Why apostrophes/quotations in (some) train names?

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pickpacket
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Why apostrophes/quotations in (some) train names?

Post by pickpacket »

Chaney 'Jubilee'
Ginzu 'A4'
SH '125'

And

"Dash"
"AsiaStar"

etc. But

Manley-Morel DMU
Kirby Paul Tank

Hmm.
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Redirect Left
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Re: Why apostrophes/quotations in (some) train names?

Post by Redirect Left »

To my knowledge, the ones in ' or ", like '125' are intended to be mimics of real life trains, 'SH 125' is InterCity 125, and 'Jubilee' is the name of a steam loco in the UK. 'AsiaStar' is roughly equivalent to Eurostar trains running from the UK into mainland Europe. I don't know where the Asia is from, maybe the game version borrows design elements from the shinkansen bullet trains in Japan?
'Dash' is intended to mimic the 'Sprinter' trains, sprint is also known as a dash, for example.

to my knowledge, any units based off real ones, are all from old UK stock, as the original game was made by a British developer & artist.
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Re: Why apostrophes/quotations in (some) train names?

Post by Eddi »

most trains have the naming scheme
<manufacturer> '<model>'
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orudge
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Re: Why apostrophes/quotations in (some) train names?

Post by orudge »

Redirect Left wrote: 28 Mar 2023 13:42 'AsiaStar' is roughly equivalent to Eurostar trains running from the UK into mainland Europe. I don't know where the Asia is from, maybe the game version borrows design elements from the shinkansen bullet trains in Japan?
The original Transport Tycoon has real-world vehicle names, such as Eurostar. The names were changed in TTD to fake names because MicroProse was concerned that, say, Boeing would sue if a 747 crashed in the game. ‘Asia’ was just a substitution for ‘Euro’ - the graphics are still the same as in TTO, I think. Some of the fake vehicle names refer to the folk who made/tested the game (e.g. Foster after Simon Foster).

As for the quote marks - again, they came from TTO and then TTD.
pickpacket
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Re: Why apostrophes/quotations in (some) train names?

Post by pickpacket »

Interesting. I understand the history behind them now, but I don't know what the rationale is. We now have single quotes, double quotes, and no quotes in train names. It's a bit of an odd convention :P
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Re: Why apostrophes/quotations in (some) train names?

Post by pickpacket »

Not complaining though. Just observing. :)
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