Written by: Gary Dolzall. The Electro-Motive E8, coming soon to Train Simulator, was Amtrak’s original racehorse – and workhorse! READ MORE
It’s nice to see it on other routes, some of which are closer to era appropriate. The Empire Builder would use ex EL Capitan High Level cars.
The Amtrak Empire Builder almost exclusively used traditional single-level equipment from 1971 through 1979, when Superliners were introduced on the train.The only regular use of ex-El Cap cars on the Empire Builder was as transition cars with Superliner equipment.
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As much as the E8s were made for MWPB they also fit in perfectly in all other places. Glad to see promotional material for a DLC going outside of just the included operations, encouraging workshop creators to use these elsewhere is a great idea!
Could we maybe get a key to what trains operated with which equipment and the order of the consist as well? It would be a huge help for workshop scenario creators. Thanks.
I’m not too thrilled with this dlc. Looks nice but the sounds are eh.. and the bell half works. I think it would have been nice to have included passenger views in the coaches. These days it still boggles my mind that you guys offer equipment where we are restricted to cabs. As a player who can actually pull off many of the scenarios entirely in passenger view, because enjoying the scenery usually adds to the experience. It’s a good thing that if this were TSW, this wouldn’t be an issue.
I was pretty excited about this DLC when I first saw it, so when I found out it was part of the sale going on (which is rare for new DTG products), I jumped on it. So of course being from the heart of PRR territory, I immediately said "Forget Florida, I'm driving the Broadway Limited over Horseshoe Curve with these Phase I E8s. I really like how they have both long and short consists for eastern long distance trains, as well as western consists with dome cars. I'm glad that DTG acknowledged that people would be using these units for much more than just the Miami-WPB route. I've determined that these can be used on several other routes, including Horseshoe Curve (Broadway Limited, National Limited), Cajon Pass (Super Chief/Southwest Limited), Pacific Surfliner (San Diegan and Southwest Limited), Sherman Hill (San Francisco Zephyr), Donner Pass (San Francisco Zephyr), Marias Pass (Empire Builder), Stevens Pass (Empire Builder), BNSF Racetrack (San Francisco Zephyr), and Miami-WPB (Silver Meteor, Silver Star, Miamian/Vacationer). Yeah, there's a big variety of services you can do with these units. The engines and cars look pretty good on the outside and I like the passenger view in the dome car, however the eastern Silver Service consists do not have a passenger view. Also, the sounds are (as I expected) recycled from the old F7. I mean yeah, even if E8s and F7s sound similar, still give us some updated sounds, instead of just the same thing that's been around for years. The units will get you up most hills (which is good because 90% of the North American routes in this game are mountain passes), but the dynamic braking is a little weak and I often find myself having to set the dynamic brake while tapping the train brakes every so often to keep my speed down. I also noticed a few minor flaws with the cars. First of all, coach cars are not named. Only special cars like sleepers and dome cars were ever named. Also some of the names appear on multiple cars in the consists. The Amtrak logo is cut off at the end of some of the cars too. Overall I'd say this is a good DLC and worth the money if you have most of the American routes and like driving long distance Amtrak trains. Nothing mind blowing and it has its minor flaws and disappointments, but I'd still say it's a pretty good product. Thank you DTG for giving us something cool for once.
I like the E8 and I've been waiting so long for this loco to come to Train Simulator. To be honest I wasn't expecting its first appearance in Train Simulator to be in the form of Amtrak's early paint scheme but I'll take it! The sounds don't bother me - sure they're recycled, but how accessible is an E unit these days outside of Union Pacific's heritage fleet? (No seriously, where else can you find an E unit outside of UP's heritage fleet?) Getting audio from a Youtube video is...okay, but it will never be as good as getting the sound directly from the original engine with a mic. The included cars can be used to replicate just about any train from 1971 to the introduction of the Superliner, with a few of exceptions such as the full-dome used on the San Francisco Zephyr, it being an SP-built full dome originally in service for use on the Shasta Daylight, or the Southwest Limited using ex-ATSF High Level coaches to form the coaching section, or GN's full-dome lounge on the Empire Builder (though if you really wanted to you could just stick the BSB version into the consist to give it the appearance of Amtrak's "Rainbow Era"), or the Auto Train (but to be honest we don't have the right route for the Auto Train anyway...). The appearance of the names on the cars almost ruins the effect, though, but I'm still okay with it. Funny thing: The first thing I did with this was also to recreate the Broadway Limited over Horseshoe Curve! Funny how to date the only mostly-accurate way to replicate that train is in the Amtrak era despite its fall from grace years beforehand (maybe that's an idea for the future? The Empire Builder DLC seemed to work well enough. Maybe in the future we can look forward to taking the real PRR version of the Broadway Limited on Horseshoe Curve?). Overall I'd give it a thumb's up. So what's next? Marketplace repaints of the E8 into various paint schemes like UP Armor Yellow (hey, with the FEF-3, the Challenger, the Centennial, and the Big Boy in a few years that'd round out the whole heritage fleet right there), Pennsy Tuscan Red, GN Orange (hey, it happened), SP Daylight, BN Green (again, it happened), etc.? Heck, I'd go for that.
I just wondering if DTG is creating MTA LIRR routes. If they are... they should create LIRR DM30AC Engine also. Its Electric and Diesel. Oh yeah I see new Amtrak and MTA LIRR DM30AC ENGINE