So I recently got on another Railworks kick, going on steam loco routes with 14xx/4f Fowler, and I started thinking about how a casual audience would like to drive trains. That led me to pass this question of game design onto you guys: if you could create a game where you could drive trains in first person, how would you make it?

I personally would have it first person where you could roam around the station, engine, and rolling stock just like TSW, but probably with less detail on the models and how the engine works just to keep things simple. Rather than focus on all of the little details like train simulators do, I would focus on missions, an engaging story, and plenty of things to do like side missions or free roam. I would imagine having to drive for a long amount of time would be pretty boring, so I would add plenty of nice scenery and maybe side missions while you're in the engine, like missions requiring you to switch perspectives to a signalman, or within the coaches or brake van/caboose.