Alan Thompson Simulation Route Discussion/speculation Thread

Is it because the learning curve for UE is so steep or is it because the TSW editor is hard to work with that the development time for 3rd parties is so glacial? It seems that some of these promised routes have been " coming " since the golden toad was last sighted.

 

I’m going to reserve judgment on this route. Having played ATS’ TSC routes, the level of immersion is mega, so even if it is a short route (it is), this immersion and the provided scenarios MAY prove enough for me.

 

I reckon this route is going to get the same treatment as the north London line, where an extension is in mind before release and will get updated at a later date. Just to raise some extra funds and make it worthwhile

 

He answer no on Facebook for TSW Route from Manchester to Crewe

Why he make the complete Route for TSC and TSW can’t get the Full run?

 

Both

 

To be honest this route specifically has had a lot of problems during development that have ended up sprouting out All Aboard Studios.

 

I will be buying the ATS route myself as I am looking forward to the Airport runs that act as a self contained route...

But I get the impression that the Manchester Commuter route might be the first and last route developed for TSW by ATS. Which is a shame, but there are some clear internal issues that have arisen (we know the basics, and it should be left at that and the 'dirty laundry' left between those involved now).

But, it is a shame that two developers could not have a single 'peace treaty' to finish the route in its entirety down to Crewe for the benefit of the game and then go their separate ways. All Aboard Studios then go off and do their own thing separately, and ATS goes their way and does theirs, respectfully. (And in terms of ATS it seems their content will be exclusively TSC after this route is released).

 

I’d be leaving this for a year or so in the future while on sale, not a day one purchase. I think Manchester Airport needs more variety - there’s a big gap of rolling stock that takes immersion away for me. Sadly we don’t have any Northern/TfW CAF stock or TPE stock to layer in.

Not taking anything away from ATS as the teaser pics do look very good.

 

I hear you Chris regarding the stock, perhaps though that they are going to set it a few years ago and thus aside from the 323 could use reskinned 150/2s & 142s for Northern services, 350s for TPE and the 158 for ATW/TFW. I do have a sinking feeling however that they may have already shot that idea down, still if they have at least there is hope someone else will go and do it

 

Full article here

• Release date is July 1st
  
• Price is £24.99/€29.99/$29.99
• If you have Glossop you get 20% for the first two weeks after launch
• Class 323 and DB66 with FKA wagons
• Two timetables: Weekday & Sunday
  
• Layers include 350, 390, EMR158, SR158, 87, RHTT, TfW150 & TfW153
• Preview stream today (19th June) at 19:00BST & another on the day before release

First look video:

 

Pleased you get a discount with Glossop - that's really impressive IMO, and personally (once the core bugs are fixed) would make me comfortable buying it and not feel like I was double paying for the 323.

 

Price is okay with the discount plus two weeks gives a bit of wiggle room for the Day One purchasers to post their thoughts and help making an informed decision.

Still electric bus stop though.

 

Ok, maybe not - it's Steam only:

I have no idea of the practicalities of this, but it's a shame that existing players can't be given like a coupon code for a discount on it on their platform by DTG upon production of evidence that they have glossop

 

Steam only for the discount.

Shocker.

 

Very well-modelled route, so fair play to ATS. However, not enough realistic layers for me so probably skipping this one.

 

Did I read somewhere that the 323 gets the suspension update, or did I make that up?

 

The 20% discount may just have swung it for me to purchase but I'll still keep an eye on reviews before delving in on the last chance at 20%.

I won't have the 150&153 layering in though as I'm still waiting for a 60%+ sale on the Cardiff route and I am prepared to wait a long time until it does reduce that much

 

Same thoughts here, on both the ATS route and Cardiff City.

 

Is this a fast route or slow route.

 

All stations, it is going to be slow and stop/start probably similar to Glossop where there are a few longer gaps between stations you might get up to 60 MPH, but no chance for sustained fast running.

 

Thanks for the info vern appreciate that.

 

Cardiff was one of the most underwhelming routes of 2025 for me, the hype never lived up to the end product. £14.99 I’d bite if the price gets to this point.

 

Route looks excellent, sounds like there's a lot of early morning/late night ECS workings which is good. Like the Frankfurt S-Bahn a choice of 3 routes of sorts. Scenery looks sublime and the price is pretty good too.

I may have to reconsider my puerile ban on any further LMR content until we get an Eastern Region route. I have strong convictions but no will power.

 

Yes it’s going to be a tough one to call particularly coming hot on the heels of the E94 pack and likely only a short time ahead of the Class 86 pack. And nice though it looks, have to seriously question whether I’m going to get even £20 worth of gameplay out of it, or will it join Goblin, Glossop, BCC, Cathcart and the other bus stop routes in the play once in a while if it crops up on my playing card randomiser.

 

Only speaking from experience on the Manchester Airport line, if it's an all shacks stopper then the stations are only 2-3 minutes apart (not counting Piccadilly) however there are services which are non-stop from the Airport to Piccadilly with an admittedly not massive 12 minute path...

I think the runs via Stockport will offer a less "bus service" experience and don't forget that the Pendo and Freight services should layer on too.

 

Mistake in the press release/email…….

Glossop Line was the 2nd route to feature the 323 not the first.

 

If you're on a class 390 service there's opportunity to get up to 110MPH for at least a few miles

 

It is the first to have the Class 323 in Northern livery, which I assume is what they meant.

 

I didn’t even know there was a mailing list lol - is that DTG or linked with Steam?

 

Not sure if anyone else saw the stream on twitch last night, But I thought it actually looked like a really good route and the team were very honest and open about how long it had taken them and the difficulties posed. Whilst it does grow my gears, the 20% discount isn’t being applied to consoles, I will still pick this up on PS5.

 

DTG I think.

 

Cheers for the kind feedback mate much appreciated
Again I must stress we would have loved to have the discount across all platforms but this just isn’t possible

 

Is there a reason why another 66 was included with the route rather than having it as a layer?

 

Having the 66 in means if you just bought MAC you would still be able to run the freight services
Let’s hope we get a new freight loco soon enough

 

Quite looking forward to this, trackside scenery looked phenomenal. Also it's so good seeing realistic speed signs, the default UE4 typeface is horrid. Would DTG and other partners be able to use them on future routes too or would they be exclusive ATS assets?

 

Hi acro very pleased your liked what you saw
We did aim to make the trackside detail as good as we could
As for the usage of assets in other routes that is something we are always happy to discuss with any developer if they wished
Cheers

 

Anyone had a link to the stream please?

 

Www.twitch.tv/alanthomsonsim
Ignore the thermal events hahahah

 

Do you think there could be any scope for DTG to bo a bundle deal with this and Cardiff? Seems unlikely as I cant recall them doing anything like this in the past but I now want that route ahead of getting this just for the layers

 

I'm curious now Alan Thomson - did something catch fire?

 

Hahaha no just a very hot computer causing a few errors whilst streaming the route it wouldn’t be a ATS first look without something bad happening either a dump or crash is all part of the fun

 

That’s not something we have discussed sorry mate

 

Thanks,

it looks amazing, cant wait to add it to my collection!! Well done to the team!

 

Watched the stream earlier this morning, highly impressed by what I saw. Definitely going to be a day one purchase from me, especially loved all the focus on trackside scenery and the stations.

Alan, seeing as you have it in your display picture. Any chance of an APT for WCML Shap at some point? Pretty please?

 

The fact that you chose to stream on one of the hottest days of the year speaks volumes.
I hope you didn’t run out of beers

 

In all honesty, I was skeptical about the route with it “only” going as far as Alderley Edge, and with it having no new stock. Especially as it could’ve had the usual £30 price tag, but after seeing the stream it’s abundant how much effort has gone into the route. Plus it being only ~£20 on release (for me at least) is a massive increase in value for money compared to… other offerings imo.

The biggest takeaway from the stream was that there was just something that made the route sparkle, whether it was the texturing, lighting, detail or something else, I don’t know; I don’t want to say photorealistic, but a big step away from the “plasticky” look that some TSW routes have.

All in all, I’m properly looking forward to this.

 

Despite the TT being 2018, I appreciate that the scenery is at least to todays representation.

 

Yes please Alan. You know you want to!

 

So I watched a bit of the stream, only the first run from Piccadilly to the Airport and thought I'd share my opinion as someone who is on that line commuting to the airport for work daily.

First, a few issues I spotted;

The starting point at Picc P13 is incorrect, services which are stopping to pick up passengers use the "London end" of 13, in the BR days they did of course use both sections. Also departing from P13 the train shouldn't cross over to DF and back over at Ardwick Jn but instead just stays on the right.

The platform allocations at the airport are wrong, Crewe to Piccadilly services use P4 with the reverse service using P2, Lime Street services go from P1, TPE use P2 & P3, TFW use P4 (though the first train of the day uses P2), Barrow/Windermere use P3, Blackpool is the odd one out and uses P1 and P4 depending on how a butterfly flaps it's wings that day.

The aircraft is also too high coming in over Heald Green.

None of those are game breaking, especially so with the high aircraft but they are little niggles for someone who is on the route daily so spots the little things.

Now for the good,
Well it did look very good, I particularly liked the detail approaching the airport where the long removed spur for the construction of the second runway is full of clutter. I could easily recognise where we were from the view outside because of what I could see rather than what I couldn't which is always a big plus

The detail of the intermediate stations as very good.

I fully understand ATS reason behind setting the timetable in 2018, the route mostly being the domain of TSW available traction and except for the odd nit-picker they are not really going to notice things being present from the "modern" era being included in a slightly backdated timetable. As ATS said in the stream there is potential for folks to use the creators club to fill in some traction issues. The route being built to the current date does of course provide opportunity for someone to develop the 195, 179 or TPE stock as well to feature under a new separate timetable.

Personally I am hoping that someone does something along the lines of the WCMLS "enhancement pack" which to be fair given the detail in this might not need much if any enhancing, but to offer a "new" timetable which will have the appropriately re-skinned rolling stock. To go one further I genuinely hope and pray that someone is able to offer a mid-90s timetable with appropriate re-skins given that could include the 101,142,150,158,323,31,37, HST, 47,86 & 87 but let's not get ahead of ourselves

I genuinely was impressed, throw in that little discount for already owning the Glossop route and well I'll be buying it

 

l travelled on this line from the 50s to the mid 70s and l am very impressed by the work shown by ATS who have a very small team and l really enjoy the stream with Alan and Hayden.

l my opinion this route looks as good as a JTs route and brings back some wonderful memories and is definitely a first day buy.