Train Simulator 2021: West Coast Main Line South V1.0 Review 

PLEASE NOTE: As of 18th September Dovetail have acknowledged the negative reviews and issues many users have,DTG are aiming to chiefly fix performance issues and some of the other bugs,we will be re-reviewing the route at that point. It's nice to see them acknowledge the mistakes,shame they were allowed to happen in the first place. This video will remain but may be removed if the route vastly improves upon updating. You can find DTG's post regarding the feedback they have received,here: forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/west-coast-main-line-south-improvements.27504/

saying that this route is beta is actually extremley kind and good review for such a shocking route

I appreciated your constructive criticism, Mark. Good to see DTG responding too. Cheers.

I appreciate a good, honest review. I would really like it if you uploaded the first recording you did, with you getting "pissed off", honest reviews are really helpful and interesting in my personal opinion. WTF? That route looks shocking. I also find it funny how you can still see the Virgin badge on the front of the 390, lol. The inside of Euston looks really good, but the rest is genuinely shocking. For £24.99, that's bloody tragic. I think what bothers me the most is that DTG have REALLY improved recently, especially in TSW. The 20 was almost as good as most, if not all of them. If it had more variants then it would easily pass a lot of their stuff. The 20 sounded good, looked good, was textured brilliantly and had great functionality. This however, is just absolutely awful. I feel like DTG are just keeping TS just above the water to keep it going under, they definitely know that it's actually the community that keep their game alive, although I think they've only recently noticed, seeing as they added the livery editor and scenario editor, even though they were both crap. Imagine TS with no reskins, no third party routes, no community made scenarios, no 3rd party content (AP, MKS etc). It would be awful, and it means that DTG have just abandoned it and gone in favour of TSW which is a shame. If DTG aren't providing us with decent routes, or decent trains then we as content creators are eventually going to get bored and just leave. I've not reskinned something in so long because there's not really many skins to do because there's not really many good trains in the game that haven't been reskinned so many times that there's not really anything to actually do. I used to pump out reskins at a rate of knots, whereas now I've done one in the space of about 5 months, it's a bit grim really because I used to really enjoy it. And from what I've seen, many friends of mine who also create content are lacking in motivation too. On a positive note (in some aspects), the quality of 3rd party content seems to be improving rapidly, the 86EP really raised the bar for all EPs in my opinion. What does bother me is that most 3rd party content now has every single livery included, for example the 50, the 319 and the 317. It's annoying for me because there's nothing I can reskin onto them, but obviously its a positive for the community however. I do feel that DTG should be at least *trying* to be competitive however, rather than just doing what they have been and just releasing terrible content and then leaving the community to fix it. Even if they made a new train, for example, let's say a 360, it still gives the opportunity to be built upon, either by the community or with an EP, which brings fresh new content to the game that isn't as tragic as what DTG are bringing us currently.

Great review off it. Already know my views on the route etc. Chris

Great review Mark, I especially loved what you were saying about 30mins in when you said all the great detailed work on the DC section & most people wouldn't get a chance to drive this bit!!! Why go to all the trouble with the detailed station models if you then don't include scenarios for that bit... Really hope they can now spend the time to fix everything & we end up with something decent. It's also great that the community have voted with wallets so far on this one but sad it could be allowed to market in this state & thats entirely the DTG Management at fault for that. This was a really fair review of the current state of the route & hopefully we'll be able to buy this when its been fixed... Cheers :-)

Great video Mark. Interesting to hear your thoughts! Totally agree with what you say, it's quite clear that time deadlines have caused major issues for the route. A right shame as beneath all of the small bugs and errors is a rather nice route worth the asking price, unfortunately in it's current state is certainly is not though. We all know DTG can make some cracking routes, it's a shame this one has some issues but all this can be sorted over time and in a new patch. 44:38 made me right LOL. Cheers mate. :)

I agree with you Mark, it would be better to do 2 seperate routes so therefore more time is spent on creating a top notch route, gonna wait for this to update/improve before u purchase it

A great, measured and objective review from someone who is obviously highly experienced, kudos Mark. It looks like a good beta release with lots of potential, but like you say, not ready for release. Looking forward to the updates and the output from the workshop modders who take routes to the next level with the breadth and depth of their scenarios.

The passenger windows and the front window of the Avanti Class 390 driver's cabin are totally black, they should correct this and make them transparent, hopefully they will do so with a bug fix update.

Thanks for posting this video. To be honest, DTG has dropped the ball on this route sadly as much as I like DTG and most of the flack they get is often unjustified but this route should NOT have been signed off for release. It would only take about 3-4 hours max to check all the assets over before release and the floating buildings and gaps that should have been spotted and corrected. I cannot defend DTG on this occasion because they have done some great routes in their time and London to Faversham is a prime example of this. I hope they will put it right and perhaps get a new quality control inspector that can and will check over the routes and dlc properly. I would volunteer but I am in Northern Ireland and Chatham is too far away.

Once again another great review from Mark at Train SIM TV. DTG released the route early without any testing to allow hard core TS players to test and then use their findings to fix the route, with out the need to pay any in house Q & A people too undertake the the process? After this review and AT comments I will not be purchasing the route until there is fix.

Purchased this route after the 2nd update, looking and performing much better now.

When it was released, I thought: let's buy it! But then I saw negative reviews on the route. I checked some RU-vid videos and then I thought: nah i won't buy it, *UNLESS* if there will be fixes to the route. But as I can see with some of the station assets, they aren't that bad

Excellent review Mark. I have more than a passing interest in the route because I was one of the testers for the freeware/ATS route. I also wrote the majority of the scenarios that come with it. I also now live in Coventry and the station is as you say a great effort as is a lot of the others but Euston is better in the ATS version IMHO. At least it looks finished. I spotted mistakes in the freeware one and they were acted on. My suggestions for things like extra portals was also implemented. With DTG's past history of not fixing things they know are wrong I am not very confident about them fixing it properly. I bought it and refunded within 20 minutes. I am only going to buy it again if it is needed as a source of assets for the almost finished "missing link" from Preston to Birmingham.

I was going to get the deluxe edition of ts2021 but I clicked the wrong page and accidentally got the normal edition without this route 😂

Ah yes. WCML South Review (Angery Mark Edition) 😂 In all seriousness though, it was a good review, and I hope with the recent news from DTG they can get their heads out their arses and sort something out.

This could have been such a good route. With all the bugs I certainly won’t be buying it anytime soon. I feel sorry for the developers who were not given the time to finish it properly.

I only drove it from New Street to Kilsby - I found a few flaws with certain signals just in that 40 minute run. For instance you don't get flashing aspects coming from Coventry into Platform 4 at Rugby. I'm sure if I drove it a few more times I'd nit pick more signalling issues

Could it be the stations in the Southern part of the route are the same models used in TSW2, and that's why they ended up so detailed?

I frequently play the Western Lines of Scotland route. That's practically ancient history and yet it's so much better than THIS.

I’ve just noticed while watching the Avanti logo is not straight with the nose

Note: You can use the DC lines in quick play w/o modification of the game

I'm sure the dtg fanboys over on the uktrainsim forum are raving about the quality of this route though lol

Downloaded the Alan Thomson route of WCML South and the WCMLM&N a few months ago...brilliant , quality routes and all praise due to all involved. Then I bought DTG WCML South...what is there to say??? ...disappointing is a TOTAL understatement. I've downloaded freeware routes better than this. Looking at these comments, I'm not alone...and I hope there is a MASSIVE patch to rectify all the basic problems...unbelievable rubbish from DTG...

Now that the second update of the WCML South has been completed will you be doing a second video.

I like as well in TSW 2 that we get to see the opposite side of the WCML on overground bakerloo line 15:50

Hey, I have the cummins pack for the class 158 and when I spawn it, it is invisible and wont move

I love angry Mark

05:58 I raised the VT thing and real driver commented saying they still have that in their trains

I hope there is Northampton loop included when DTG updated this West Coast Main Line route.

Hello I was wondering how to change the weather in train simulator. I am a fellow tsw2 player and am starting to play ts2022 and don’t know how to change the weather and as I’m going to get wcml south I rly want to make it more nicer weather if you can tell me thx!! Love the vids

Would the DC line stations be the same models from the TSW2 Bakerloo line, or is that something that’s not possible?

I'd rather pay for one long 'completed' route :) with the stock I like driving, the hst & other high speed trains etc I get frustrated with short routes that dtg usually release.

Perhaps the Queen’s Park etc are from the Bakerloo line on TSW?

What should I press on the keyboard to brake when driving a train with one control handle like this rolling stock? Thx

Maybe this is a working from home and COVID consequence. The cooks are all in different kitchens and they need paying quickly.

Let me guess. The Northampton Loop is actually the third party content, and it does not compatible to Steam Workshop. Am I right Train Sim TV?

Hi, would you be willing to provide a comment on this for a video I'm making about the state of DTG at the moment? Please let me know. Great video btw

What confuses me is that avanti west coast didn’t exist alongside London midland class 350s....avanti didnt even exist when London midland were a thing

you forgot to show the floating blue guardrails at euston yes there is quick drive for the dc lines and no scenarios for 221 either

I would still use the free one lol

People brace yourselves when you see the Route

Why is the pantograph the wrong way around on the 390

Thank you for you reply mate but you got to agree its awful.be safe

03:19 LOL

The 350 looks photoshopped in tbh

If the boss was matt p he should apologise

Let's be honest it's both the guys at Dovetail that can't even make and finish a route and the stupid Train Simulator Community who always ask when is it released and start getting annoyed and putting Dovetail under a lot of pressure and to be honest Dovetail shouldn't be giving release dates if a train or route isn't finished and if the community asks when is it released Dovetail should say when it's ready. And finally to be honest the whole game is broke and will never improve.

The terrible simple and ugly concrete textures have been used before. The same goes for the massive lack of care when building certain objects. If you own the LGV Marseille-Lyon then go look at the depots in Lyon and you'll find the same shit there. They just don't care about the quality of their routes nearly as much as they should.

I agree with you Mark, the patience of a saint to record 1hr 27mins, I can't believe DTG live on stream confirmed it has been tested! Like you I'm glad they have admitted to the poor result, but agree with you It should not have come to this. Love the Harry Potter analogy.

What are your specs? I got a refund for this...

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CxpXETDR5wk.html I LOL so loud in real life at this point that I think I made the neighbours jump.

Why does anyone want to play ts2021 after you've seen what train sim world 2 looks like

this looks like 2005 game, I'd rather play Densha de go on ps2 :D

You can do a better job mate. They even missed out Northampton

Rush Euston station

This is crap. Indeed there are minor issues such as gaps in models, slightly floating buildings etc. But that platform and the missing pillars and signs in walls and the ugly textures is just inexcusable. Whoever said this has to be released whatever state it was in should be fired. Very great that they have acknowledged the faults and plan to release updates. Why can't they do that with every product? Improve a route or a train once and a while, fix bugs at least. I asked DTG a few months ago to fix a crash regarding a quick drive using a 66 on Settle-Carlisle. They sent me a modified file that I had to copy into the route directory. I basically manually did a patch, and guess what, they don't plan or didn't say they would fix it for anyone else. Crap. People will buy things if they're aesthetically and functionally solid no matter how many updates it takes and whatever the updates do for mods. Take a look at the ETS2 and ATS community. SCS Software are so much better developers. You get updates every month or two constantly improving the game.

New Street is shocking sorry have to disagree with you, looks nothing like the real thing! International Is awful,NO NEC or an airport that remotely looks like Birmingham airport, then you got Lawley Freightliner terminal or lack of? Or shall we talk about Lea Hall? Do I need to carry on? It's awful, plus all stations seem way too dark for my liking. Currently fighting for a refund

Also in regards to DTGs stream everyone of their streams are awful, they really have no idea how to stream lol

One of DTG's worst routes. I got my money back on it.

Dovetail stinks they never make a full route..

My god people should get there money back looks like a waste of time actually feel sorry for people who's been waiting all this time then ends up shit more shit TSW looks better

ANYONE WANT THEIR CAR PHONE FIX TOO?

The amount of people crying over minor issues with brick walls and station ramps you are supposed to be driving past at speed is laughable. It's called train sim, not brick wall and signpost sim. Oh no I can't see a depiction of starbucks and WH smith in 2D form after my 100+ mile drive. The only complaints should be about the bad FPS performance, which is across the board in the this game due to the way they handle texture files, and track database files which cannot effectively go beyond 200 miles without having serious stabiltiy issues.