A video game developer has created a playable version of the Liverpool Lime Street to Crewe station line as it would have been in the 1950s.
Dovetail Games, the Kent-based developers of the Trainsimulator game series, gained a cult-following over lockdown as their games gave players stuck at home the ability to travel to digitalised real-life stations around the country as a train driver. This month a new 'expansion' to their latest game, Train Sim World 2, will be released, featuring the trainline from Liverpool Lime Street to Crewe Station recreated as it would've been in the 1950s.
Players will be able to experience the world just as it would've been in 1958. The expansion, called Spirit of Steam, will be available on May 30.
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Matt Peddleston, executive producer at Dovetail games, told the ECHO about what it is like creating such a niche game: "Creating a 1950's world is really different, because when you're creating a game set in modern world you can go and look at it. You have as many photographs as you want to work from and if one isn't available you can just go out and get one and really there's an unlimited amount of resources.
"With historic worlds it's different- you've got what there is and that's it. It's really about trawling through magazines and books and hundreds of different reference sources showing all the different detail and there's so much going on.
"And then thinking about how Lime Street station different to it is now. Obviously it's changed a lot over the years and a large part of our job making sure we represent the true 1958 version of the line.
"It's about trying to find historic maps, looking for old photographs and then piecing the puzzle together. Then the art team create an impression of what that would look like based on everything we've been able to gather.
"The team really become kind of detectives, looking at all different evidence to piece together what's right and what's wrong to get a picture of what the line looked like. The intention is to aim for as much accuracy as possible, but sometimes you do have to fill in the gaps with your experience and think about how it would've looked in the 50s".
Train Sim World 2 Spirit of Steam expansion will be available Tuesday, May 31 on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/s, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.
