Route Wcml: Crewe - Preston - Feedback Thread

Yep, I know.
I'd like to know whether there's a way to find out before loading the service, like on Shap.

 

I didn't know there was a way to know beforehand on Shap?

 

They're the passenger ones to and from Euston.

 

Signals not clearing until you arrive at go via/stop points.

This is driving me crazy. I know it’s not an issue exclusive to this route, but it happens all over the place here.

Having to bring a 2000t coal train to a complete stop for absolutely no reason. The instant you stop the train, the signal clears to green.

And I’m not talking about approach control here, that’s a separate thing that does work, this is an issue with the timetable.

Can anything be done about this?

 

Well if that's you're technique surely it's the same on Crewe to Preston?

 

You'd have thought so, but no. Hence my query

 

I think generally speaking a Euston-Glasgow will be 110mph (as these were normally formed of mk3 stock), whereas Euston to other destinations may not be. That’s not to say there can’t be exceptions though!

 

Don't forget it was the Euston to Glasgow services that you were picking on WCMLoS so if you are using the same technique you still have to pick the Euston to Glasgow services in Crewe to Preston. You can replace Glasgow with Ayr etc.......

 

The downside being that EUS-GLC services didn't tend to stop at Crewe. So I wonder just how many are available in this route?

 

It seems largely in the afternoon/evening for the Northbound services

 

Does anyone else think that in the scenario 'Thunderbirds are go', you don't have enough time at all to complete everything.
Timings are not shown for the shunt moves but are for the actual moves of the stuck trains.
I was 7 minutes late arriving on the first run with the class 47.
When I went to get the second train in the class 20s, I was already 15 minutes behind the time of xx:40 so I gave up.

 

I very much doubt there would be so much changing ends done in 1986 which would save a bit of time!

 

There's a mile or so long section of track with a 20mph limit followed by another mile or so at 30mph limit south of Wigan on the mainline..... Is this correct and if so what was the reason?

 

In the Merry go Round scenario once you collect the loaded MGR wagons and head south you are shown as having a max train speed of 60mph as though you are driving a class 6 train. If you hover over your train in the map screen you are told your train is 8T34 so therefore your maximum train speed should be 35mph?

I'm assuming the train should possibly be 7T34 rather than 8T34 and top speed should be 45mph? Also as you reach the junction with the mainline at Winwick Junction there is a passenger service held waiting for you to cross in front of it which doesn't seem correct so either the player being able to go faster than 35mph/45mph has meant the dispatcher has held the passenger because you have arrived at the junction early or the timings have been set incorrectly in the scenario?


Also once at Warrington MSC what's the point of shutting down the cab of your leading 20 to then be told to walk over to the 08 drive a few yards then stop and be told to start up the 08 you just drove for a few yards to then be told to go back to your lead 20 and set the cab back up again?????

 

Yeah that 08 section was frustrating. Totally pointless.

 

On PS5, No matter how far I drive, how many services I do, I can't clear Tier 3 drive 80mph. I've done multiple Crewe-Preston services, plus many of the shorter services, I should have cleared it long ago. But for some reason it stays at about three quarters complete.

 

Are all the scenarios completable now. Also doing a job in mid July at 7pm why is pitch black already. It doesn't get dark till way after 9pm.

 

Massive improvement on PS5 post patch. No blurring at all now. Warrington and passing trains usually caused it but completely fine now. Frame rate still choppy in various places but textures remain good. Whatever you did works and needs applying on all routes on PS5.

 

Sounds very promising! Can’t wait to try on Xbox once I’m back from holiday n

 

Wonderful to hear! Are you on the reduced or full timetable?

 

I'll give the route a try later to see if the latest updates have brought it in line with the rest of TSW and gives improved fps around Crewe, Warrington and Wigan and negate the use of the extra lines i've added to the route's .ini in GodMode.

I currently have it running at 100% screen percentage rather than 125% and have a few other settings dropped to medium rather than high or ultra via the route .ini

 

Just of note there shouldn't be anything performance wise in the patch released it should only be memory optimisations.

 

Still quite often get crashes on the approach to Preston sadly. Full timetable on PS5

 

Next time it happens are you able to screenshot the error screen for me, thank you.

 

FYI you can find an error history in the console settings, you can see it there. No need to wait for it to re-occur.

 

After much pondering I just bought this route for TSW on PS5.

Just Trains have gone from hero to zero with this route. After their superb offerings with Blackpool to Preston and Preston to Carlisle it pains me to say that this latest JT route is unacceptably poor on my PS5 and it seems my views are echoed by most other customers across various platforms.

Whilst the quality of the scenery is undeniably good both in detail and density the performance is so bad as to make the route unplayable. Frequent micro stutters ruin immersion and in built up areas like Crewe, Warrington and Preston there are full blown frame freezes. To me this product has been released in an unacceptable state and is not fit for purpose.

The signature quality of JT was still evident with the Class 20 in the training scenario but afterwards when I tried a non-stop Class 87 service from Crewe to Preston the awful performance ruined everything within a few minutes of departure despite me using the reduced timetable with ALL layers turned OFF.

Very severe lags and freezes absolutely demolished any immersion and whilst the worst of it was in the 3 large built up areas there was very frequent and very annoying stuttering all down the route.

By the time I got to Preston I already hated the route and the lagging and freezing got laughably bad. I wanted to finish the service as proof of my patience and endurance but even this was too much to ask from this pathetically bad route as my PS5 froze and crashed back to the PlayStation menu.

I must stress that my PS5 is running perfectly with other scenery heavy routes like the two other JT products (Blackpool and Carlisle), Trent valley and Medway all running very smoothly.

To be honest if I was not on PS5 I would be requesting a refund as this naff sub standard product has wasted £30 and it runs like a three legged pig on Valium delivering jaw dropping poor performance and unbearably irritating gameplay.

I held back purchase until patch improvements were released so I can only imagine what a state it was originally in.

I hope that JT are working hard at fixing this fatally flawed route as it has great promise but I also fear that any improvements may be locked behind a paywall should DTG decide to do away with the free update for loyal customers when Tsw7 is released.

I have been mostly contented with TSW6 and feel that the overall performance has been the best in the franchise history. The FREE existing route updates from Liam have been wonderful and the new route releases have been top notch too.

I now own the entire route from Euston to Carlisle and Blackpool and I am very happy with it APART from the Crewe to Preston section. Given the past exemplary reputation of Just Trains this route is a heart breaking disappointment that must be addressed and fixed as quickly as possible to minimise the long term damage to trust from customers.

 

still broken on xbox?

 

The route is good, but as JT Benedict mentioned, there hasn't been an update addressing performance yet. I experience several long freezes mainly in the more built-up areas, but also along the route and I'm playing on PC via Steam.

 

They are admitting that the route was NOT ready for release. These issues MUST be dealt with before we are expected to hand over money to them. There is no excuse for this kind of negligence.

Also what is the point of the timetable section when the destination lacks a time?

Hopefully JT will fix these very serious issues but the bitter aftertaste will linger for a long time.

 

I'm not seeing long freezes on PC. Perhaps our definitions of long are different, what do you call long?

 

I've removed my GodMode .ini lines for the route and given it a run after today's update and it runs far better than it did previously.... Previously when run as per all other routes i was getting fps of 15-25fps at Crewe, Warrington, Wigan and Preston for anything up to a minute or so whereas as now i get a second or so of low FPS then back up to 40+fps then back to standard 60fps.

If I insert the .ini lines again performance jumps up again so that there is hardly anything noticeable at all at the same locations.

I may just put the 100% screen percentage command back in for the route and keep everything else as per all other routes to see of that is a happy medium but as I say with the Godmode mods removed and the route running as per all other routes there has definitely been a reduction in very low fps and definitely gone from lasting anything up to a minute or so down to just a second or two.

 

JT Benedict Also I noticed on my runs today that when you get an AI service call at Wigan or Warrington the destination and calling points of the train are announced correctly but when you drive a player train and call at those stations the station announcements just say the train is going to Preston and that's it.

So I mean I heard the platform announcement for an AI train to Aberdeen (I think) with all the calling points through to Aberdeen but my player train to Blackpool was announced as being the service to Preston calling at Wigan and Preston.... and then just Preston when stopped at Wigan.


Can I ask if this is known about and being worked upon?

 

Ran full timetable. As mentioned above frame rate still struggles quite a bit on PS5 BUT blurring is almost eliminated.

 

That was a quick decline from “No blurring at all”.

 

Only because I’ve done one run. Didn’t see any blurring at all but don’t want to say it’s fully gone until others run the route after the update or I’ve done more runs. 100% improvement based on what I ran this morning. Ran from Preston to Crewe and didn’t see any blurring at the stations that previously caused issues. Also passing trains seemed to cause issues previously, again no problems at all since the update.

 

I jest .

Hopefully they can get the performance sorted, if they’ve done the same as MVL in terms of blurring I’m pretty confident on that side of things, but unfortunately AAS’ optimisation patches weren’t great so it’s hard to commit money to TSW on the back of these updates, right now.

This is one of the few things that I’d like to pick up from TSW 6’ roster, so I’m remaining hopeful.

 

I haven’t had a problem with this route - no crashes, no blurring, have FPS locked at 60 fps, it does drop to the 30s one or two built up areas. Of course I am in PC … so different experiences, but the route is well worth the money in my opinion.

I do hope the performance improvements that have in the queue help those on consoles,

 

Sorry that was on old version by the looks of it. Installing update now.

 

Just downloaded the updates on PS5 and ran Crewe to Preston in a Class 87 with reduced timetable and all layers turned off.

Have they improved performance? Very minimally. The number of micro stutters on the cross country sections seem a bit less but it is still too choppy in numerous places. Also the pop-up distance for trackside foliage has now substantially decreased making it all look a bit ugly and amateurish. The vegetation pop-up now renders a bit like the Riviera route where it was noticeably rough looking but at least that runs very smoothly which you cannot claim for this route.

The main frame freezes at the 3 built up areas are not improved and probably are the WORST I have seen on any route in TSW since the Brighton to Victoria line was released. I would estimate the longest frame freezes to be around half a second and is really bad around Preston. This is game breaking performance and totally UNACCEPTABLE for me.

Also what is up with the timetable not showing destination times? When even something that basic and obvious is over looked it is a clear sign of shoddy practices.

All in all this "update" has delivered tiny improvements but all the game breaking issues still remain. As stated previously my PS5 runs all other TSW routes very smoothly so this a route specific issue.

I cannot judge this DLC on other platforms but for me on the PS5 it is a dismal let down.

In its current state is it worth £30? Absolutely no way. I feel like I have been mugged and strongly urge anyone considering parting with their money to reconsider.

 

Blackpool services due to the loco change have an issue with continuing the destination upon the change so therefore say the destination is Preston.

I wish there was something that could be done but it's a bit of a limitation with things.

 

As stated already, the update was to improve blurring (which it has). It wasn’t to improve performance.

 

https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/train-sim-world-6-update-notes-–-july-29th-2026.98880/

 

Spent yesterday evening running from Parkside Colliery to Fiddlers Ferry Power Station, and did not have any blurring at all. Despite shunting around Warrington alot of that time. Also a full line run from Crewe to Preston was fine also. Huge improvement in just two patches. - Now the freezes & frame drops need to be looked at and this will be a firm favourite route.

 

Class 20, 6P81 Deepdale to Arpley Pt 2 derails approaching Arpley shunt neck.
Full fat timetable.

 

On Xbox Series X, after yesterday’s update I was able to spawn at Crewe at 10am on foot in the full timetable with all 60 available layers enabled. This previously produced the out of memory Xbox error every time.

I then ran timetable service 1Z71 (again, full timetable, all 60 available layers enabled) in a Class 47/3. There was no blurring whatsoever, but 1.9 miles out of Preston there was a sudden freeze and a return to the Xbox Home Screen (CTD).

I reloaded then took a Class 86 from Preston to Crewe (60 layers, full timetable) and arrived at Crewe with no blurring experienced on the run and no freeze/crash. I remained on foot at Crewe station for about 30/40 mins observing all the incoming & outgoing services with the excellent passenger announcements. I then commandeered a Class 86 service to head back to Preston. Again, no blurring but about 1.5 miles out of Preston, another freeze and return to Xbox Home Screen.

 

Haven't tested it on ps5 yet. Hopefully this update has brought it to the standard of Preston to Carlisle

 

Preston - Carlisle still has a lot of stuttering and poor frame rate, it’s never been that great.

 

the brakes on wagons are HILARIOUS JOKE a lottery, I got spad everytime OO refunded.

 

Well that's quite harsh in my opinion, JT can only test on PC and largely it seems to run perfectly fine for PC users (it's been flawless for myself with the only performance "bug" being minor blurriness introduced as part of the "optimisations". The only other "bug" was/is the brakes on the MGR wagons being made of cheese.

JT just like the other 3rd party developers are not able to test their routes or trains on consoles so are at the mercy of basically "hoping that it's right" and that DTG's spaghetti code of TSW handles it well enough. In this case it fell short, as you can see by how other recent DLCs have stumbled on console it's obvious that console testing is an issue which needs addressing somehow, (not counting the ATS 90 as that is just a crock of turd and not actually DTG's fault).

I ran the back half of the lengthy railtour a few days ago, a good four and a half hour run with lots of changing ends and shunting, no performance issues whatsoever. The issue is consoles AND TSW's spaghetti code, TSW just can't handle newer routes properly, especially when ported to consoles and as for the consoles themselves, well they are simply exposing the continuing flaws with TSW. Routes and other DLC are sub-par on consoles and it's only being picked up after release simply because the 3rd party devs are not able to test it, given the products are working fine on PC one would assume that they "should" work on console, while they are not it's also unfair to blame those developers for that when it's down to DTG...

 

What brakes there aren't any lol