From this page https://live.dovetailgames.com/live...les/article/join-us-for-festival-of-rail-2026 most of the way down is Train Simulator Classic - Northampton Loop Preview and More on February 9th Join our team for a preview of the upcoming Northampton Loop Add-on, live on our channels in the evening, as well as new details on our upcoming Dutch Route, recreating the line from Hoofdorp to Hilversum, and more!
I noticed that too. Is this a ground-up new one of Northampton Loop or the one ATS have been selling for a year and a bit?
If it is the ATS Northampton Loop - any mention about Quickdrive being added? (I can't see anything in the Festival of Rail post stating its ATS!)
I wouldn’t be happy if I was ATS being left out of the article being mentioned. It is their product at the end of the day and DTG should mention this in the article.
well, they also not mentioned who is producing the dutch route. And from last year its known that this will not a 100% DTG product. As those article is more for TSW stuff and less TSC I assume more details they will bring in the next days or in that preview. Its a classical vague teaser article. Same with this ominous new game (would be surprised if this will at the end not Metro Rivals) But if tit turns out the Loop will be a DTG product then shame on them. Because that is then a wasted time and work into a route already existing.
the loop is the Alan Thompson simulations one. DTG have just failed to state this in the article which if I am honest is pretty bad as credit should be giving to the owners of said product. Have no idea who made the Dutch route.
Why? It's just a one line teaser, not a proper promotion. I don't see any reason to mention the developer at this stage. DTG just want us to prick up our ears and listen properly when they promote it in the future. In any case, until it's actually available to buy from them in the Steam store it's irrelevant who's made it.
i havent bought the Northampton loop from ATS yet. But when that comes out on steam which one do i still buy next?
On the ATS FB page was a comment that the version for Steam would be slightly different to the default ATS version. Currently I believe the ATS version does not have Quick Drive on that section of the route.
It would be interesting to know what has been changed to this route. But in any case, creating a QuickDrive path is really not complicated.
Perhaps - if you know how, I don't - but it seems to me reasonable that a payware product should come with these, and not to have them is a quality failure. I hope DTG puts that right.
Agree with this, but as someone who only played QuickDrives, I was very often disappointed with those that were offered by default. There were often adjustments to be made. What seems even more important to me is including AI traffic for QuickDrives (this is tedious to do manually).
I've only seen the written stuff about this and not the announcement stream but must admit i'm absolutely none the wiser what this Steam version will or won't do. Does it add QD that was supposedly missing from the ATS version? Is it a standalone route or integrated into one or more of the existing adjacent routes? There also doesn't seem to be any mention of 'when' in terms of release.
Hi jus to clear a few bits up The route is an extension to the WCMLS this will add the Northampton loop to the already available WCMLS it includes an updated class 325 with new textures and updated sounds this was sadly not featured in the preview stream and we have asked DTG to look into this asap If you have any other questions please let me know and I will do my best to answer cheers
Thanks for responding. Is quick drive supported? From what i've read it wasn't available on the product at its very first release but I assume this is something that might've been patched since?
Anyone seen or heard of any movement on this? I assumed it'd be a fairly quick win with it being a pre-existing route and that it'd mostly just be a case of just getting it packaged up for Steam.
I'd recommend anyone wishing to purchase this, purchase it from ATS' store direct. It will probably be cheaper and you get all the assets from ATS common included in it. It's a no brainer. (you can get it here). Edit: If anyone is worried about installing it, it gives an installer that will jsut download it straigt to your Railworks directory with no hassle at all.
I disagree. The ATS version has no quick drives and the scenarios need lots of AP DLC. It's possible these will be fixed in a Steam release.
It does not matter where it is purchased as it will come with the required assets. And it will automatically download in to your Railworks Directory if purchased from Steam - with no hassle at all My choice will be based on Cost as both versions should be identical - currently £13.99 on ATS. Yes I can get it cheaper on ATS for £7.99 but with a Subscription for an extra £32.99 A question would be if my Subscription expired would I still be able to download it from ATS if I had to reinstall it?
Normally yes. My subscription expired a long time ago, but I can still download what I got from them back then (the ECML merge for example).
Quick drives are easily editable/makeable. DTG are definitely not going to let ATS use AP stock in the steam release. Northampton Loop has it's own set of assets. However, ATS always include their whole library (excluding newer releases like KC-KL and the Bittern Line) in payware content. I also doubt the Northampton loop will sell for £13.99. I would say it would at least go for £14.99, which, admittedly, is only a £1 saving, but I imagine, like JT products, buying from them directly will just be superior.
The Steam release will likely just use generic stuff from either the existing WCML South (not the worst choice) or completely unrealistic stuff from the UK/US Assets Packs.
A lot of people playing this game don't understand how a Quick Drive scenario works Expecting them to have to sort out what, AFAIK, ATS has not done so far is wrong. And the default scenarios with WCML-South don't use AP stock - why should this add-on be different?
