West Coast Main Line: Crewe - Preston Review: Is the Train Sim World Route Worth It?

The freight work is the reason most fans give for buying it. Steam reviewers call the merry-go-round coal services really fun, and several say the coal loading at the collieries and the unloading at Fiddlers Ferry Power Station is the best part of the route. One review puts it plainly: passenger runs are ok, but the real fun here is the freight. On the Dovetail forum, one player says they enjoyed racing non-stop from Crewe to Preston in a Class 87 but really enjoyed driving a pair of Class 20s on a coal service, and another singles out the change from countryside to industry around Fiddlers Ferry.

The rest of the praise:

• The detail and the period feel. Steam reviewers describe stunning scenery, custom models and stations that look right for the era. One reviewer who owns a copy of the 1986 British Rail timetable says the route's services match it very accurately.
• A busy timetable. Reviewers say it mixes express runs, stopping services, mail trains, freight, light engine moves and shunting, and that the yards make the route feel alive.
• The locomotives. The rebuilt Class 47/3 and the redone Class 20 get specific praise in Steam reviews, as does the Slow Speed control used for loading coal. One reviewer is pleased that two Class 86/4s can now run together.
• Route hopping. Several reviewers like that it fills the gap in the West Coast Main Line, so owners of the matching routes can drive from London Euston all the way to Carlisle. The store page puts that full run at 299 miles.
• Price and sound. Reviewers call $39.99 good value, and one lists the new horns, traction sounds and station announcements among the highlights.

A long, slow coal working with a satisfying load and unload at each end is exactly the kind of evening session I would pick this for, and the reviews suggest that loop is where the route shines.

Performance is the complaint that comes up again and again. Negative Steam reviews describe stutter, freezes and frame drops in the busy areas, with Crewe named most often, and one player says the game crashes every time they get close to Crewe. Even positive reviews flag it: one lists frame rates swinging down to 20 to 30 in built up areas and very high video memory use. Several positive reviewers add that the stutter settled after the first few runs once the game had built its shader cache, and one fixed a startup problem by forcing DX12.

On the Dovetail forum, console players reported the worst of it at launch:

• Crashes on Xbox Series X and PS5. Players reported crashes on the loading screen and when spawning at Crewe, and one PS5 player says the console shut down mid-run. In October 2026 an Xbox player still reported a crash before every service starting at Crewe.
• Blurry textures on PS5. Several PS5 players describe textures turning blurry partway through a run.
• Timetable gaps. Steam reviewers and forum players both report that the last stop of passenger services has no arrival time, which makes non-stop Preston to Crewe runs effectively untimed.
• Smaller bugs. Conductor mode not working is reported in both sources. Forum players also list in-cab announcements that are barely audible at full volume, an AWS warning that would not reset, poor brakes on the coal wagons and Class 20 high intensity headlights that give no light. A Just Trains developer replied on the forum that they are aware of the wagon brake issue.
• Missing older diesels. Forum players miss the Class 31, 37, 40 and 45 traffic. A Just Trains developer said in October 2026 that the update adding them back has been ready since June and is waiting to be released. A forum player also notes that console versions have no static stock in the yards, to help performance.

Some of this has been patched. The Train Sim World Wiki records a July 9, 2026 update that added an optional reduced timetable, improved performance for CPU-bound players, reduced memory use, and fixed a crash at Warrington by temporarily removing the destination boards. A Steam review from August 2026 says most of the serious performance issues seem to have been fixed, and an Xbox player on the forum says most of the blurry textures have gone since launch. The 34 English Steam reviews we read were written between June 18 and August 29, 2026, so most of them predate that patch.

Buy it if you play on a capable PC and love 1980s British Rail, slow freight work and shunting. It is an easy pick if you already own Just Trains' Preston - Carlisle or Blackpool Branches, since reviewers say those add many extra timetable layers here and it links them to the southern half of the West Coast Main Line. Several Steam reviewers call it some of Just Trains' best work.

Wait, or skip it, if you play on Xbox or PlayStation, or on an older PC. The crash and blur reports on the forum are mostly from console players, and several Steam reviewers say it is not one for older hardware. It is also less suited to players who want mostly passenger driving, since the reviews keep pointing to the freight as the heart of it. If you mainly want speed on this line, the modern Trent Valley route south of Crewe is the better fit.

For me, a crash right when a long session reaches Crewe is a real flaw, not a small one, and it is the one thing I would check recent forum posts for before buying.

The closest companion is Blackpool Branches: Preston - Blackpool & Ormskirk, Just Trains' other 1986 route from Preston. In our best Train Sim World routes table it covers 48 miles with the Class 142 Pacer, Class 47/4 and Class 08 for $39.99.

Heading south, West Coast Main Line Trent Valley: Milton Keynes - Crewe is the modern section of the same line. The same table lists it at 108 miles with the Class 807 Evero and Class 350/4 for $44.99, the pick for long, fast express runs. For a calmer modern UK option, see our Thames Valley branch lines review.