Route Birmingham - Crewe Feedback Thread

Vern, have you seen enough yet to make an overall assessment of the route. Is it a " buy " or a " wait and see "?

I'm still on the fence.

 

Come crosstie join us and pay to be a beta tester with me and vern. Lol

 

I'm one who's not anxious to subscribe to discord. I spend more than enough time on this forum already.

My concern is that we on the forum are missing useful information because DTG appears to be planning to move their main news outlet to discord.

 

They apparently have post quite a bit on discord.

 

There was definitely information on the DTG discord channel that didn't get put on the forum. I put a few screenshots over on the forum from the discord channel.

 

I will have a better idea later on today or tomorrow after a bit more play,

My hot take remains that the route and 3D modelling is superb (apart from going crazy with the vegetation).
Where the ball seems to have been dropped is setting up the 350 variants and of course the timetable.
I don’t know why I had the derailment at Smethwick particularly as it didn’t repeat and not sure if spawning to a location other than the train you selected to drive, is more of a core issue.

Sadly it seems we won’t get any more direct feedback on here about the issues and I for one am not joining Discord. This is the official TSW product forum and should receive equal attention from DTG and 3Ps.

 

Platform: PS5

I seemed to encounter the AI SPAD issue on 9Y06: Liverpool Lime Street to London Euston, towards the end of the hour long service. I was not able to verify the cause or troubleshoot it because the game crashes when attempting to load my save. Very frustrating! Has anyone determined if disabling layers prevents the AI SPADs? Or even better, has anyone pinpointed the violating trains and deleted them to see if the services can be completed that way?

I am also experiencing a lot of blurred textures in the cab. Once they blur, they remained blurred and never crisp up like they’re supposed to.

For the devs, here is a summary of issues affecting me as PS5 player:

AI SPADs
Blurred textures
Crashing when attempting the Class 350 Tutorial
Crashing when loading saves
Scenario “Contingency Measures” cannot be completed

If these things can be fixed, this has the potential to be a fun route!

 

I hope they fix the station announcements as it doesn't mention the destination it is going to it only mentions where it is stopping at. For example a service going to Edinburgh it only announces Wolverhampton, Stafford, Crewe etc and not where it is going.

 

If you turn off all layers and go with 350, then you turn on the layer of that loco again, i.e. you turn on the Main service layer, because you definitely noticed that you met another 350 train ..... from what I noticed, this is how it works in TSW in general, so when you try with other trains, you re-activate the layer with that train ..... and then other trains of that line run there, controlled by AI. Yes, this confirms what we found out a few days ago, when the Main services layer is turned off, the blurring is minimal or none ........

 

It was also mentioned for PS5.
Still incorrectly stated in this ‘official’ post.
https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/wcml-birmingham-crewe-ps5-build-update.94806/

 

So close this time got crewe station and crashed 66 yards before i stopped. So annoying lol. Getting fed ip off these ai do spads

 

Ooh ok all this build numbers and what we should be on so confusing

 

Really loving this route. Annoyed tho that Oxley Car Depot can't be full for whatever reason. Its nice when you see Oxley full of 390s.

 

Just did 9S97 from Birmingham to Crewe and have to report I am quite zenned out. Lovely run in the 390, no drama or crisis to report. Only issue, which I think may already have been logged, is the Stafford station announcements can still be heard up to about 3 or 4 miles north of the station.

Can't comment on the scenery north of Wolverhampton as despite picking to do the run in August so as to enjoy a twilight journey, TSW decided it was already dark by about 1930.

Yes there are many issues that need to be sorted and the route or rather the things that make it work need mucho extra polish. But hey, this really felt like the mid section of the WCML with the original style catenary flashing by. It's a route I will be playing a lot and working into my Monthly Mastery campaigns.

So I know you're not commenting publicly on the forums Kezz but I think at least some of my earlier scepticism was unfounded. Buy yourself and the rest of the team a virtual pint. And hurry up with the next instalment from Stafford to Milton Keynes (and a nice Class 304 or 310 EMU, too).

 

Still unplayable on PS5. First Service from Birmingham to Crewe the Textures went out after 3 mins. Second Service the Textures even went out while still at Birmingham and then the Game crashed. Deleted the route and waiting for a proper Update

 

You say, you're coming to Crewe and AI SPAD to end it for you? What time is it? Isn't it one of the times I identified?

 

Anyone else get an AI SPAD on job 1u49 right at the end of the job.

 

Starting from Crewe P5 in the Up direction, the speed limit is shown as 60 MPH which is patently wrong as you are immediately on to a 20 returning to the Up Fast from the loop.

No announcements audible at Crewe.

The station PIS at Crewe uses a rather blocky and jagged font. Also trains underneath the first one do not specify second or third.

Bridge reverb needs another pass. It's definitely there between Birmingham and Wolverhampton but seems absent between Wolves and Crewe and in the New Street tunnel.

Edit: Oh yes and trying to load into the Class 86 Railtour at New Street, dropped me on foot in the middle of nowhere.

Edit 2: Might have spotted a couple of misplaced OHLE gantries just south of Penkridge.

 

It be nice if Smethwick Galton Bridge P1 and P3 platforms had trains. But then I guess it wouldn’t be realistic. Not sure tho.
Have seen some missing OHLE as well.

 

Just after this signal

 

Why not aren’t those platforms for trains to/from Birmingham Moor street towards Stourbridge Junction.

We have Avanti passing Lichfield Trent valley lower platforms.

 

1. how do you open an account on discord?
2. Is anyone else getting missing coaches on virgin class 390 's ai?

 

Played 5 services today, 2 of them aided AI SPADs. How this was green lit is beyond me…

I’ve noticed a lot of AI SPADs seem to be happening around the 16-17 hour mark in the day so avoid evening rush hour services (for now)!

 

I kind of came to the same conclusion, there must be one(or more) service that spads in the early evening.
i had it on 1O28, about 10 minutes in , thats 18:15

 

These are relatively minor compared to the texture/SPAD issues but noticed that there’s no background sound in some parts of New Street and Oxley Depot.

 

Because no 172s. Although there was a limited amount of services that ran 170+153 so as those are already layered it is a bit odd not to include those.

 

AI Spad just after leaving New Street on 9S44 (I think) Pendo service. It's a full length run around 6.15/6.30pm mark.
9M60 Pendo run also has the Pendo formation mixed up with 1st class at the wrong end

 

OldVern, know that you are a retired British Rail employee, but I am looking at the Crewe Diagram at RailCam.uk and it shows 60 as the speed on platforms 5 and 6 through the station. Now I understand that your train is faced with an immediate reduction to 20 at switch which takes track 5 back into the up fast. But I feel that the designer is picking up on vmax right at the platform and before. This is where, as you know, route knowledge is important.

 

I stand corrected! The LM sectional appendix was one I never succeeded in acquiring before retirement.

 

OldVern, you can download PDF copies of the sectional appendices from here: https://www.networkrail.co.uk/indus...ators/national-electronic-sectional-appendix/ . I don't know how up to date they are, though, or how they differ from what you can access as an employee.