All Aboard Studios Route- Crewe To Birmingham New Street.

Yes, looks like an absolute corker, should be out soon by the looks of it!

 

Looks absolutely superb!

I really hope that the physics of the 350 have been improved for once and for all!

 

Johannes from Incredibletrains has done a lot of the city based scenery according to his Insta.

 

All the 350s seem to be unbranded - is this a licensing issue? No doubt the modders will 'sort it'.

 

this is the route I have been waiting for

 

Looks good was kinda hoping for some new rolling stock tho. Unless I missed something.

 

For a first entry into the game it is a pretty impressive piece of work... The 350 subclasses were well needed. And if you already own the relevant layers you'll have a pretty comprehensive amount of rolling stock. I don't know what else they could have added to the route to bulk it out anymore?

This looks like it could be something special...

 

I agree. I'm not too familiar with the UK stuff but Birmingham will finally be properly represented. With the addition of Wolverton ,Stafford, Crewe... and finally getting Soho depot with depot runs........ not to mentioned the other depots...... very impressive!!

 

53 miles with only one train included, which isn't even new (I'm aware of the new liveries and subclasses, it's still doesn't count as a new train in my eyes)
B.N.S was already modelled but I'll agree that making Crewe is a difficult job. On top of that, none of the trains are branded which I understand is not necessarily the Dev's fault but I don't think it's worth it's full price at all. Yes, it's good if you have layered trains that aren't included.

Definitley waiting for a sale on this one or avoiding entirely.

 

Sure they are. Pendolino is branded, as is the voyager. What's the price? I didnt see that

 

£29.99

 

Pendolino and Voyager aren't included; they're layers. Price is mentioned at the bottom of the article Harry posted earlier today; the usual £29.99

 

They are branded but they aren't included. I'm talking about the main, only piece of traction included. The 350

 

What you do with your money is entirely upto you, I'm not here to lecture you about it...

But you do know 350s are the backbone of services? If you already own layers you will get a fully padded out route and AI?

Just my personal perspective, I'm not saying I am right on a subjective matter, but I do think some people are over expectant. AAS have done a 53 mile stretch of track as their first entry into the game, (longer then some flagship routes!), they've taken time and effort into creating the various 350 subclasses (again, WCMLS was shorter and only featured a single subclass!), and they've made a fully functional timetable that allows for layering of other rolling stock which will bulk out the route.

What more could anyone really want from this?! The 390 already exists, the 220 now exists, and the 170, 150, 153, and 323 all layer on... That's pretty darn comprehensive.

The scenary is absolutely smashing too. I don't think I could ask for anymore from a developer to be honest!

 

This is looking great and one of the main reasons i came over from tsc. Going to be a first day purchase as well as the other route jt are working on.

 

Agree. Everyone is entitled to their opinion of course. But it seems that is not enough then is probably time to pack it up . I’m from the US so so we don’t have many options. I wish we had this type of 3pp offering for the US available

 

Are there full end to end runs where you can change the cab and drive back?

 

Hopefully the pendolino can stretch his legs a bit now.

 

Looks decent but from the images provided I have a few nitpicks from the 350.

These camera things shouldn't be there as they weren't on the 350 in 2019; they weren't added until later (and not at all on the /2s)


The number font should be different on the ex-LM /1s, I'm surprised this wasn't correct since they used the correct one for the /2s.


This is what the font should look like.


The red "No Smoking" stickers should only be applied to the /1s, since the /1s were originally built as class 450s for South West Trains and as such use the same no smoking stickers as the 450.

One other thing that's worth noting is the ex-LM 350/1s should be a slightly darker grey compared to the /2s since they retain the original grey undercoat which was first applied to them during the Silverlink days.

Also worth mentioning I'm happy to be corrected if I'm wrong.

I hope these images were work in progress or can be rectified in a future update. Either way it is still a better effort than WCMLS which only gave us 1 variant of the 350.

 

Maybe the more modern features are so that the 350 subclasses can layer onto the new WCMLS timetable coming with the Class 805 add on?

 

You have to pay £9.99 extra to unlock the OHLE unfortunately

 

Yeah that is a fair point. But to me new stock would be nice. Too many new routes are coming with reused stock. The length is decent I'll admit and I do have the layers. I agree with you to an extent. I understand the 350 is the backbone but a 730 for example, would have been nice to see. Or even including the 390 at least so new players don't have to pay an additional (cost of half a route) for AWC services followed by more money on the 805.

 

The cameras are completely inaccurate for the ex-London Midland /1s as they only received them after they were painted in LNWR livery. I don't think the /2s received them at all, though it could be accurate for the /3s in a modern day setting.

 

I'm curious, what did you do gaming wise before Trophies and Achievements were even a thing?

I didn't refuse to play on my NES or Mega Drive because I wasn't awarded some pointless arbitrary reward for achieving something in-game, I played for the joy of it.

 

Yea 390 is DTG so can’t include that. And if they some how where able to players who previously purchased it would probably not be too happy. Unfortunately it’s very hard to please everyone

 

The trackside detail etc looks really good.

 

Is it true DTG stock can't be released along a third party's. I didn't know that. Thanks for the info. Yeah I suppose you never can please anyone. It's just the toxic members on these forums i wish were gone.

 

It’s mostly good. I welcomed these discussions as I think they are good for the game. I think we all would like as much as possible.we just have to remember devs have to be paid and they have to make a profit. This way they have a chance to make more content in the future

 

Thanks for this, I have noted this for our team to look into

 

What a silly comment

 

What did I do? Played outside, touched grass. You know, the usual

 

It’s a shame the 350 isn’t branded, but not AAS’s fault. I hope we get LNWR branding back, for both this and WCMLS

 

As always I appreciate everyone being civil on this thread.
It is why I created it and it worked.
For those who are complaining about no new loco/train. We do with the new Class 350 Variants which are all different. So we do have a new train. But for those saying 'well its the 350'. Right so you think the staff who need to be paid for this route should earn less because of being no brand new train? The detail on this route is amazing and I think everyone should be grateful. This be one of the best detailed modern day routes we will get. Long 1hr run with the Pendolino as well which everyone who will love.
Think about it this way, we are no doubt going to get better routes from AAS.

 

Day one purchase for me. The scenery looks top notch I'm not fussed with no new trains. I don't mind the subclasses of stock. 53 miles for a first time development team is some going as someone else mentioned maybe the modern JT and I am here for it.

 

Generally no. You do have potential for at least one return trip on some service patterns, but the majority have destinations off route.

 

Does everyone understand the Pendolino doesn't actually come with the Class 390 meaning an extra purchase unless you happen to have it. And most wouldn't classify a variant which has a different livery (unbranded through no fault of their own) and no other major differences as a 'New Train'. Though I can see the effort that went into the route, it looks great. It would have been even greater and guaranteed a 1 day purchase for me with new rolling stock.

 

Do you mean the Pendolino doesn't come with this route? Pendo is the 390

 

I’m confused by his post.

 

MAC was easily less value than this proposition, but has been well received & that came with a train we’d already had twice (3 if you count TTC). I don’t think AAS is going to have any real issue with criticism in that regard.

As I said above I’m really looking forward to this & would echo similar comments in saying this is the TSW route I’ve been waiting for. That said, I completely get why some wouldn’t be too interested in a 350 (not the most exciting train) & a straight line AC run. I really despise the way some people on this forum try to take the moral high ground over those who would or would not make a purchase.

This route is going to find its gameplay from all the supporting stock, much the same as MAC. It’s a core section of the WCML, which entails 3 major interchanges (I think in terms of ‘big’ principle stations this will be a TSW record?), but you’re going to need a fair amount of DLC to make it work, making it an expensive proposition.

I suspect this route will be good with just the 350, but it’s going to be a whole other product if you have all the stock & frankly I think the UK in TSW has been longing for these sort of lines to bring them in line with what you get from German content, in terms of traffic & scale. MAC was sort of the starter course & AAS are about to serve up the main.

 

Will the 350 on WCMLS get upgraded?
And will the upcoming 805 be a layer on this route despite being only mentioned to be for a new WCMLS 2024 timetable?

 

With the WCML south, there is a mod that brands the 350s. Now will it carry over to these 350s, is anyone's guess.

 

Sorry yes, my mistake

 

I doubt it as this route is set in 2019

 

How many of the LNWR’s go between Birmingham and Crewe via Stafford, without going via Stoke? Trying to think of a general end to end service pattern / frequency..

 

Will I be able to stand on the bridge at Stableford where I used to watch trains in the 1980s when staying with the Staffordshire branch of my family? It was pretty much a case of spotting which type of blue engine with blue and grey coaches would be along next, but if you were lucky there would be a rare sighting or two of the futuristic-looking APT. Ha, tilting trains, it'll never catch on.

 

Full line runs are currently 2 in each direction per hour (Liverpool Services). I don’t recall if they had the same frequency in 2019 but I assume so.

You’ll have half route runs for things like Crewe > Stafford (Euston) & Wolverhampton > BHM (Walsall) which bolster up the runs on each respective half of the line.

 

Avanti runs some of its Scotland services slower via Birmingham which would also be a full line run. I'm pretty sure Virgin did the same in 2019 as I remember getting a Virgin Voyager around 12 years ago that way.

 

What new rolling stock could have realistically have come with it anyway? Everything that does full length runs is already in the game as far as I’m aware.

 

Yeah they were just asking about LNR. Avanti should be one an hour in each direction. Then you’ll have TFW which I think works out at one train every 2 hours each way.

 

I’m really looking forward to this and likely to be a day one purchase. Obviously we can’t have everything…but a 730 would’ve been great, just to bring the route bang up-to-date.