all coal mining operations ceased on the mainland (as of 2025 a new coal mine was "discovered" on the North side of the Island around Harwick and Ballaswein and a new extension was built off the Little Western to service the new mine). Other goods, mail, and parcels are also exchanged at Vicarstown. One of the things TSW allows for is portals which can spawn trains onto the route and move trains off of the map. While operations at Vicarstown and fine, I think it would enhance the experience if there were some AI-only services representing the Other Railway at Vicarstown. For example, for Gordon's Wild Nor' Wester service, have an AI train spawn into the route from the Eastern boundary and run into Vicarstown to represent the Down Wild Nor' Wester from London timed to arrive before Gordon arrives with the Up Wild Nor' Wester. After the AI train arrives, have it leave its coaches at one of the platforms and if needed run into the yard to be turned. The London loco then waits somewhere out of the way for Gordon to arrive with his train. After Gordon arrives, have him leave his coaches and run into the yard to be turned. While he's being turned the London loco couples to his coaches and pulls them out of the station, running into the portal on the East end of the route and despawning, representing the train continuing its journey to London. After Gordon is turned, he enters the station and couples to the Down train left earlier by the AI train and takes them to Knapford. You can do the same procedure for other expresses, the mail train, and other goods trains running into Vicarstown from either the Up or Down direction. The Other Railway also jointly operates services on the Norramby branch (presumably with the Other Railway providing the locomotives and the North Western providing rolling stock). An AI-only service can be run in and out of Vicarstown via Ballahoo to represent this. So what will power these AI trains? Well, you can either just make some generic locomotives, or if you want to keep the references coming the Railway Series has a ready list of locos to choose from. There's D199 (a.k.a. "Spamcan" or mockingly "Old Reliable", a class 46) Class 40 (referred to simply as "The Diesel" in the TV series, as implied a class 40) Old Stuck Up (also a class 40) The Big City Engine (an ex-LMS Patriot) or any of these diesels which appear in this illustration from Stepney the Bluebell Engine (from left to right a class 31, class 52 "Western", and another class 40): (Continued in next post)
There is also The Works Diesel (a class 47) And to replicate operations on the Norramby branch (both goods and passenger services) you could throw in Jinty and Pug: In fact, you could have a bunch of jinties (or other similar small tank locomotives): Where these proposed locos would be AI-only (not meant for the player to control) and seen by the player for only short periods of time you could probably get away with making them less detailed, as long as the outside is built, animated, and it moves that's about all you'd need to pull off the effect of conducting enterchange at Vicarstown. As all the proposed diesels all have 2 cabs they would not need to be run to the turntable to be turned once they arrive with a train, just uncouple and wait somewhere out of the way of the player. In fact, of all the proposed locos only the Big City Engine would need to be turned before taking the coaches or wagons brought in by the player off the map (tank engines can run just as well backwards as forwards so Jinty, Pug, or any other tank engine wouldn't need to be turned). Passenger trains, mail trains, and through goods trains would be exchanged in the station. Pick up goods would be dropped off and shunted around with any goods off the branch in the goods yard. Coaching stock from the Norramby branch would be stabled in the yard. Do with these proposals what you will.
Have had fun playing the game but as it's a DTG product it of course launched full of bugs that really shouldn't be there. The control system is quire frankly terrible because there's no way to actually coast with the locos, you're always either accelerating or braking (the reverser should have been up and down on the D-pad just like TSW.) I think if DTG don't mess about putting out DEC'S as quickly as possible and actually get the core game fixed first (including sorting the controls out) this could be a fantastic game that helps bring more player to the world of TSW
