Train Sim World 5: Thomas DLC Review

Written by Captain Conroy

Suffice to say, 2025 has been a crazy year for us Thomas fans as we have celebrated the 80^th anniversary. We got to see the pilot which we thought was lost to time, all new merchandise, new lore has been revealed and the plethora of YouTubers making their own videos to celebrate, the list goes on. We even had some old scripts from Thomas’s fifth season amongst many other things like screen-used props and models go on auction and be purchased by fans and getting to see what could’ve been. One of many things to add onto this was an official collaboration with Dovetail Games who make the famous Train Sim World games, which are of course train driving simulator games, to have an official Thomas And Friends DLC.

This was particularly significant as fans have been doing mods for years on both Train Sim World and Trainz but now this time, it’s not a fan mod. This is genuine DLC which has been offered to us and it’s safe to say once the announcement was made that everyone went a little bit nuts. I equally got excited I’ll admit and this was my sole reason for getting the game myself. I got the PS5 version of the game myself and having played it and played through the DLC – I can thankfully say the game was worth the money I paid. However, I’m not reviewing the whole game – that’s for people more qualified than me – but I can at least give you my views on the DLC, what do I think of it as a whole? Let’s find out.

The Story

So to get things kickstarted, this isn’t just DLC where you download it and you get Thomas the Tank Engine and that’s it. The DLC offers a story to playthrough. The story is that Thomas and Sir Topham Hatt have been invited to the West Sommerset Railway by Mr. Peters – an old friend of Sir Topham Hatt’s. Thomas is keen to set a good impression and run his trains on time while he’s here, just like he does back home, but of course this isn’t without it's bumps in the road as Diesel came along too – albeit uninvited. He had been sent to the mainland to deliver goods but he followed Thomas here and he tries causing trouble to show him up out of jealousy as Thomas got to come and he didn’t. So when Diesel causes his trouble, it’s up to Thomas to put things right and even thanks to help from you – the player, he really does put things right when even for all the trouble Diesel caused, Thomas still helps him when he’s in trouble after breaking down.

And that’s not all either as later on – an additional DLC pack (we’ll cover more on that later) sees after Thomas and Diesel reconcile after the events of the story and watching a firework display together, which is one of the main focuses of this story, sees Thomas celebrating his birthday on the West Sommerset Railway. He requests to be painted for this special one-off occasion in his original LBSC colours. And with this going on, Diesel is requested to bring supplies for the party but even try as he may to behave – the troublesome trucks exploit his ill temper and as result of trying to get them to behave – he breaks some of the supplies – mainly plates. He does hide, but after Thomas finds him – Diesel learns the value of owning up to his mistakes instead of trying to hide and it still turns out a lovely party for Thomas after all.

As you can imagine the story is as basic as it comes but yet it still makes for effective storytelling and all the same it doesn’t need to be anything super complex. After all even though adults are far more likely to play Train Sim World 5, children will most definitely want this DLC and no doubt even most adults downloaded it for their kids. And I have to give credit for using a real heritage line here – it adds to the authenticity of things as even the original Railway Series had a real world setting despite the North Western being fictious. Heck even in one of Christopher Awdry’s stories – Thomas goes to York and double heads a train with Green Arrow so to have Thomas visiting the West Sommerset Railway – it’s a perfect setting. Things may be as basic as they go with Diesel being naughty and Thomas cleaning up his mess but it still makes for a fun experience nevertheless.

The Gameplay

The gameplay is relatively simple as well, but hey – I can live with that as kids will be playing this with their parents and things like that and the gameplay needs to be simple for them. (And it makes it easier for me too as I’m not a very good train driver!) The controls are as simple as one makes your engine go forward and one makes your engine go backwards. (It’s the triggers if you’re playing on a PS5 like me) And pressing one joystick will blow the whistle or horn depending on who you’re playing as. The other allows you to adjust your camera angle and while it is managed – on the PS5 it takes some practice as it is a bit fiddly to start with. It may be easier to use on a computer to which you may wonder why I settled on the PS5 - well, my brother was getting one anyway and my computer is not a gaming computer and I’m certainly not buying one when my own computer works so well and gaming PC’s are so expensive.

Anyway, the controls are as straight forward as that. But even so you still get the real world setting which might go without saying given you still have to do things like wait for signals and you can’t go past a signal if it’s red or else the game will automatically fail you and you’ll have to begin all over. When playing one of the scenarios you’ll have to press one of the buttons to request access and then wait until the signal changes. (I believe it was the circle button) And if you’re free playing, you must set a route or the signal won’t change and even on free roam it will fail you if you pass a red signal. Which may seem a little extreme for free play but hey – you at least get that real world setting.

All of this applies to the main game but I  will have to talk about that as we look at the DLC and thanks to simplified gameplay – this at least means that kids can have an easier time driving the engines without having to fiddle with any levers or anything. And the DLC features easy to follow tutorials so you can learn how to drive and control your engines. The gameplay like the story for the DLC is nice and simple but effective and whether you’re free playing or doing the scenarios – I can assure you that there is only one way to describe this and that’s fun. It’s just so much fun to play and all the fun you can have placing Thomas and Diesel in real world scenarios depending what DLC you have – you can even get Brighton and have Thomas on his home turf – cool eh?

Compatibility And What The DLC Offers

Sadly though – as fun as this DLC is, there is one point where it falls a little flat and that’s some of the compatibility. And by that, I don’t mean they look out of place or anything as they’re supposed to stand out. What I mean is that Thomas and Diesel can only couple up to each other and their rolling stock. You can’t couple them up to other engines and the non-Sodor rolling stock. I find this a bummer as this sort of compatibility would only enhance the fun that the player could have. Can you imagine how funny it would be having a real-world Class 37 pulling troublesome trucks for example? Or Thomas double heading with Flying Scotsman – that would be so cool right? But sadly this isn’t to be on the DLC. At the very least, I’ve seen on the PC version you can get a mod to allow for this.

I don’t so much find this a bummer – but Thomas and Diesel are not available in the custom livery creator. I do understand though why some people would be a bit miffed by this though because it takes away additional creativity and it would allow to be as outrageous as possible. Anyone want to imagine Diesel in yellow? Or Thomas in orange maybe? As I say it’s not so much a big deal for me but I do get why others may want this feature. It’s also weird as any other locos I’ve downloaded have been able to go in the livery customizer but Thomas and Diesel can’t? Weird. More still, it looks like for the moment, if you want the DLC – you specifically need Train Sim World 5 for the Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Epic Games Store, and Steam. It doesn’t look like it’s available for Train Sim World 6.

And now for what you get in the DLC – you get Thomas, Annie and Clarabel, Diesel and some troublesome trucks. And thanks to the expansion pack – you get Thomas in his original LBSC colours from The Adventure Begins. And that’s about it. I find this a bit of a missed opportunity. I mean yes, you do get a good story to play through, but imagine how much cooler this would be if the other seven out of the original eight famous engines were in this? I know I’d especially love to see how engines like Gordon, Henry and James would look in this game. Even with rolling stock it’d be nice to have the Sodor Express coaches and even Henrietta. And if not much else – at least consider featuring them in an expansion pack eh Dovetail? But still – one nice nod to particularly the CGI series is that Mark Moroghan was brought in to narrate the story and he even does the character voices – he shows his range in different accents but I don’t much agree with some of the voices, especially Diesel’s – I wish they could make Diesel sound more like Ringo Starr did and less like a pantomime villain.

Overall

Naturally, this isn’t a completely perfect DLC – but it is a pretty solid one in general and I certainly do find it worth the money I paid for it. Even with the criticism I’ve given it – nothing changes the fact that it’s just been so much fun and I’ll still continue having fun with it as I explore more routes on the game and continue making up my own scenarios. It’s also still a great way to help Thomas celebrate such a significant anniversary and it’s just so nice that this is something that has been made official instead of just a fan mod. Not that there’s anything wrong with fan mods – I’ve seen a lot of them and they’re absolutely fantastic – it’s just nice to have an official option as well. I can highly recommend it to any Thomas fan both young and old and I can certainly guarantee the fun you’ll be able to have with this.

So that’s it from me for this review and believe me when I say I had a much better time with this than I did my Endings That Could Be Better essay – especially the Number 1 entry on the list but hey – work is work and the next time – I’ll still be keeping a pleasant theme up as I review The Archie Show. Until the next time, take care folks and Merry Christmas!