I purchased this route last night and did a couple of services in the 153. Great first impressions, my first trip was Penarth to Coryton on a sunny spring morning, the sunrise and shadows made it particularly atmospheric. I have never traveled on the network in real life but it was still fun to explore. Cardiff Central seems busy with lots of traffic but I think it needs more passengers. Loved seeing the Millennium stadium dominating the horizon as you approached the junction in to Cardiff central. There's a few glitches I noticed but on the feedback thread it seems they have been acknowledged and will be fixed soon.
Simply put it is the wrong livery. Other operators have other liveries, other cabs, other interiors. This is why you don't see east midlands 158's at Glasgow Central and LNER azuma trains at London Paddington. There would need to be a complete interior and exterior overall per operator depending on the differences from TOC to TOC. It's effectively a waste of time and money without a proper route to run it on. For example it you want a GWR 150, just wait for another GWR route to come out. It'll almost certainly happen. Same if you want northern or ScotRail if it's the 153 your after. But if your that desperate creators club exists where you can get these liveries and scenarios to match. Sure the Interior won't be the same but it's a temporary fix til such a time that these liveries are released in a full route/timetable.
Well we have got 2 + 4 GW HST's masquerading on Glasgow to Edinburgh, so the artistic licence has precedent.
This is just another symptom of having everything set in the Modern day. The UK content as whole would be much more alive if even half of it was set back in Sectorisation era’s. That being said, if we’re continuing to get reused stock, it would be nice to at least get 1 other ToC variant along with it. The 150/2 alone was so poor the first time around & hasn’t exactly made leaps & bounds with CCN, there isn’t so much value in it they couldn’t have added one other livery & interior.
I think game designers need to make pragmatic choices. I'd rather have a Regional Railways or NR white 153 on the Midland timetable rather than nothing at all. People can always switch them off if they don't like them. I don't worry about the wrong shade of seat colour when I'm driving a train and, in any case, 153s have moved around so much they often carried the livery of their former franchise for a long time after moving operators. Some 153s carried Regional Railways livery into the 21st century. But I agree about Sectorisation - circa 1991 provides a small number of operators but a huge range of liveries, most of which could appear almost anywhere!
Blackpool and Carlisle seem to be just about the most discussed routes on here. Someone must be buying them... I suspect the truth is that historic routes need much more research to get right. For today's railways you just have to look out of the window... It's all about the bottom line and margins.
Fair point. Although I don't agree with that. But to be fair, that did happen for a brief period at least at depots. As aposed to TFW 150s
I think TSW had a lot less players in its early days when it released its BR era content... Given the success and huge progress the game has made since those early days, and the amount of new players, if DTG developed a new BR route in house it could be a HUGE success. But to match the reception of JTs releases, make quality a priority. JT have made a success of it because of the love that goes into a route... Might I make a suggestion, BR Mk1 slam door electrics on the SWML or SEML? The sound packs and reference material already exist... One thing DTG should learn from Cardiff Valley. Keep developments in house and do not outsource work if you're putting you name on a route that doesn't excel or match the quality of your own previous in-house developed content. I don't think anyone cares about outsourcing arrangements, but what they clearly do care about is content matching the standards that are possible and other developers have set a benchmark with. DTG developed the GOBLIN? To the back track into the barely mediocre content we presently have with this add on... (Well in my opinion).
We have 171 years of railway history, pre-privatisation fiasco. All DTG can do is concentrate on the worst era in UK railway history.
Rationale is that it sells, and that its easy to research. But yes basically we are stuck in a modern day cycle with only JT feeding us some older stuff.
We have GWR HSTs on EDN (158) and are set to have ScotRail 158s on the Manchester Airport route. Also there's no reason to say that the 150/153 couldn't be amended in a Mildmay-style debranded layer.
On the Xbox Series X just bought the route today getting these particular artifacts I've seen before on other dlc I own, the route is quite nice if you can ignore this and the route by route for me at least audio popping and obvious let downs in scenery, I did raise support tickets but I've seen over the years how they are pretty redundant it would seem. The class 153 ai is eerily silent too.
A lot of people including myself have reported this weird glitch so I suspect that will be fixed in the next patch.
Hi Jamie, the same issue still also occurs with the Eanos Wagons that came with the BR 193 Vectron. Can this be finally logged and sorted as well as it's exactly the same bug? Thank you.
As anyone done job 2F50 Treherbert to Cardiff Central . I cant get into Cardiff Queen street keeps say train is off path but its clear path into Queens street and the blue route is ok. Tried 3 times and still cant do it.
The layout and scenery for this route is just straight up handsome and I really like the single-track branches. Cardiff has an urban, and light suburban / rural feel to it which I never expected from a route in Whales. I'm glad I purchased Cardiff Central over the London Overground since I tend to get bored of London Overground routes fairly quicky. Cardiff Network (imo) has more interesting elements which have me playing it over and over. No disappointments here.
Fired up the Locomaster Profiles Cardiff to Rhymney loco hauled cab ride on the exercise bike this morning and actually felt quite sad. Now that DTG have issued this tiny little route, there’s probably little chance of them or any other developer revisiting the Cardiff Valley Lines and building us a proper full length route such as Rhymney to Barry Island set in the late 90’s/early 00’s when these loco hauled peak services were in their prime. But just as the part Mildmay and part Bernina line mean we will never see the full length of those in the game, DTG with their lack of vision have killed off Cardiff. Unless they genuinely intend to expand the network later, though based on past results that seems doubtful. Ironically an early 00’s proper Valley Line to Rhymney might even have been easier to build. Less complex track layout at Cardiff Central and Queen Street. The JT Class 142 could have been drafted in along with the updated WCL 150. A reskinned Class 37 or Class 37/4 rework hauling the existing Mark 2A coaches. Maybe a Class 143, which the game needs anyway.
I feel we’ve been somewhat cheated with this route, i admit the teams done a fantastic job modelling everything accurately at the time and we’ve gotten some gold from it, £30 for most who bought it without deals for such a small loop of stations and neither of the valley lines (I’m more partial to the rhymney line though merthyr line makes a great deal of sense) feels a little cheeky. I worry we aren’t going to get anymore beyond this, hopefully im wrong and we get at least one of the northern stretches but to be teased with the services destination and online going 2 stations past central and that’s the lot is a bit crushing. I understand if there’s restrictions to what can be done, especially with restoration and updating works going on over the last year already putting stress on TFW never-mind having a team of people plodding about taking data points and notes but when a London service can take an hour to complete and Cardiff could be 15 minutes on average, it feels lacklustre
I agree… it’s a totally missed opportunity, unless they have future plans to bolt bits on like the Thames Valley branches. It would be criminal if they didn’t - Cardiff is captured really well but there’s not that much to do there. The Valleys could be spectacular. So much scope for Cardiff - GWR runs to Bristol/Swansea/Carmarthen, TfW to Crewe/Shrewsbury, freight for Margam/Trostre etc…
Could do with a 756 and 231 gameplay pack.. but guess you would have to go back and electrify the lines for the 756.
I agree it could be longer but how is anyone cheated? You know what you are getting, if it's not worth £30 to you then wait for a sale, simple! I enjoy it as sometimes it's nice to have a shorter run or do multiple runs. I would have preferred it to be longer but I like the self contained services on it.
I got it as part of TSW6’s Special Edition bundle — and I got that whole bundle for 50% off, so I saved even more! Out of all the included routes, it is probably the one that has positively surprised me the most. The amount of service variety is huge, and I love that you can start out in the suburbs, traverse the urban city center, and then end up on the outskirts again. The fact that you go right through a busy yard during many services is also quite fun. I would probably have never bought it separately (unless 80%+ off), but I’m glad it was included in the bundle.
It's a fun route IMO. Was just driving the pacers on it the other day- good stuff. Maybe one day it will be extended- i'd enjoy that
As a route it’s a glorified shunting sandbox, I’m sure I’ve left comments further back in the thread so I’m not going to rehash it all. The saving grace of it is the 153, it’s right up there with the best of rolling stock IMO & easily one of the better soundsets to come out of DTG. Of course though it’s not great value for the cost. Overall I think it’s a shame this was Wales’ debut into TSW. Pretty sad & somewhat comedic that any actual driving of the TFW stock has to be done on the English routes. Hopefully one day we’ll get a proper Welsh route & I certainly hope we get some more 153’s.
As far as I'm aware there was never any suggestion this route was going to be extended, and certainly the potential for extensions should never play into anyone's decision to buy a route (unless such an extension was explicitly promised on the product page). So on that basis I wouldn't agree that anyone's been cheated, although I agree it's an u underwhelming route that doesn't meet its potential due to being cut short in various locations. I bought it when it was released, found it to be way below standard and requested a refund, then eventually repurchased it at a 44% discount once it had been patched. I've only played it two or three times since then as I find it's a very uninspiring route to drive and the look is too... clinical (as per all Rivet routes). Its only redeeming factor as far as I'm concerned is indeed the fact that - once they too had been patched - you find yourself with two 153 variants and an improved 150, which all layer into other routes and also feature (on PC at least) in some brilliant third-party timetables and a collection of excellent .pak file reskins. If I'd been a console player I would probably have requested a refund again the second time round, or just not bothered. JB
I would've got this route if there had just been a little more attention to detail on the scenery. Small routes don't bother me but the attention to detail does. And in some areas this route is great and in others it looks like someone's draw a house on a cereal box. Put it this way, £30 on this or £30 on Preston-Crewe
Matt has said officially that the original scope for the CCN route was to include the route down to Barry Island, but timescales meant it was cut back, resulting in the route that was released. Some players (me included) have the view that DTG too often choose cashflow over completion. The run down to Barry would have added around 8 miles more route and a much more natural turnaround or ending point for services. Sadly CCN is another victim of chuck it out unfinished and forget about it.
Indeed, but removing a critical part of the route should not be taken to mean they're going to add it back in later on. It should be taken at face value: the developer has taken the decision not to finish the DLC in favour of bringing in cash more quickly.
If DTG has any sense they'd extend the current route down to Barry for more natural end to end service and release it as a free extension... But I suppose being a free extension wouldn't be enough of an initiative. I certainly would like to see an extension, but I don't think a paid one could justify adding just 8 miles.
Probably should point out I wasn't having a dig at Matt, I'm fully aware he's not the one who makes the decisions that we have to live with.
Seems to be the common line for all DLC for certain additions not included to DLCs even if they are glaring ones!
Are you sure about that? I would say the role of Executive Producer plays a fairly large part in the day to day decision making process. Anyhow, an extension and general remaster of the route would be welcome. Not just to Barry but give us at least one full run up the Valleys, probably Rhymney to maximise the loco hauled peak service. Throw in a new Class 143, or one of the newer Flirt units, £33 for new buyers, £23 for those who bought the original. Sorted.
If the unit added was as good quality as the 153 then yeah I’d go for that option, but an overall £50 route would need to be of much better scope IMO. It’s interesting there were time constraints though, compare this to Cathcart, MML, MAC, Blackpool etc any of the other Networks & it’s really at the bottom of that list. As above the detail is all over the place with some areas looking good but then others look borderline placeholder. For a route centred around the city, the city itself is really bad with massive lack of detail, really poor building layout & generally bad asset texturing.
The worst example still being Cardiff Central. I’ve just come from watching the tail end of the Crewe to Preston stream where a large portion of Wigan linking the two stations fully detailed and walkable. Contrasts the two building styles of the different developers, JT all out with the detail and Rivet under DTG doing the minimal possible. And yes, on reflection, an update wouldn’t be worth another £20. £10 at most for existing owners.
Xbox sale on this route and the pacer. Not sure it makes much sense when Preston Crewe is out now though
It adds a couple of runs for the 153, two 25-ish minute non-stop ECS runs between Crewe and Litchfield (for Barton) and one or two shunt moves from Crewe LNWR. The 150/2 layers in on the north bay platforms for Chester services but that is all. As for the CCN route, it's a waste of time and space, it was cut short to meet a target date instead of delaying it and making it right (not to mention we as the public/customer didn't know the target date anyway so wouldn't have led to disappointment). It's only redeeming feature is the 153 and for some the 150/2 (I prefer the WCL version as it's BR era). Even with the JT Pacer coming in it didn't really do much, there is an end to end run in there but it's far too stop-start to enjoy, especially given the speed restrictions in the centre of Cardiff. I remember one of the JT devs admitting (when pushed) that they had committed themselves to the Pacer being for CCN well before CCN dropped and were not expecting it to be so cut back.
I find CCN is good for when you only have a small amount of time and want a quick drive or do a couple of out wks back runs. It's quite a busy route and both timetables offer different out and back runs. I didn't get it full price and wouldn't have but at a sale price I think it's okay. It offers something different. I definitely feel it would have been a far better route had it been longer. But I wouldn't dismiss it if you like to sort of experience it offers.
Not played this route in ages but since the Pacer pack is on sale on Xbox for the first time, I’ll go back to it soon I reckon.
Wouldn’t go out of your way for the 142 pack. it adds!better AI at Cardiff, but the 142 takes over ALL valleys services. You never ever pass a 150 or 153. At least with the original timetable there’s two different units about…
If you venture in the passenger saloon, there were issues with exhaust smoke coming through the ceiling into the train.
