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Train Sim World 2- Route Suggestions

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Iskra

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Recently, Dovetail Games released their Train Sim World 2 and their future DLC Roadmap. While the roadmap is a nice idea and it is good that they are communicating what is coming and roughly when, I did express some frustration that the upcoming routes were heavily focused on the South East of England and all involved EMU's.

TSW2 routes are very detailed and for that reason can't be too long, say a max of 60-70 miles. Considering that, what routes beyond the SE of England would you propose?

For me, I would go with:

1) The Highland Mainline. I would do the Perth-Aviemore (circa 60 miles) sections to provide a good feel for the line, a number of stations/passing loops and it could allow the heritage railway to be included or added on at a later date from the Aviemore end. With this route I would provide a Class 170 and class 73 with the sleeper as new trains. I would also include the HST and Class 66 which are already in the game so could just be reskinned. Other locomotives could feature realistically using the scenario planner. I think introducing a sleeper train to TSW would be really cool. The line is very scenic, historic and atmospheric as well as having plenty of gradients to keep things interesting to drive. Of course, an Azuma could be provided at a later date to represent the Highland Chietain, or an LNER HST could just be used. The Highland Mainline also hasn't been done before in any of the DTG sims.

Newtonmore.jpg

2) Lancaster to Carlisle. It's another really scenic route and the WCML just has so much variety. As much as it would be great to see a steam era route, I think that is unlikely so I would set this in the post-privatisation period where VT 47/HST/86/87/90 were making way for class 390's and Voyagers. I would include a class 90 which could be provided in VT and Freightliner livery to allow passenger and freight use, a class 390 and a class 142 for services at the Southern End. Pacers are recently back in fashion. 66's, HST's, 47's, 20's and 37's could feature as reskins as they are already in the game. Lancaster and Carlisle are also interesting junction stations. If steam ever arrives in the sim, there would be plenty of use for it here due to the WCRC base at Carnforth.


Lancaster Station.jpg

3) Reggio Calabria-Lamezia. I think something from a different country would be interesting. I would accept anything from Ukraine, Spain or Sweden too- anywhere with interesting locomotives and services. This route is really interesting, it starts in the shadows of Mount Etna by the Straits of Messina and so could include shunting onto the train ferry over to Sicily which is unique. The line then runs up the coast and through hills to the rail junction at Lamezia, the scenery is varied and dramatic. The line sees High Speed, Intercity, Regional, Sleeper and freight services. I'm no expert on Italian trains but I would like to see a mix of trains to allow different services to be operated.

Reggio.jpg
 
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trainmania100

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Bristol to Exeter
Brighton to Bedford
Brighton to Portsmouth Harbour
Wcml Euston to Northampton (and put some ai traffic on bakerloo line)
 

Peter C

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I've said it several times and I'll happily bang on about it again - I think we need the Cotswold Line in either TS2020 or TSW2. :) It is being worked on for the former, so hopefully we'll see something soon, but until then:

The Cotswold Line runs for ~86 miles between Oxford and Worcester Shrub Hill. Technically, after Worcester, it's the "Cotswolds & Malverns" line, but we'll ignore that for now. It is formed of a combination of single (Wolvercote Junction - Charlbury Junction, Evesham West Junction - Worcester Shrub Hill) and double track (Charlbury West Junction - Evesham West Junction) sections (I can't remember what the track layout is like beyond Worcester), which would give some operational interest; those who have a bit of an interest in the real railway and who play TSW2 would find it interesting to learn about how the trains run down the single track sections and how they need to pass at specific points, and those who are railway enthusiasts would enjoy something a bit different in the simulation scene to just speeding along a mainline at 125mph. However, those who just play for fun may not enjoy the waiting times at places such as Charlbury, Evesham, and Worcester for trains to leave the single-track section - but you can't please everyone!

Secondly, the trains for the route are already in the game. If you want to have a slightly older version of the route, from around 2017-2018, you can use the pre-existing Class 43 and Class 166. There's already a reskin available for a FGW HST so a realistic Cotswold Line set can be formed. Freight trains rarely run along the section from Honeybourne to Oxford, so having a Class 66 would be nice, but you could only really use it on a small selection of services between Long Marston and Worcester or Hereford.
If you want a more modern route, you'll need to get a Class 800 and Class 802 made. This would improve the waiting times at passing stations (as has happened in real life), so maybe for a better user experience this option would be better. Having a mix of HSTs and IETs would be nice but if you want to be realistic then they all have to run to HST timings until the 19th of May 2018, so you might as well have all HSTs.

The Cotswold Line would also give users a very different driving experience overall; the line is controlled by a mix of the signalling centre at Didcot and smaller signalboxes along the line - with Moreton-in-Marsh Signalbox still using semaphore signals, along with Worcester Shrub Hill. The mix of semaphores and colour-light signals would provide an interesting contrast and would be something which I don't think we've seen before in TSW.

Anyway - that's quite a ramble, but hopefully it was somewhat interesting. I might post this is a suggestion on the DTG forums :D

-Peter
 

trainmania100

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It's good that rivetgames are making the Isle of white route, would be good to see more third partie Devs make route add-ons for tsw2
 

MotCO

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St James to South Shields on the Metro would be a good one. Interesting scenarios too..

If 60 miles is the maximum, could you do the whole of the Metro? Mind you, would that get a bit tedious since all services are all-stoppers if I recall.
 

ainsworth74

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I think something from a different country would be interesting.

Well, they are working on a French route in LGV Méditerranée between Marseille - Avignon whilst Rivet Games are working on the Arosa line in Switzerland so they are expanding their horizons beyond the current three countries!
 

Iskra

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Bristol to Exeter
Brighton to Bedford
Brighton to Portsmouth Harbour
Wcml Euston to Northampton (and put some ai traffic on bakerloo line)

They are all interesting routes. Brighton to Bedford might be a bit long so I think you would have to split in the middle at London St Pancras as a minimum! What era's would you suggest these are modelled in, and what stock would you include?

I've said it several times and I'll happily bang on about it again - I think we need the Cotswold Line in either TS2020 or TSW2. :) It is being worked on for the former, so hopefully we'll see something soon, but until then:

The Cotswold Line runs for ~86 miles between Oxford and Worcester Shrub Hill. Technically, after Worcester, it's the "Cotswolds & Malverns" line, but we'll ignore that for now. It is formed of a combination of single (Wolvercote Junction - Charlbury Junction, Evesham West Junction - Worcester Shrub Hill) and double track (Charlbury West Junction - Evesham West Junction) sections (I can't remember what the track layout is like beyond Worcester), which would give some operational interest; those who have a bit of an interest in the real railway and who play TSW2 would find it interesting to learn about how the trains run down the single track sections and how they need to pass at specific points, and those who are railway enthusiasts would enjoy something a bit different in the simulation scene to just speeding along a mainline at 125mph. However, those who just play for fun may not enjoy the waiting times at places such as Charlbury, Evesham, and Worcester for trains to leave the single-track section - but you can't please everyone!

Secondly, the trains for the route are already in the game. If you want to have a slightly older version of the route, from around 2017-2018, you can use the pre-existing Class 43 and Class 166. There's already a reskin available for a FGW HST so a realistic Cotswold Line set can be formed. Freight trains rarely run along the section from Honeybourne to Oxford, so having a Class 66 would be nice, but you could only really use it on a small selection of services between Long Marston and Worcester or Hereford.
If you want a more modern route, you'll need to get a Class 800 and Class 802 made. This would improve the waiting times at passing stations (as has happened in real life), so maybe for a better user experience this option would be better. Having a mix of HSTs and IETs would be nice but if you want to be realistic then they all have to run to HST timings until the 19th of May 2018, so you might as well have all HSTs.

The Cotswold Line would also give users a very different driving experience overall; the line is controlled by a mix of the signalling centre at Didcot and smaller signalboxes along the line - with Moreton-in-Marsh Signalbox still using semaphore signals, along with Worcester Shrub Hill. The mix of semaphores and colour-light signals would provide an interesting contrast and would be something which I don't think we've seen before in TSW.

Anyway - that's quite a ramble, but hopefully it was somewhat interesting. I might post this is a suggestion on the DTG forums :D

-Peter

I think the Cotswold Line would be a great addition for TSW2. It's a very atmospheric line and the mix of signalling would be interesting. I always especially liked travelling on the Malvern bit of the route :)

It's good that rivetgames are making the Isle of white route, would be good to see more third partie Devs make route add-ons for tsw2

Yes I agree. It would be nice if Keith Ross could re-appear. He made West Coast over Shap and Western Lines of Scotland for the original DTG train sim and they are two of my favourite routes.

Well, they are working on a French route in LGV Méditerranée between Marseille - Avignon whilst Rivet Games are working on the Arosa line in Switzerland so they are expanding their horizons beyond the current three countries!

Yes, I'm looking forward to those but I think they were done in TS2020 and there are still so many areas of the world that are untouched!
 
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trainmania100

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They are all interesting routes. Brighton to Bedford might be a bit long so I think you would have to split in the middle at London St Pancras as a minimum! What era's would you suggest these are modelled in, and what stock would you include?



I think the Cotswold Line would be a great addition for TSW2. It's a very atmospheric line and the mix of signalling would be interesting. I always especially liked travelling on the Malvern bit of the route :)



Yes I agree. It would be nice if Keith Ross could re-appear. He made West Coast over Shap and Western Lines of Scotland for the original DTG train sim and they are two of my favourite routes.



Yes, I'm looking forward to those but I think they were done in TS2020 and there are still so many areas of the world that are untouched!

2020 , with 700s.
 

ainsworth74

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Yes, I'm looking forward to those but I think they were done in TS2020 and there are still so many areas of the world that are untouched!

The Swiss one definitely was (I think they streamed the TS2020 version a week or two ago) not sure about the French route!

There's certainly plenty of the rest of the world out there to do but when this crops up their response, which I have some sympathy for, tends to be along the lines of that to make sure that they're getting it as accurate as possible a lot of work has to go into research and development (how do signals work in this country/network, do we have assets to populate the route with appropriate scenery or are we making). So once they've done all that they tend to want to take advantage of it and make more stuff in the area!

That being said I don't disagree it would be nice to see other parts of the world! I have a hankering for India personally (I think Sam the Community Manager has said he does to)!
 

Iskra

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The Swiss one definitely was (I think they streamed the TS2020 version a week or two ago) not sure about the French route!

There's certainly plenty of the rest of the world out there to do but when this crops up their response, which I have some sympathy for, tends to be along the lines of that to make sure that they're getting it as accurate as possible a lot of work has to go into research and development (how do signals work in this country/network, do we have assets to populate the route with appropriate scenery or are we making). So once they've done all that they tend to want to take advantage of it and make more stuff in the area!

That being said I don't disagree it would be nice to see other parts of the world! I have a hankering for India personally (I think Sam the Community Manager has said he does to)!

Yeah, I can understand that. I think it's something they need to try and engage 3rd party developers with. Without an editor, we are very limited in terms of DLC and DTG understandably can't produce DLC fast enough, particularly less mainstream stuff. We've gone from having a wide choice in TS2020 to relatively little in TSW2.

Yes, India would be good and surely it's a massive market to target. I'd like to see routes from India, Italy, Russia/Ukraine, Scandinavia, Spain, Africa and South America feature eventually.
 

Energy

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I would like to see Chiltern Main Line as it has a variety of stock although it is a bit long for TSW.
 

ServerHoster

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Crewe to Manchester Piccadilly
via Stockport *and* Manchester Airport

can include:

Northern 319/323 (Crewe - airport/Stockport - Piccadilly)

TfW 175 (Crewe - Stockport - Piccadilly and Airport - Piccadilly)

Avanti 390 (Crewe - Stockport - Piccadilly)

Some Stockport services via Heald Green like in real life.

Longsight depot
 

Iskra

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Welsh Valleys - would love to have 142/143 and 150s.

Yes, I think they could work well. Would be nice to have a 37 set involved too of course!

Crewe to Manchester Piccadilly
via Stockport *and* Manchester Airport

can include:

Northern 319/323 (Crewe - airport/Stockport - Piccadilly)

TfW 175 (Crewe - Stockport - Piccadilly and Airport - Piccadilly)

Avanti 390 (Crewe - Stockport - Piccadilly)

Some Stockport services via Heald Green like in real life.

Longsight depot

Yes, plenty of interest there and a decent length too!
 

365 Networker

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ECML London - Peterborough, with Northern City Line, set in late 1990s to early 2000s.
Passenger stock could include:-
- Class 313 - Already in production for East Coastway, so would only need minor adaptation.
- Class 317 - Would need to be made from scratch, perhaps an opportunity for dlc.
- Class 365 - Could be adapted from the 465 being made for London - Faversham.
- Class 43 - Can be adapted from GWE, with old style headlights, original cab and Valenta sounds.
- Class 91/MK4 - Would need to be made from scratch.
Freight/Rail tour stock could include:-
- Class 31 - Already in the game, so would only need minor livery changes.
- Class 37 - Already in the game.
- Class 66 - Again, Already in the game and could be used in early 2000s scenarios.

I think this would be a very good add on, as there is lots of variety and quite a bit of the stock has already been made or at least adaptable. There are also possibilities for dlc, which I know DTG likes. It is also set in an era which for some reason has never been done before and one that I think is the most interesting as there is lots of old BR stock still running but also some of the first new stock 365s and 66s. I suspect licensing wouldn’t be too much of an issue either as GNER or WAGN no longer exist.
 
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158801

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I’d like to see (what I’d term) The Rhubarb Triangle.

Leeds to Doncaster / Doncaster to Sheffield / Sheffield to Leeds (via Moorthorpe)

The latter would in reality only need Swinton to Moorthorpe (as the rest of the line is covered with the other two routes)
 

Iskra

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ECML London - Peterborough, with Northern City Line, set in late 1990s to early 2000s.
Passenger stock could include:-
- Class 313 - Already in production for East Coastway, so would only need minor adaptation.
- Class 317 - Would need to be made from scratch, perhaps an opportunity for dlc.
- Class 365 - Could be adapted from the 465 being made for London - Faversham.
- Class 43 - Can be adapted from GWE, with old style headlights, original cab and Valenta sounds.
- Class 91/MK4 - Would need to be made from scratch.
Freight/Rail tour stock could include:-
- Class 31 - Already in the game, so would only need minor livery changes.
- Class 37 - Already in the game.
- Class 66 - Again, Already in the game and could be used in early 2000s scenarios.

I think this would be a very good add on, as there is lots of variety and quite a bit of the stock has already been made or at least adaptable. There are also possibilities for dlc, which I know DTG likes. It is also set in an era which for some reason has never been done before and one that I think is the most interesting as there is lots of old BR stock still running but also some of the first new stock 365s and 66s. I suspect listening wouldn’t be too much of an issue either as GNER or WAGN no longer exist.

I agree that would be a good one, lots of variety!


I’d like to see (what I’d term) The Rhubarb Triangle.

Leeds to Doncaster / Doncaster to Sheffield / Sheffield to Leeds (via Moorthorpe)

The latter would in reality only need Swinton to Moorthorpe (as the rest of the line is covered with the other two routes)

I'd personally be very up for this one with it being close to home!

Dovetail Games released the Top 50 Requested Routes for TSW on a stream on Friday Night:

50 routes in the list but some are tied, hence I will start the list at 23rd place. Please excuse any misspellings I had to write the list down from an audio stream.

23) Any Swiss route, Any Austrian Route, Cajon Pass, london-Edinburgh, Any Indian Route, North Wales Coastal, Orient Express, Semmeringbahn, Severn Valley Railway
22) Fife Circle, Great Eastern Mainline, Horseshoe Curve, The Hudson Line, Isle of Wight
21) Settle-Carlisle, Any Eurostar Route, London-Peterborough.
20) Tyne Wear Metro, Any French Route, Any Route that hits Chicago, The Cambrian Coast Route.
19) A Berlin route, A LGV route, Merseyrail, New Zealand Route.
18) A Norfolk Southern (US) route, London-Norwich, Long Island Railroad extension, Gotthard line.
17) Any Scottish Route, Sherman Hill.
16) Marias Pass.
15) A Canadian Route, South Western Main Line (UK), West Highland Line.
14) Any Japanese Route
13) Any Italian Route
12) London-Brighton
11) Riviera Line (UK), North Eastern Corridor (US), London-Birmingham.
10) Metronorth.
9) NYC Subway, Midland Mainline (UK), Edinburgh-Glasgow
8) London-Portsmouth
7) Pacific Surfliner
6) Liverpool to Manchester
5) Anything in the Netherlands
4) Any underground route
3) Anything in Australia
2) East Coast Main Line
1) West Coast Main Line
 
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tetudo boy

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I agree that would be a good one, lots of variety!




I'd personally be very up for this one with it being close to home!

Dovetail Games released the Top 50 Requested Routes for TSW on a stream on Friday Night:

50 routes in the list but some are tied, hence I will start the list at 23rd place. Please excuse any misspellings I had to write the list down from an audio stream.

23) Any Swiss route, Any Austrian Route, Cajon Pass, london-Edinburgh, Any Indian Route, North Wales Coastal, Orient Express, Semmeringbahn, Severn Valley Railway
22) Fife Circle, Great Eastern Mainline, Horseshoe Curve, The Hudson Line, Isle of Wight
21) Settle-Carlisle, Any Eurostar Route, London-Peterborough.
20) Tyne Wear Metro, Any French Route, Any Route that hits Chicago, The Cambrian Coast Route.
19) A Berlin route, A LGV route, Merseyrail, New Zealand Route.
18) A Norfolk Southern (US) route, London-Norwich, Long Island Railroad extension, Gotthard line.
17) Any Scottish Route, Sherman Hill.
16) Marias Pass.
15) A Canadian Route, South Western Main Line (UK), West Highland Line.
14) Any Japanese Route
13) Any Italian Route
12) London-Brighton
11) Riviera Line (UK), North Eastern Corridor (US), London-Birmingham.
10) Metronorth.
9) NYC Subway, Midland Mainline (UK), Edinburgh-Glasgow
8) London-Portsmouth
7) Pacific Surfliner
6) Liverpool to Manchester
5) Anything in the Netherlands
4) Any underground route
3) Anything in Australia
2) East Coast Main Line
1) West Coast Main Line
Finally, my local mainline (WCML) gets the dovetail juice!

I'd like them to do something like London to MKC or Liverpool to Birmingham, but I'd suspect these could take a long time to develop!
 

Iskra

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Finally, my local mainline (WCML) gets the dovetail juice!

I'd like them to do something like London to MKC or Liverpool to Birmingham, but I'd suspect these could take a long time to develop!
It doesn’t mean they are building it, but you would think it a contender for one of the next unannounced UK routes.

London to MK would be reasonably interesting, but personally I would prefer something more scenic and hillier so Lancaster-Carlisle or Carlisle-Carstairs. I’d like to see the improvement in scenery that TSW can offer.
 
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