Return to the rails of Birmingham and tackle the Lickey Incline in diesel traction. Two new versions of the Class 170 are coming 29th July, courtesy of Rivet Games!

We snuck this one out in our July Roadmap, where we gave a brief overview of the two liveries with a selection of screenshots.

The Class 170 has been a recognisable part of UK regional and longer-distance services for the past 25 years and continues to be a staple for connecting towns and cities that do not feature wholly electrified railways. Across multiple variants and fleet shuffles, they have taken on many roles and paint schemes over the past few decades.

Originally part of Rivet Games’ Fife Circle Line as the ScotRail Class 170/4, the iconic turbo now stars in a new role, filling out and enhancing the Cross-City Line. Including both the 170/5 and 170/6 subclasses, with detail changes such as original headlights, updated cabs and interiors, the Class 170 is now presented in West Midlands Railway livery, as well as the far-reaching CrossCountry livery!

This marks the arrival of the CrossCountry license in Train Sim World, along with the second train to feature the orange West Midlands Railways branding, after the Class 323. Previously CrossCountry featured in Train Simulator Classic content.

The passenger interiors and the cabs differ per Train Operating Company (TOC). CrossCountry for example features First Class accommodation, but the West Midlands Railway 170 does not, also note the remnants of London Midland with the unmistakable green moquette.

If you’re new to the Class 170 in Train Sim World, Rivet Games produced a video detailing the development of the ScotRail Class 170 when Fife Circle Line released.

Unlike the Fife Circle Line Class 170, the WMR & CrossCountry trains do not include the Auto-Announce feature. Due to this being a bespoke set-up that Rivet Games have developed, this implementation would have required fundamental changes to the way the route works, which is something we weren't able to support for this particular Add-on.

A new timetable will be available to players of the Birmingham Cross-City route, featuring a much wider variety of traffic from a selection of other Add-ons, for players that own them. There’ll also be new Scenarios to play.

The West Midlands Railway Class 170 will have over 150 services, of which 58 are playable. The CrossCountry Class 170 will have over 180, of which 31 will be playable.

Tyler, a Game Designer at Rivet Games, takes us through the process of building this timetable from the Class 170 Add-on and outlines the content available from other Train Sim World Add-ons.

The new Cross-City timetable started as a passion project. A year ago, I was a modder making timetables in the Public Editor, wishing for an update to Birmingham Cross-City. I approached Rivet Games with a project proposal: they'd modify their existing Class 170 into variants suitable for the route, and I'd create the timetable. They said yes, but it wouldn't be for a little while, so in the meantime would I like to come work on other projects? I am now happily employed at Rivet Games and am excited to see this project released for Train Sim World 5 players to enjoy.

The first decision of the project was easy: Instead of starting from scratch, I'd start by making a copy of the existing timetable, set in 2019, and add trains using the same Working Timetable source document.

The Class 323 services are mostly unchanged, save for some signalling changes at the now-very-busy Birmingham New Street. Freight, rail tour, and Railhead Treatment Train layers are unchanged.

The new timetable includes Class 170s from both West Midlands Railway and CrossCountry, in both 2-car 170/5 and 3-car 170/6 variants. You'll also drive 4-car trains composed of a pair of 2-car units, and I challenge you to find the two trains longer than 4 cars hidden in the timetable.

The majority of playable Class 170 services are between Bromsgrove and Birmingham New Street. CrossCountry services operate out of the playable area between Cardiff and Nottingham and West Midlands Railway runs between Birmingham and Hereford, Great Malvern & Worcester. This busy trunk line will keep you on your toes responding to yellow and red signals; keep to time and you'll often overtake the stopping Class 323 services on the four-track section between Kings Norton and Longbridge.

Eagle-eyed players may spot that real CrossCountry services don't stop at Bromsgrove; in TSW they do, just for you! Otherwise, they'd be AI-only services, playable only on the short stretch between Birmingham New Street and University.

West Midlands Railway Class 170s are also playable between Aston and Birmingham New Street on services running out of the map to Walsall and Wolverhampton or Shrewsbury. Another reason to pick the May 2019 timetable as the base timetable was the short-lived use of Class 170 units on this service.

Rounding out the playable Class 170 services are a couple of empty coaching stock movements giving you some rare mileage, but that's not all the 170s! AI services from both operators fill out Birmingham New Street, headed beyond the route’s confines for Shrewsbury, Nottingham, Leicester, and Stansted Airport.

If you own other Train Sim World Add-ons, you'll get extra playable and AI content — so much so that we had to write our own platform visualization tool to cram all the traffic into Birmingham New Street.

The Class 350 from West Coast Main Line (London Euston - Milton Keynes) is playable between Birmingham New Street and Aston on Walsall and Wolverhampton services (as well as some other service patterns at peak hours, check the platform boards for more information).

The Class 350 and the Avanti West Coast Class 390 Pendolino both fill out Birmingham New Street as AI, and you'll also spot them at the low-level platforms at Lichfield Trent Valley. The Pendolino also has a single empty coaching stock move playable between Aston and Birmingham New Street.

The last visitor to Birmingham New Street is the Transport for Wales Class 150 from Cardiff City Network on services between Birmingham International and destinations in Wales.

Finally, if you drive through Aston (or stand on the platforms to spot trains) you may see some AI freight trains using existing layers.

To close things off, I'll finish by sharing two personal highlights from the new timetable:

Driving between Birmingham New Street and Bromsgrove is more engaging than ever, no matter your choice of traction. There are lots of adverse signals and the fast overtakes are fun — certainly contenders for the Awesome Service Mode Runs thread on the TSW forums.

Trainspotting on foot on the route is another way to enjoy the traffic. At Birmingham New Street, find the glass-walled stair towers at the west end of the platforms for an elevated view of trains arriving and departing. Go downstairs at Lichfield Trent Valley and watch those 390s bank around the curves at speed. Hang out with the cat at Aston and try to guess which type of train will arrive next. Or stand at Longbridge and try to capture an overtake in Photo Mode.

We hope you enjoy driving the Class 170 in this new timetable as much as we enjoyed creating it!

Train Sim World 5: West Midlands Railway & CrossCountry BR Class 170 DMU will release on 29th July for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Epic Games Store, and Steam for £12.99/€15.99/$16.99

Want to see the Class 170 and new timetable in action? You can join Harry, Matt and Jasper from the Rivet Games team in our RFTV Preview Stream on Thursday 24th July at 1900 UTC over on YouTube and Twitch.

This Class 170 Add-on layers into the Birmingham Cross-City route Add-on, which first released for Train Sim World 3. It is available for Train Sim World 5 as Compatible Content.

Master the West Midlands from England’s second city through to Bromsgrove and Redditch in Worcestershire and to the cathedral city of Lichfield. The route features the famously steep Lickey Incline and the expansive platforms and trackwork of Birmingham New Street Station. Included is the WMR Class 323 EMU, which has been updated for TSW5 players to include a busy and engaging Conductor Mode!

Available separately from SimTrack Studios is the Centro Regional Railway Class 323 Add-on, bringing additional Scenarios to the route and the appearance of the unique 323 221 in the timetable.