Set in 1989 and developed by Train Sim Germany (TSG), Mittenwaldbahn features cross-border running between Tyrol in Austria and Bavaria in Germany. Snaking up (and down) through the alps from Innsbruck to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the route is approx 60km (37 miles) long.
It's always great to drive something entirely new to Train Sim World, and the ÖBB 1020 locomotive, which was first built in 1944, and known as the E94, aka the "Krokodil" (because it looks a bit like a cartoon crocodile!), features heavily. Incredibly powerful and a challenge to master, I found it extremely satisfying to drive this monster smoothly and accurately up and down the steep slopes of the Mittenwaldbahn. Unique in appearance, you also stand while driving it, making it unusual to say the least.
In keeping with the more recent additions to TSW5, Mittenwaldbahn has 5 interesting and varied scenarios, including a rescue-type and an extreme bad weather run.
The other locomotive serving the route is the BR 111 DBB in blue/white DB livery. Similar to the BR110 & BR103, its updated semi-automatic Z-Control Tap Changer system means you'll have to be gentle when accelerating and keep an eye on the Amp and kN (Kilonewton) gauges, or the MCb (Main Circuit Breaker) will trip and you'll have no power until you throttle down and reset it. Fortunately using the Z-control's "run up" setting means you don't have to worry about that.
Other locos that get layers if you own the Niddertalbahn or Linke Rheinstrecke routes are the BR 363 DB shunter (5 services) and BR 103 DB (2).
What TSG do with the TSW5 game engine seems to surpass even Dovetail's own efforts. This mountainous route is mostly dense woodland and foliage, with plenty of trackside detail, stretching TSW's draw distance past what I thought were its limits–no mountains pop up on the Mittenwaldbahn between these two famous ski resorts, and oh boy, do they supply an amazing backdrop!
However, silly bugs like the locomotive being marked as the "indicated carriage" you should climb aboard when in fact it's the first coach, and some needless typos in the subtitles for the training modules do let the DLC down a bit. There are also animated trackside livestock, but then they forgot about a siding with a manually operated barrier in Mittenwald that doesn't work and so you just drive through it–an odd mixture of good and bad.
Despite couple of minor gripes, TSG has produced another quality DLC, and made an interesting, lively and immersive route out of what is mostly a single track line–which is no mean achievement.
Many thanks to Dovetail Games and Indigo Pearl for the review code.