Wcml Preston To Crewe Discussion

Beneath the WCML, south of Bank Quay...

 

The 310's would be nice for some of the services going that way

 

what’s the chances of 87-012 appearing while I have the oo scale model of 87-012 out ( yes I know bad photo angle but was tried and found it funny)

 

Nice , now find 87 008 .

 

Heh I will at some point and post it,
Same goes for 87-020 and 87-022 (the wrong livery version)

 

I think you've stumbled on a new "railway" themed scented candle line.
Burnt diesel
Tar and oil
Worn seat fabric
Coal
Rust
Heated brakes
Rubber sealant

Never drove a train professionally, but I know in renovation they have those lingering smells, a lot like old trucks and airplanes.
It's kinda the opposite of the "new car smell."

 

I just got the route a few weeks ago and I have an issue where I don’t have any trip, rock salt or any deepdale bound services (excluding the rail tour service to deepdale) despite having all the required stock for them. Does anyone have any advice on what to do next or how to fix it because I have “enabled all layers” and tried “selecting all layers” and that hasn’t worked so any advice would be welcome .

 

Are you sure you have all the requirements? Do you have Spirit of Steam, Peak Forest, West Cornwall Local, TVL, Class 31, Class 20, NTP, BR Heavy Freight? There are layers that require those. It’s hard to know what’s required for individual services but those are ones for trip workings, Speedlink and such according to the add-ons database.

 

I don’t have peak forest and the class 20 add on but that is it. For example on the arpley trip it says the requirements are:

Blackpool branches
DSN_GRY_PCA
West Cornwall local
WCML: Preston-Carlisle

Now to my understanding DSN is tees valley line and PCA is for the PCA wagon (so the class 31) and I don’t know what GRY is. If GRY is referring to the class 20 then that’s where I might be going wrong but I don’t really know what that means.

 

Compatible add-ons as of May 2026:

• Tees Valley Line: Darlington – Saltburn-by-the-Sea Route Add-On (for the Class 37 ‘Tractor’ diesel locomotive)
• West Cornwall Local: Penzance - St Austell & St Ives Route Add-On (for the Seacow and Turbot wagons)
• Spirit of Steam: Liverpool Lime Street - Crewe Route Add-On (for the 16t mineral wagon and 20t brake van)
• BR Heavy Freight Pack Loco Add-On (for the Class 40 diesel locomotive and 12t van)
• BR Class 20 ‘Chopper’ Loco Add-On (for the PGA wagon)
• BR Class 31 Loco Add-On (for the Class 31 diesel locomotive and PCA-V cement tank wagon)
• Blackpool Branches: Preston - Blackpool & Ormskirk (for the Class 142 ‘Pacer’ Diesel Multiple Unit and TEA wagon)
• Northern Trans-Pennine: Manchester - Leeds Route Add-On (for the Class 45 ‘Peak’ diesel locomotive)
• West Coast Main Line: Preston – Carlisle (for the Class 87 electric locomotive, Class 47/4 diesel locomotive, BBA wagon, Mk3a coaches, Mk2a coaches and Mk1 BG coaches)
• BR Class 86/2 & Mk2F Coaches (for the Class 86/2 electric locomotive, Mk2F coaches and Mk1 RMB coach)
• Peak Forest Railway: Ambergate - Chinley & Buxton Route Add-On (for the ICI hopper wagon)
• Cargo Line Vol. 5 - Nuclear (for the FNA wagon)

https://www.justtrains.net/product/west-coast-main-line-crewe-preston-tsw-6

Class 31 needed for the PCA yes, it's a GREAT loco you should grab when it's cheap anyway.

 

I think Peak Forest is just for the ICI wagons but I don’t know what layer that refers to.

The layer pop-up menu in the route is no help for requirements because it can’t reference DLC you don’t have so it’s the articles and the TSW add-on database (Google it to find it) that I check but even those aren’t 100% reliable. The Class 20 is listed as a requirement for the Arpley Trip in the database. Unfortunately copying is disabled in the add-on database so can’t copy the full list into this post. The Arpley Trip requires BPO, PSC, WCL, TVL, Class 31, Class 20.

Note - The list in the above post by Madduck tells you what stock comes from what DLC but still doesn’t tell you which stock is for which layers. That’s why it’s so hard to know.

 

Do hope some merge this route with Preston to Carlisle and Blackpool lines so we can do full runs with out switching at Preston

 

It is very annoying when you can’t tell what you need for when, where and what, I’ve had several instances of this over the years and I’ve not seen DTG do a thing to make it easier to understand over that time as well.

 

I’ve got the 31 and yes it really is great value even at full price it’s one of my favourites

 

I love all the little parodies that trigger nostalgia for us 80s and 90s lot

 

The best one for me was shap with carpet wrong .

 

There also used to be a cleaning solution smell, especially on DMUs in North West England and North Wales. Very unique and probably a banned product now.

 

In my 90's era novel an important character works at that very MFI, it's depressing etc... Just discovered that MFI has come back as a brand of Victoria Plumb, so had to cut the depressing references :/

 

I really really wish they would update the exhaust dynamics to something similar to the class 20. Definitely expecting a JT remaster at some stage

 

100%, definitely. If we could get any loco with exhaust like the class 20 from Crewe to Preston that would be amazing.

 

I'm interested in this DLC but won't buy it before improvements (Xbox Series X here). Has the company behind it (Justtrains?) said if a patch is coming?

 

Having to have West Cornwall for the wagons is very frustrating. Some of us are running low on Disk space now.

 

We are intending on getting another patch sorted to try and target the issues that are still outstanding yes.

 

1 The new Class 20's headlight doesn't project any light.
2 Overhead lighting is ignoring objects and turning them into black holes.

 

Speaking of patches, and trying to say this in the nicest way possible, is there going to be an improvement on the light baking across the tunnels of the route because in the miley tunnel and the freight bypass tunnel that goes from basford hall up to just north of Crewe station there is some funky lighting going on both with the train and the inside of the tunnel. Not trying to downplay the route here, it is genuinely a great route and I’ve had some great fun on it but the lighting in the tunnels does need some work.

 

Yes it looks like the exit is just round the corner when it isn't.

 

Hopefully bridge sound reverb will be included, you only hear it on a couple of bridges south of Preston station

 

I'd love to see the 310s in TSW anyway. But the stopper services north of Crewe would have been operated by Class 304 units at the time the route was set.
310s made very infrequent trips north of Crewe in the mid-1980s.

 

Any AC stock would be great. Honestly I wouldn't even care if JT chose to use the 304 to represent the 310 or vice versa. Could always be disabled via layers for people who don't like it.

 

I would love a 304 for the route because south of Warrington the route seems quite in stark contrast to the mega busy sections between Warrington and Wigan. It’s too bad that they couldn’t have a pacer sub in for those services but it is understandable because it would look very out of place.

 

I dont remember ever seeing a 310 before the mid 90s North of Crewe. The 304 and 303 are the two main types of EMU. I am not even sure drivers at Crewe knew 310s. The service pattern then was Liverpool to Crewe all stops. Birmingham trains were usually intercity stock with 81s, 85s or 86s.

 

This route need a 56 so badly

 

I just really want an AC slammer.

 

Me too and a 310 or even a 312 would provide useful traction for an NSE-era route around North or East London at some point in the future, if we ever actually see a historic route around the capital. I surely can't be the only person who finds it weird that we only get BR-era routes up North or on the Western fringes of Cornwall.

 

You’d think anything with a class number between 302 and 312 would be different enough to sell well in TSW.

 

I know, DTG often say things like "A completely different experience" and "We wanted something unique" in their blurb about new routes with trains that already seem familiar, the Siemens fleet feels like driving a Networker and the Civities are just new trains with all the usual new train stuff.

The British Rail AM series of trains would be a totally new driving experience and how much more interesting is a guard's job when you have to pick that perfect moment to ring the bell with passengers making a dash for one of the 30 to 100 doors on that side of the train.

Imagine somewhere like Liverpool Street in the morning rush, the sound of slamming doors and compressors fills the air. Even for those who just want to ride the route, the experience is like nothing else in TSW. I challenged TSW developers to be brave and make something that has no comparison, a slam-door London Commuter mainline, maybe in NSE days, hopefully in the TSW black hole of Essex.

I've not heard back from any of them yet.

 

Just played this and then AAS Crewe-Milton Keynes and have to say AAS really are the leaders in DLC. It’s an exceptional DLC. Hopefully this route will get a patch and brought up to speed to be on par.

 

Or a 303 as some of the unrefurbished ex SCR ones ended up at Longsight and did work this line.

I'd prefer a 304 though.

 

Yes this for me is one of the things TSW/DTG/Third Parties should be aiming more for and I think JT have done a good job so far. But we still don't have the variety of trains.

It's great driving all sorts of trains but I would love a more routes which really take you back in time and immerse you. Not just about driving trains but being in the world. This is why what happened with SOS is so frustrating. An opportunity missed in my opinion.

Whilst I love driving all trains old and new, UK and beyond, there can be more to a train simulator.

 

I would like to see JT take a break from routes and get into rolling stock deficit we have for BR era. The 25 is badly needed as are the early ACs. I would rather have some compromise on sound and physics than nothing at all. Seeing 3 Wolf of Badenochs at the same time on Crewe Electric is immersion destroying as is daytime mk3s vice Sleepers. All the effort seems to go into routes though with one or two locos with them.

 

Is that in terms of performance?

 

Performance is fluid and also the route looks a little washed out and a bit anaemic in places. Services are missing arrival times on some timetables, I have run several services and there’s been several random derails at low speed. Also on some freight services there are instances with missing tail lights or no flashing tail lights. Brightness is an issue in the Miley Tunnel. I keep revisiting and each time there seems to be an issue with performance or a bug meaning I can’t complete the timetable service. I’m running a 4090 pretty high spec system and it seems to struggle sadly.

 

100% agree with this. Ive mentioned before, I’m more than happy to pay a similar price to what a route would cost if the loco is top tier!

 

How so? Since last time I checked you can’t play AAS routes or their 805 on console without blurry textures unlike JT routes

also JT adds a ton more when it comes to details and additional content, main example nameplates on all the 86/87s that have them (it’s a little extra but they put in the effort)

 

Selfishly, I'd prefer Just Trains to move en-masse to Essex and spend a couple of years building a couple of routes and populating it with some electric traction from around the 1986/7 era. I'm sure no-one would mind a 4 car Class 308 deputising for the stopper services on the WCML for the time being if the better traveled (and therefore more useful for TSW) unit was built for an NSE Essex commuter route.

 

I would buy that, although see JT producing more bolt ons to the already done routes.

I can see an 80s North Wales Coast being very likely now.

 

It wouldn't surprise me if they did North Wales Coastal, they'd do it justice.

I just think they'll want to get some more usage out of their Class 86 from their next route. They sell the 86 separately so a business case could be made for GEML South where they build a couple of EMUs for it and if you own the 86 you get electric Norwich services with a DBSO instead of Class 47 hauled intercities. Or something.

 

I don’t have blurry textures on PC.

 

Man I'd sell one of my kidneys and half of my liver for JT to do a dated North Wales coastline. Surely someone has to do it at some point and most of the BR era stock is a pretty good fit too!