Mnr New Haven Is A Masterpiece

As a New Yorker, a daily LIRR rider, and an occasional Metro North ("MNR") rider, I have to say MNR New Haven is an incredible piece of work and deserves accolades and praise from both sides of the Atlantic. As a longtime TSW player, I remember standing on the in-game New Rochelle station (on the original NEC), longing for tracks going further north. Dovetail has delivered, and realized that dream.

The M8 is incredibly well designed and built, the physics are realistic and fun - adding to the immersion - and the stations are beautiful. Some of the smaller details really stick out, such as the real-world Cubic fare machines, the NYCT Help Points (NYCT...Dovetail, are you trying to tell us something ), and the station entrances, exits, and surrounding scenery. On that note, I have to give a special shoutout to Larchmont - the team NAILED it, modeling the stairs to the attached parking deck, the platform-level cafe on the Southbound side, and the position next to I-95.

Sounds are incredible - the horns blowing on AI services as they enter stations is a REALLY nice touch. Truly, it's the little things. As far as the bigger things - Amtrak through the Bronx, over the Hell Gate, and down into the East River tunnels - the team has, yet again, gone above and beyond.

Take it from a detail-oriented, devout railfan, "picky" (as the GCT detail makes reference to) New Yorker, I give my deepest thanks to DTG for this beautiful piece of work. Keep up the great performance!!

 

Agreed. DTG is due criticism when they miss the mark and that happens with rushed releases but this is a quality release. There are few items to fix with release patches but overall it’s amazingly solid.

Vectors release was beautifully done as well for
The Czech route.


Again I agree this one deserves praise and acknowledgment.

 

I wouldn't call it a masterpiece but having gone in with kinda mid-low expectations I was pleasantly surprised when I did my first run with the M8. Besides a few nitpicks I think it's pretty decent.

 

Thank you DTG! The USA has been kind of shortchanged in the recent past, and this makes up for a lot. I was expecting an "okay" route like Morristown or Boston-Worcester, but this is far, far better.

 

No need for that kind of language.

 

far, far better

I'm guessing this is far, far better to you

 

Because instead of shouting swears and trashing the product, you could give actual constructive criticism on it and moreover be mature.

 

I certainly don't think the route is a masterpiece given what Ive seen of it hence why I didn't buy it and I use this line in real life. Why not give some constructive criticism as to why you think the route isn't great

 

If you dont have anything nice to say or you keep swearing maybe you should just shut up yourself. Everyone is entitled to there own opinions. And you dont need to be nasty about it.

 

I wouldn't call it a masterpiece if people are having bugs with the route, on top of other various issues.

And early reviews are currently mixed for the route....

 

It's odd that when someone starts a positive thread certain forum members decide that, that shouldn't stand.

I haven't bought it yet as my money this month will be going on the class 90 and MVL, but in the most part I liked what I saw and will be getting it when I can.

If someone who uses the line is impressed with It then that says a lot.

Frankly if all you can do is resort to swearing and insulting other members then whatever argument you have is irrelevant as far as I'm concerned and you probably don't really have one. It also says much about you as a person.

 

Thats a few posts now where you've not really been constructive. This picture is not representative of release build. Telling people to shut up firstly isn't nice but also makes your posts self devalue

 

Same as you i will buy it at one point but the MVL is what i am waiting for first

 

Probably my second favorite US route at the moment it’s making crave an New Canaan or New H avenue expansion I’m really thankful and happy DTG made this route especially as a New Yorker it has a few issues here and there but those will be fixed 8.5/10

 

The gameplay is mostly fine except for the services going off path. Scenery issues are the biggest black mark against the route, unfortunately.

 

I agree with OP! It's a great route if you enjoy NYC railroading.

Couple of bugs here and there but that's TSW for you lol

Kinda wish they were able to include the Harlem run up to NWP but that might have melted the dispatcher even further.

+1 for the section from Stamford-New Haven and New Canaan to be added to the game in the future

 

I had a good first few runs last night: outbound on an M8, inbound on a ACS64. Quite enjoyable other than the five penalty applications I had in the M8 (I avoided any in the ACS64).

Just something I need to get the hang of, but it seems like you get very little warning on the M8, and like the train was expecting me to be slower than was was showing up on the route monitor? I kept getting caught by 45MPH signal speed limits.

Something I’ll need to read up on and practice...does anyone have a link to a good overview / guide? I find the M9 on Long Island much more forgiving…or maybe I’m just rusty.

 

New
I also liked the route, the M8 which is well modeled and has good sounds.

The route has some minor issues that can be resolved with future patches, but I can play it without problems.

Thanks to cActUsjUiCe for pointing it out, to MAX1319, who also participated in the development of the route and who is having to be patient with the haters, and to the other participants in the development of this route.

 

Including pretty much everything to do with the SD40-2, which I doubt will be fixed...

 

I watched the live stream last night and I was impressed with what I saw. That won’t translate into a purchase for a while because I’m skint but it’s gone in high up on the sale purchases list for sure.

 

I’m in total awe at his how busy this route is. There is constant trains passing by throughout the entire route. Now if only every route could be like this….

I love this route. The scenery is good too. By far my favourite US route out of everything we have so far for American content. Good job on this one. Only thing I would say is it would be nice to have an extension up to New Haven in the future. It would great for the Acela. Fingers crossed.

 

yeahhhh, except for the fact that the route is cut in half, ending in stamford when it should go all the way to new haven
also, for the price charged, they should consider extending it to new haven (similar to what is being done with the mildmay line being extended to richmond)

 

Are you talking about full penalty braking (like an emergency brake), or the ATC auto brake application? If it's the latter, it's behaving as intended- just like on LIRR2 as long as you acknowledge the speed reduction, the brakes will slow you down to the new limit and then release.

Regarding the signal speed limits, they do tend to follow a pattern, so if you see a 45 it will likely be followed by a 30, a 15, and then a stop. If you're using the track monitor, any yellows will be a reduction to at least 45 so you can brake in advance if you don't wanna deal with ATC (you still have to acknowledge the reduction though).

Edit: forgot to mention in all cases a lower track speed limit will overrule the signal speed limit.

 

I never did get an answer from the Q&A posts: Did they actually end up modeling the Oak Point Link?

 

With how scenery Dense, the entire route is ending it at Stamford was probably a smart decision, but I wouldn’t never mind an extension to New Haven and I wouldn’t have mind paying more

 

To each their own, my friend. Have yourself a great day!

 

Thanks, that’s a good question! I definitely had at least one penalty brake, but I completely forgot about ATC slowing the train down in a non-penalty way when speed limit drop (told ya I was rusty!) so I would guess a lot of the beeping I heard was actually that. I’ll do another run today with that in mind. Much appreciate the response and help.

 

I'm personally a bit mixed on the route given that I have been around the New York-New Haven sections a bunch of times on MNR and Amtrak, I know the obvious thing everyone is likely gonna question is the route length given that New York-New Haven was one of the first American routes on TSC, I would've liked it here on TSW, or at least the Caanan Branch would been interesting. The ATC and ACSES I don't mind but driving on the M8 even after putting on say max brake for the track speed obviously penalizes me and that just annoys me for my no HUD experience, but I personally think that for the non NEC player they wont enjoy this route as much tbh. I'm also mixed on the audio, shoutout Fan Railer I know these are his sounds based on the horn for example but there are some instances where when the door is closed behind I can still hear the horn as if the door was opened? Given the price tag I probably would rate it a 6.

 

I have to say this route is really good. There are some issues with scenery and some missing overhead wires in small sections. Overall its a great addition to TSW. Just wish they went all the way to New Haven as they did in Classic or added the New Canaan branch.

 

It's odd that when someone starts a positive thread, certain forum members can't seem to grapse the simple understanding that not everyone is going to have that view and act like all positive threads should be just be positive with no criticisms whatsoever

 

I find ATC a lot more forgiving, any time ACSES is visible in the hud and there's a change is emergency brake city, no matter how fast I slam on the brakes to 100 and hammer the acknowledge button, it's never enough.

At least on LIRR there are only a handful of places the systems trip and apply an emergency brake and I was able to memorise in advance when and where to slow down and to what speed to avoid it catching me when there's a sudden drop with no warning.
Here it happens almost constantly out of the blue with a track speed of 70 suddenly receiving a bump to a signal speed of 30 with no notice or time to apply the brakes.

I am sure given enough time I will be able to memorise where to expect it and run slower, I did on LIRR. It's overall a very nice route, so I am willing to be patient.

 

I believe it was answered on the stream and it’s not. You will see AI freight but it’s not playable. Do you take over the last stretch going into oak point around Harlem yard

 

Thank you for your feedback. The missing wires are known and hope to get those in a future patch

 

There are also places where the wires do weird things.

 

thank you for your detailed feedback on Stamford. The team worked very hard on this route. This by far was the most time consuming I have ever done as a beta tester on any route. We really try to represent as best we could. We provide so many details , feedbacks , and suggestions, I believe the amount of reports filed to get this route to a level we felt needed to be has to be one of the most ever done by beta . I’m not going to sugar coat it and say we hit all the marks. We know that there’s is room for improvement. When it comes to having the busiest US route ever with great game play and some of the best track side scenery on any us route, I have to say very proud of what was accomplished on Stamford.

 

this route has many speed changes, true. Eventually if you practice the route enough, you pick up on the speed change locations and it does become a bit easier and very rewarding.

 

If people want to slate and moan about everything produced by dtg, why on earth do they buy TSW

 

Thanks for the answer, although it is a bit disappointing. It seems strange they would model the yard, and model the Hudson up to the Stadium, but not fill in the gap to High Bridge and include the Link.

I'm gonna chalk it up to system limitations, but it just feels like a real missed opportunity for some low-hanging fruit.

I think I may wait for a sale on this one. The TSC Hudson and New Haven Lines still hold up, and do a far better job than what I've seen of this so far.

 

Could you please share with us your version of New Haven, coz we got some offcut to Stamford.

 

Yeeeeeah, just more than double the length of the route. No biggie! Get it done over the weekend

 

I recently noticed an issue with Train Service 1244 to Harrison from GCT. When the service gets to Harrison, it will sit there for 15 mins. Before it will continue its service back to GCT. I found this out when I tried to continue the service, and it said the service starts at 1705 when I ended the previous service at 1645.

 

I do hope that when textures and memory get figured out, we’d get an extension to New Haven. But that is so much scenery and another hour and a half of track. GCT to New Haven is 2:30 hours. It’s between 1:30 and 2 from NYP I believe. I usually hit my limit around the hour mark personally, but just thinking of all the scenery an traffic, it would be great to have but it’s a lot.

I do hope with the AI horns put into play here, they get added into Morristown, NEC, and the Boston based ones too. AI horns and bells are the one thing that I felt was truly missing in the ambiance for the NEC based routes.

Just keep the horn away for the new Acela. That thing is so bad and makes me miss the old Acela horns that would blast through my home station when it was running at 150 mph!

 

I'm just hoping that the intrepid modder that got rid of ACSES from LIRR2 can also do the same for the M8.

Edit: https://www.trainsimcommunity.com/m...es/i7495-nyc-stamford-safety-systems-disabler it exists.

 

That was modelled for the Harlem line.

 

I'm not sure why you removed so much context from my post, but that's not the point I'm trying to make.

Unlike the Harlem DLC, where freight realistically didn't play a role and having the Yankees Station for game day trains was fine, one of the major selling points of the Stamford DLC is freight. High Bridge Yard and the northern access point to the Oak Point Link is only about a mile up the line from Yankees.


You physically cross over it and see it as you cross the Park Avenue lift bridge over the East River to/from Manhattan.



It just really feels like either laziness, a misunderstanding of the area railroad geography, or a fear of TSW's limitations being unable to handle the additional track and trains on DTG's end (I'm leaning towards a combination of the three, but I digress.) Regardless, we're not talking a huge extension here. The Oak Point Link itself is only two miles, plus the small bit to High Bridge on the Hudson, which in itself is a pretty small yard similar to North White Plains and Southeast. The Link in game is physically there for a scenery asset, what would it have taken to make it playable? Especially when its southern point is, and the northern point is damn close. You'd be giving players a little extra bang for their buck, would be simulating a pretty cool and unique part of NYC railroading, and even open up extra yard movements for Metro-North trains.

 

Definitely a great post QNS-Chris. I too am a Local Metro North commuter, primarily on the Hudson line with the occasional rides on the Harlem/New Haven line. There is so many positives to this route. I hope I am not going off on a tangent but I definitely want to thank DTG, Rivet, Cactusjuice and all the developers and beta testers involved with the NY-Stamford route for their hard work and effort on the NY-Stamford route. In my opinion, this is the highest quality USA route that we have to date for TSW. I am amazed that we have both levels of Grand Central Terminal featured, with the complex NY-Penn Station/West side yard nearby running at a smooth frame rate. The updates that were done to the layered trains (CSX SD40, M3A, M7A, ACS-64, Amfleets and Acela) are definitely a warm welcome and the Metro North M8 is superb. I really like how it operates, sounds, especially the horn and announcements. The scenery overhaul along the Harlem/Hudson portions of this route came out really great and the run up from NY-Stamford as a whole across the Amtrak's NEC and Metro North's New Haven Line is amazing. The city skyline, and the revamped Penn Station with the inclusion of various Platform announcements and AI train horns at various times all fits superbly on this route There are so many scenery details in this route and I am really impressed with how the devs were able to build it in a way where it runs very smooth. This definitely should be the standard for routes going forward for TSW. I definitely look forward to what future patches for the NY-Stamford route will introduce and can't wait for the next set of USA routes. With how well this route did, I really hope at some point we can see a potential extension up to New Haven, as well as the Hudson Line and a Harlem line remaster. I definitely look forward to running many services on the NY-Stamford route and enjoying all of it's features and upgrades. I give this route a 10/10

 

I cannot believe that they let off one of the most iconic parts to the NY-Stamford route, what a travesty!

Where is the WWE logo on the office block adjacent the station! ...This route now needs a remaster to include it!

 

Remember,this route is set in 2015 which is well before this

 

The route is based in 2015. WWE HQ was at 1421 East Main Street then not across from the station. They didn't move there until 2023.

 

I keep forgetting that this is a 2015 Time period ..

Also to the developers, thank you, despite some of the noise, I for one am loving this route, and hope that you are planning the next new USA DLC, "cough" Hudson line "cough" "cough"...

I know this is quite a quirk but I've also been doing my start and finish runs on the Harlem section before switching to/from that DLC to/from white plains, cant run the full length Harlem anymore thanks to this new route/upgrade