Why Isn't The Fgw Hst Officially Enabled In Gwe?

I think companies overall need to realise games are separate from reality. Even in racing games - if I destroy a BMW, it does not mean I want to trash every real BMW, it's a game, not real life. I actually quite like BMWs And with trains, it's even more ridiculous. If I fail in a scenario and derail, I might be like "oh... nice mechanics", but I am not happy, because I failed the scenario.

 

Exactly!

This attitude the TOC’s supposedly display is incomprehensible. Why on earth would they care?! If it is genuinely because people show trains crashing on YouTube they really must get a grip of what’s important (like employing enough staff, giving things a clean and tidy every once in a while, putting appropriate sized consists on services that need them etc etc)

 

Think we need to be more precise about the reason for the change. First Group own GWR so it was just a re-branding not a change of ownership, hence the people DTG have the licence with have the rights to both brands. I am sure if it was a change of franchisee they would never ever have released the old livery.

 

It's not entirely crash compilations, it could be other things, like they could be worried about misuse of their IP. I think their worry is that people will see their logo on a train in a crash compilation and think the TOC endorses it (since they have licensed their logo to the people who make the game), or if they're particularly detached from reality, could think "omg, this could happen to a real train I'm on". Either way, it could harm the business (or at least its image) in many more ways than running clapped out trains about 15 minutes behind schedule. Also,

Good luck doing that if you don't have enough trains to begin with - franchised TOCs in the UK really do have their hands tied as to what they can do, including setting some fares (I believe setting of all fares may go to the DfT when they reform the franchise system, but could be wrong) and what trains they can run.

 

West Midlands Trains which run my local line the Snow Hill lines appear to only just have enough units to cover the service, with I guess one or two spare, as often pre-covid a couple of trains out of service meant cancellations or short formation. I think they are addressing the situation with new trains coming next year.

When the Tyseley class 150 fleet was replaced, which were already lacking in enough units due to a legacy of the underfunding of the railways in the 80's, the class 172 replacements had the same amount of vehicles.

 

I see what you mean now.

This was in the FGW livery, although I have no problems getting to 125 in the GWR livery. I reached 123mph just before the speed limit reduction to 90 about a mile outside Reading. Reached 122 around the Burnham/Taplow area, but as you can see, still arrived 10 minutes early.

 

It’s odd.

I figured out that at service/scenario start the Train Service is already on in the rear loco, if you then turn it on in the front too (for whatever reason) this seems to be the result.

After a bit of Googling I found an old HST Guard's manual that says an HST can take up to 14 miles to reach top speed and that is exactly what is happening in the game. I now don't touch the Train Service in the driver car, and at max power it takes almost exactly 14 miles to get to 125mph. It then requires notch 4 (with occasional notch 5) to maintain that speed. It’s the same whichever livery/set is in use so, with hindsight, it is probably working as designed. That said, it has been mentioned in a stream that it’s flagged to be looked at.

As an aside, I read elsewhere that the Class 800 takes 3 minutes from a standing start to reach 125mph using electric. When running on diesel it takes 15minutes. I find that difference astounding & it maybe explains the HST performance.

 

TOCs, like all big companies, are not monoliths: they are a bunch of different departments, which are in theory all pulling in the same direction but maybe not. Brand/trademark licensing to software developers, movie studios and Auntie Beeb would fall to the Marketing Department (with advice from Legal), and the marketing types would naturally be obsessed with "brand identity" yadda yadda- so it seems to me what really happened was that DTG started to develop this route with the appropriate (FGW Blue) livery for the setting, 2016- but the Brand Managers at GWR's marketing department said "oh, no, we're memory-holing that name and livery, we are pushing to establish the new one in the public mind as our Corporate Image, so GWR Rifle Green and Yellow is all y'all get to use." And thus DTG begat the released version--- but "accidentally" left the original in the files.