Announcing The Freightliner Class 70 From All Aboard Studios

Disappointingly the class 70 timetable doesn’t have any rail tours or the 37 moves

also annoying it doesn’t have a layer/ sub for scotrail express when I’m pretty they ran the same services as the 66 for it

 

I dunno about UK, but it does tend to take longer for freight than passenger settings on US stuff. Also it depends a lot on the length of the consist since a longer air line takes more time no matter what setting you use. I saw the same sort of thinking with people complaining how "good" the brakes were on a preview where there were only a few lightly loaded cars. Well of course it stops quicker without a lot of weight on it and a short air line! =-)
Although it all depends on perspective too. Coming from a lot of US freight that's often a mile long the UK stuff all seems rather "short" by comparison. A run with 100 units up a 3% grade is a lot different than 20 units up a 1%.

 

Had a quick go at a Midland Mainline scenario at lunch. Very impressive, seems like a high quality loco. Great sound too.

 

I'm not very knowledgeable on trains but this loco seems very well built. Only problem i can find is the lights not illuminating. OldVern are you gonna get this loco.

 

Is Gage spelt like that on the real loco?
Looking at the gauge dimmer switch

 

DTG, do you even English bro!?

 

That doesn't make sense - goods mode would be even slower brake movement.

 

Yes I think so. Already banked an extra £10 on my Steam wallet earlier (don’t tell my wife!) and the initial reports seem largely favourable. Plus it’s a noisy beast even if dominated by the traction motors, oh and it’s not a Class 66. Also supporting this might encourage All Aboard to do a Class 56, Class 60 or Class 68 next.

 

AAS have done a great job on this loco. I can’t find any major issues from the short period I’ve been driving along the Midland. It feels really immersive due to the high quality textures and the sounds are amazing.

Only a small bit of feedback, I do wish the exhaust fumes reacted with the wind conditions as they do with JTs Class 20/47, but that’s about it.

Makes you wonder how ATS managed to make such a mess of the class 90 and why DTG felt it was acceptable to release it in that condition.

 

Yes. It's even mentioned in the manual

 

I think ‘Gage’ is an American spelling - the Class 70’s are very American.

 

what wonderful sounds
high-quality capture
huge congratulations to the AABS team
it’s on the same level of quality as the armstrong powerhouse dlcs for TSC

 

Should the Continue window upon completing the Cold Start tutorial not lead to the Safety Systems tutorial?

Instead, it does nothing, leaving you to quit to the main menu and navigate your way all the way back to the Safety Systems tutorial, a minor ball ache, but still.

 

It should yes cause I played them one after the other like that.

 

Heads up for anyone who was waiting for 1800 on Steam, already gone live.

 

Seems very slow to accelerate on notch 8, the 66s are a lot faster... Amps only goes up to 300 or so max is that to do with gearing?

 

Also how do I clear PCS Open on the display?

 

Like every American locomotive I presume. Reverser in neutral, train back on full, independent brake to full. Wait and release train brake

 

The headlights on the Class 70 on XBOX Series X flicker most distractingly like they're suffering from severe z-fighting issues.

Not the only example either, one of the screw heads to the lower right of the driver's POV does it, along with the middle nob of three to the left, directly in your eye line.

 

Nope. It's not. We use "gauge."

 

Is it normal for the traction current to be rather low at slower speeds and increase as speed increases? Other locos normally start off high at low speeds and decrease as speed increases as you would expect from electric motors. I have also noticed the common misspelling of "Brake" as "Break" appears on the TOPS panel.

 

I don't think it's just speed, but also how much "work" is being done in general. For example if you're on a grade, you'll need more work than on the flat. The "break" thing is odd.... I've never seen that in a loco before referring to "brakes."
There are emergency air "breaks" and such mentioned (like a broken air line, etc) but not in normal brake procedure.
That's weird.

 

Was that a light loco move service? If so, I think i had the same warning and change the brakes back from cut in to cut out or vice versa.

 

Does Raildriver and Joystick interface work with this? What are the binds? Train brake and throttle don't work.

Can't even make the train move, says hold brake at release... It is in release.

edit: Cut in brakes on the display and enable cab switch.

 

The cabs/layout are not like any normal American trains at all.

 

So I bought it and have just finished a run from Rugby to Crewe BH with a modal, it was dusk and my first run on the route since switching to TSW7 and gotta say that the route looks even better with the new lighting and graphics enhancements

As for the train, it's well built and looks good. The sounds are excellent, it really does "feel" like you are in the cab, it's loud-ish but cosy with the windows closed but open a window and it gets a lot noisier. On the subject of noise (I play with headphones to not annoy the wife downstairs) the engine itself sounds excellent, I can hear and visualise each "stroke" which is superb. The motor blower whine is arguably overbearing however I believe it is accurate for two reasons of personal knowledge - when these were on the coal circuit and would thunder along the WCML at Acton Bridge you could hear that motor blower screaming away for around five minutes before the train comes into view. The second is more to do with the 60, the first time I "worked" a Class 60 (secondman on heritage line) I was expecting thrash but despite having my torso out of the Secondman's window all I could hear was the Traction Motor Blower just behind me, on the 60 it seems to go into high gear as soon as power is applied and doesn't need to wait until later notches, perhaps the 70 is the same?

*Ironically I dozed off at least three times on the above run, ended up opening a window to make it louder (and turned my office fan on for full effect) damned chronic fatigue :/

 

Oh as a follow on...

So the brakes, yes they are pretty powerful (at least on the modal, not tried engineers/aggregate yet) and have found the best techniques to be to either "fan" the brake if only trying to drop 5-10mph or drop into initial until close to the desired speed then knocking them off and applying power. Neither are exactly real world driving styles but do seem to work on this

It might be me but it does seem to require an insane amount of power to get moving, I was only on an intermodal and still needed to put it in notch 8 to get it to finally start moving, the 66 would pull away a heavier load from standing start with notch 4, surely 8 would cause wheelslip?

 

Yes does seem to need an excessive amount to get going. I understand they are geared lower but even still should be seeing some noticeable pull at Power 5

 

Just like the Class 66 modals then, looks like it needs a bit of tweaking. Other wagons seem to behave appropriately with the 66, just had a play with the 66 and JNA's, they feel much more realistic.
Haven't bought the 70 as yet (but will do at some point), but would be good to see if the physics with the containers gets updated.

 

You had better inform your loco manufacturers and the railroad industry as a whole then because they use “gage” a lot.

 

But they are American design and American built, by GE.

 

No, this is wrong. Most freight trains are still run in 'passenger' mode.

Also, as somebody else mentioned, setting it to goods should make the brake release even slower, because that's what the setting does. Limits the rate of change in the brake pipe, giving more time for the pressure gradient to propagate through the pipe, reducing braking differences between wagons, reducing strain on couplers. Which is required for longer and heavier trains.

 

Yes I noticed this and mentioned it in the feedback thread. And this was from a stop where I held the train on the loco brake not the train brake, it’s literally like the train is stuck to the rails, oh and no wheelslip either if you slam the throttle into Notch 8. Iwould have to go so far as to say the physics are pretty abysmal, it’s no good trying to seduce us with the, admittedly superb, sound pack if the rest doesn’t cut muster. So, sorry to say, unless there’s some contrition and an undertaking at some point today from AABS to get some hot fixes out ASAP I will probably refund later. It’s really not worth £15.

 

Im actually enjoying the 70 theres a few issues in some scenarios where the lights flicker head and tail and dont come on but in timetable mode they work fine havent encounted any other issues tbh

 

It's definitely not as bad as Class 90 when released and nowhere near refund territory for me. Really nice model. Excited to see the patch resolve the small niggles.

 

Are we both driving the same loco?. I honestly don’t think this is anywhere near refund territory. Whether it’s charged at a tenner or 15 quid doesn’t really matter, it’s the cost of a Big Mac at the end of the day.

I’ve only come across very minor issues, nothing which ruins the driving experience for me.

 

For me, it's not working with the Raildriver/Joystick mod, and the brakes are extremely slow to release, but I did set it to "freight" before that run so possibly that was my error. I need this to work with my throttle quadrant though.

 

What patch and what has it fixed exactly?

 

What patch there has been no patch as far as I know.

 

Sure, but that doesn't make it a "very American" train. The dual-headed cab design, I'm not aware of any American freight locos with that except going back to pre-WWII electrics - never remember seeing a diesel like that. The general appearance of the cab is also not like an American freight loco, even ignoring the double-headed nature. The dual-headed electric passenger trains we have are almost all European designs.

If Siemens made a diesel loco with the same basic layout as an SD40 or GP40 I wouldn't call that a "very German" loco.

 

Indeed. As I posted above there’s nothing from AABS or DTG in any of the live threads. If the fixes have addressed the physics then I might keep it.

 

It was built in America as an "export" design. Not just for the UK but also other countries like Korea, Turkey, Germany, Australia, etc. The Class 70 is just one variant of the "Powerhaul" design. The only real "American" parts of the Class 70 seem to be the computer display and the diesel engine. Kind of how the Class 66 shares a computer system and diesel engine.

Yes they were designed a built in America, but not for American customers so they share very little with any American locomotive. To be fair, most aren't even "built" in America since they're made in Turkey. The Class 70 is the exception. I'm not sure if Australia went forward with their proposed locally produced variant.

Point being it's not any more "familiar" to American railroaders than it is to British ones.

 

I think you've both misinterpreted "Excited to see the patch resolve the small niggles" as there having already been a patch; I suspect what they meant to express was enthusiasm that at some point in the future there will be a patch to sort out the issues reported.

 

Very pleased with this DLC, it's certainly worth the money given you get wagons in it too.
Very good that Colas Rail livery is available on the livery market place on PS5 too, I've got a ballast civil engineer train I'm working today colas operated.

 

Really pleased with the 70. I don’t think the physics are that bad, as far as I’m aware they’re pretty “low geared” to move off heavy loads with only one loco. The 66 shouldn’t be used as any yardstick as the physics on that are widely reported to be way off the mark

 

I'm really enjoying it too, yes it's got a few minor problems like the headlights and safety systems not working properly if you resume from a save but overall I'm more than happy with it.

 

The low speed physics in this thing seem way off, I'm trying to do service 6M22 Part one on the Airdale & Wharfdale route and I can't even make it up the incline at notch 8, the train grounds to a halt and starts rolling backwards

 

Yes the physics are hopeless (see also the official feedback thread) and not a peep from AABS. My advice if you are able, refund the wretched thing until they fix it.

 

Thats what's annoying that no one from AABS has spoken and said we're on it and a fix is coming.

 

They normally speak on the discord