I’m a player who prefers passenger commuter services, rather than doing shunting, loading/unloading yard work. I want that to change though, this game has a lot to offer and I’m missing out on all its glory. When it comes to UK routes I own them all for TSW, but identifying good freight services from the bunch will be tricky for me, coming from a chap who rarely touches freight. Any recommendations? Cheers.
I would Preston to carlisle lot off variety shunting freight jobs and tees valley and wcml both off them.
Depends on which era you prefer 1950/1960s peak forest with the F4 and F8 1970s Clinchfield with the F7 1980s Tess valley with class 08, 20, 31 and 37 (honestly all our great on the route) Blackpool branches with the 08, 31, 40 and 47) Preston to Carlisle with the 08, 37 40, 47 and 87 modern Rivera with the class 66 on clay or nuclear
Tees Valley or Preston - Carlisle if you want longer runs, although the latter needs a lot of layers to be good.
Thanks for the feedback. I do like the Preston to Carlisle route a lot so I might try that. TVL and NTP would be great for freight too no doubt, but they’re showing their age now. On console anyways, can’t speak for PC.
Where? There is some nice shunting, but for freight there are either mainline runs, or pointless little depot moves.
There’s different services for the multiple class 08 versions on the route, some on normal passenger shunting, the white class 08 is limestone shunting, the others have TEA, HEA and more wagons
TVL probably best, followed by Preston to Carlisle. Maybe NTP a bit. Most modern routes the freight is an afterthought and consists of A to B runs with the dreary Class 66.
For older routes, I'd recommend North Transpennine. If you have all the DLCs layered for it you can drive heavy oil tanker trains which can be great fun with the inclines.
Here’s all class 08 and 09 services Preston to Carlisle Class 08 BRB type A: pilot shunting and freight shunting and delivery via Carlisle trip working parts (PCA, TEA, HEA, seacows, goods vans) Class 08 744: just light loco moves Class 08 type B: same as type A Class 08 type C: same as type A Class 08 type C weathered: limestone shunting Class 08 type D: same as the other 3 Blackpool branches Class 08 744: shunting coaches (Preston side) Class 08 BLU Crewe: shunting coaches (Blackpool north side) west Cornwall local (Tess valley and northern trans pennine needed) Class 08: all loco releases Tess valley Class 08: depot moves, forming and Marshalling steel and coke wagons northern trans pennine (br heavy freight pack) Class 08: van moves, coach collecting and light loco moves great western express via the diesels of the great western pack Class 08: coach collecting, coach shunting, TEA shunting and light loco moves west Somerset railway (needs heavy freight pack) Class 08: empty stock moves, 4 full runs of line and a few light loco run class 09 is the same as the 08 (two extra via the steam gala both empty stock moves) riviera line Class 08 (all A to D types): depot moves and coach shunting I might added the other br locomotives and the …66 if people want it
I quite like the freight jobs on Brighton Mainline. Forget the name of it but there’s that’s little freight spur about halfway along it which is used for some fun jobs.
Depends on what you like in a route. A lot of routes have people hating on the route, meaning they're already biased against it, even if it has decent freight. Tees Valley for example has good freight but it's not up to modern TOD4 standards. Neither is NTP. WCL has some fun mail runs, but again people attack it because of the era and creator. SOS/PFR are okay but depends on you liking steam since they forgot to add in any early diesel in the timetable. TSW hasn't had a lot of freight in the UK for a few years now so for new stuff, it's "passenger lines and a couple freight runs to pretend it's a mixed route." Nothing oriented towards freight or done well. Riviera isn't bad. Not the most, and still very much "passenger with some freight sprinkled in haphazard" but it's a new and flashy route to run on at least. Shap SHOULD be good for freight but it's just short hops and on/off the line stuff which is pointless. Two caveats. I am looking forward to the promised Crewe-Preston but that should FOCUS on freight moves and shunting (finger crossed) There's also the Skyhook freight packs that add more to existing routes. They're not in general the best routes for freight (MML for example which is very short and straight) but it's something. It adds a few long runs to Shap for example so you can actually do something beyond a 3-mile hop.
People have to realise that freight does not take up a lot of the timetable, barely takes up any space at all. That's why there aren't many services on many routes. There have also been like 5 Cargo Volumes in the last few months / year.
The vast majority of Railways in the UK are Passenger lines with barely a handful of long distance freight only lines. That's a major factor as well
To be fair, the UK doesn't need as much freight since it's so small. You can just take a truck from one side to the other in a couple hours. It'd take more time to load a 12,000 ton train than it does to just drive it. So most of what you'd see in the UK would be more "site to site" or containers from ports (which is also basically site to site in a way) For example coal to a power plant direct. In the US and Continental Europe it's much more long distance and exchanges. However, we don't have much of that point to point either and the sidings usually sit unused. I sure hope the "industrial corridor" in Preston-Crewe will remedy that. Or updates on the TVL and NTP to modern standards. They're fun but the lighting is so dark.... looks very dated.
Does NTP (not the route in game, but the line irl) basically go from West to East coast? That could be a good conduit for moving from the West to East coasts when they run out of WCML stuff to do. Once we're back on the ECML, it'd be a good chance to update TVL. Given they're 80s routes, I think they'd slot in nicely with a push by JT for that BR era towards the East Coast. Just guessing. For now I'll run them as is. There's something charming about the little 20 chugging along. The problem is that while their stuff layers on other routes, not much layers onto those routes FROM others.
Picked up the Vol.4: Military cargo add-on. It works on the Preston to Carlisle route, plus on the GWR v1 & remaster. Lots of 2-3 hours TT freight services if endurance is your kind of thing.
Any of them are good. The only one I avoid is Intermodal. The routes for it (WCMLS and ECML) are just lame. Personal choice. Your mileage may vary, but I find those two to be among the two most boring routes in the game, combined with the most boring rolling stock. "Oh look it's a square going in basically a straight, short line" I'd recommend all the other packs though. Definitely positive additions to the game that can give some more like to the other routes.
Lack of variety and design. Again, it's fine if other people like them. Just like other people love common shelled EMUs that seem very boring design wise to me. Different styles for different people.
I ain't no train expert but I thought an intermodal was just a container train. So what would be the variety and design change on that. You got me interested now.
