Route: East Coastway I always liked commuter/regio driving way more than freight. I adore the south of England and quality wise, ECW is probably the best route in TSW2 with maybe the exception of HMA. The Electrostar is fun to drive even though the sounds are not quite right. I can't wait for the 313 to arrive. I'll probably spend way too much time on the Seaford branch once that's out. Rolling Stock: 465 and Br101 Both are absolutely brilliantly modeled, sounds are spot on too. The BR101 is just so smooth and rewarding to drive correctly, it's a shame it's confined to HRR but scenario planner is there for us The 465 sounds amazing and is so much fun to thrash around SEHS (also one of my favourite routes)
In my opinion, if you own the Main-Spessart DLC, Hauptstrecke Rhein-Ruhr is the best. So many different trains. On this route you have almost everything that Deutsche Bahn has to offer, S-Bahn with the DB BR 422, Regionalexpress with the DB BR 425/143/146, Freight Transport with the DB BR 185/182/155 and with the new DB BR 101 also InterCity. The only flaw is that the route is a bit short. And it seems so, if you own Hamburg-Lübeck, you can also drive the regional express with the new DB BR 112.
Terms of value for money, Main Spessart Bahn, the route itself is pretty good and it adds services to all the other german routes (except RT and maybe HHL?) In terms of quality the DB BR101 which has the edge over the already very good Class 465
Route - Great Western Express reason - it provides a mixture of 3 different experiences in one route freight Commuter High Speed
I have really fallen in love with Clinchfield. Brilliant! But then I'm a freight guy- my previous favorites were Sand Patch and Tees Valley, followed probably by Ruhr-Sieg Nord.
I still am partial to NTP, apart from the lack of ambient light in the cities. Era is great, motive power is great and a challenging route with nice scenery.
I was playing NTP last night - the newspaper train with a Class 40 in the rain and it reminded me of why it was always my favourite route in TSW2020. I think Sand Patch has pipped it now in TSW2 though, I just can’t get enough of that route, but NTP will always be right up there.
I was thinking about the possibility of getting into old british stuff once this period of new releases ends, do you think NTP is the better out of the available routes? What makes it better than TVL?
I like NTP so much because it is a twisty hilly route with some distinct sections to it, long climbs and descents, and tunnels, in great scenery. It has my favourite loco to drive, the BR Class 45, and also comes with a BR Class 47, and they haul Mark II coaches on limited stop and express services. The big challenge of the route is driving the BR Class 101 multiple unit (with its gear changes and tricky vacuum brakes) on the stopping services and it is one of the best modelled trains in TSW. It’s tricky going uphill and even trickier going down. The services for the locos also include mail and newspaper trains using a full rake of BG guards vans. It really comes to life if you also get the Heavy Freight pack which adds a BR Class 40 and a BR Class 08 shunter, with oil tankers and little vans as freight stock. You can then use all three main locos across all the passenger and the freight services that aren’t shunting, which gives a little extra variety. It’s got the most character out of all the routes. TVL is also good, and has a better selection of freight services (especially if you get the loco DLC) but the passenger services are all with the Class 101 and you never feel like you are getting up to speed with it. It comes with the Class 37 as standard with steel wagons and coal wagons, and has two loco DLC, the excellent Class 31 (which does include passenger runs pulling a dead Class 101 as coaches) and the Class 20 which I wasn’t too fussed about, each with new freight stock as well. It’s a flat but slow feeling route and for me it doesn’t quite capture the same feeling as blasting over the Pennines in an express train or struggling to pull heavy oil tankers up the same hills in NTP.
Thanks for the info, I am not a big fan of slow routes as well, so looks like NTP is going into my wishlist it's a bit of a shame for the Class 20, I like them in real life, but I've not heard a lot of great things about the TSW model so I guess it's not a huge loss. Heavy Freight seems interesting as well.
My fav route is southeastern high speed, I live in Kent and the 375s and 395s are lovely to drive, and with freight and rail tours as well... Second best is Munich-Audsburg because there is so much to do with the layers, and third is East Coast way because it is so lovely to drive without feeling slow. Loco DLCs the 465 is the best, I love the accurate sounds, model and the quality of everything, and they are my local trains, and 2nd is the 101 because it is the same standard, I just feel like more could have been done with a IC cab car.
I still think Sand Patch is the standard by which I measure all the subsequent routes. It has its problems (brakes, horns, water) but for scenery, lighting, authenticity, traction and gameplay, it set a mark which DTG mysteriously ( in my mind) never has been able to maintain consistently, though there are flashes of excellence on many routes, especially NTP and CRR, for instance. All the routes have their attractions, of course, but NTP and TVL stand out with their dirt and grime, the mix of traction and that dark, brooding, melancholy atmosphere, reminiscent of Blake's "satanic mills". Of the locos themselves, I would choose the Oakville GP9RM and the British Class 101 dmu, which is so much fun to drive across its several incarnations.
Clinchfield The esthetic of being in the mountains of Virginia is handled best add that to rolling stock and locomotives and you have a perfect route set in the 1970's
Very good indeed, but not perfect. Its lack of DP control knocks it down a notch because some services are unplayable. It also loses a few more points for the poor night lighting, which further reduces the number of playable services. I give it a B++.
If I had to pick one, Tees Valley. If you have the 20 and 31 there is just so much variety of things to do and routes to take. Trans Pennine, my second favourite is much more linear, you drive from Manchester to Leeds and apart from a few depot moves that's it. On Tees Valley you have the steelworks, the ore handling facility at Redcar and Tees yard, as goods destinations and you have passenger services to Middlesbrough or Saltburn in the 101. There's a lot of variety in the scenery as well. From farmland to heavy industry and back again. The steelworks section from South Bank to Redcar is spectacular and in real life is only now being demolished. It's great up there at night with the eerie red glow from the steelworks. To be honest though, I couldn't live without Trans Pennine, it's my home route and the locomotives come in very handy on Diesel Legends and in scenario planner.
I agree, the Heavy Freight pack is essential to enjoy NTP if only for the extra AI traffic it brings and the class 40 of course. Just a shame the 12 ton vans get very little use. I like the freight on Tees Valley better because there is more to do. You can load/unload, run round the train, take it back to Tees yard or Darlington and you get to explore places the passenger trains never get to. On NTP it's just drive this oil train from here to there. It's more of a challenge with the gradients though I must admit.
I agree with the positive comments about NTP and TV. Being a British Rail fan of the 70s/80s these are my eras. I suppose NTP edges it just over TV because it’s a constant challenge with it’s gradients. ( Settle - Carlisle would be even better from a challenge point of view especially with a snow weather mode enabled. NTP in the snow is pretty tricky especially in the Class 101 DMU so I suspect Settle - Carlisle would be even more so. ) I also love ECW from a modern British perspective and I strongly suspect I’m going to fall in love with SEHS once I’ve played it more. I’m not so keen on GWE tbh because it’s a bit flat and wide but a go in the HST might change that which I STILL haven’t found the time to do yet believe it or not. I can’t really comment on none British routes yet. I’ve nothing against them it’s just I haven’t played them yet. I’m building up to them slowly and I’ve identified a couple of German ones which think I might fall in love with from what others have said about them. I just need more spare hours in a day.
I would disagree but then I would be lying, best route so far and can only be beaten by a better Scottish route
Let's face it, there isn't really a winner when it comes to TVL vs NTP, it depends on personal taste.
I'm enjoying SEHS at the moment, mostly because of the variety that you get with the high speed and commuter services, plus the variety of trains with the additional 465 DLC. If you haven't got it, you'd enjoy SEHS - similar reasons, but the high speed services are more interesting with more stops and power changeovers. Variety really does spice up the routes - the more German routes you have, the better they get, with all the additional trains popping up here and there because there's so much crossover. Hopefully that same crossover will start to be seen amongst the UK Southern and SouthEastern routes when the new Brighton route is released.
Peninsula corridor combined with the mp15 and baby bullet, lots to do, lots of rolling stock variety, felt rush hour before rush hour was a thing
Clinchfield. Just hope they fix the horn on the SD40 eventually. Could use some switching services but I imagine those will come with locomotive DLC
Still think Dovetail botched the freight side of Peninsula Corridor, not to mention the route "Should" of went at least to Tamien Station, just south of San Jose.
Well, as this is becoming a dynamic thread, here's my update. Sand Patch is still the standard bearer as far as freight goes. Never been equalled. GP9RM and UK Class 101 still best locos Boston Sprinter best passenger route. Fulfilled the promise of "Rush Hour".
If your referring to routes that look great there are many many but if your referring to routes that work great there are sadly none.
With rush hour, I can say that BML is incredible with all the services and layers. CTC-3 is awesome and the F40 is a beast, nice to have ACS 64 back. There is so many trains on Dresden, it blows my mind.
Main Spessart Bahn is my favorite- I love it because you have a wide variety of freight services to run. Fast freight, auto, tankers, heavy freight. The 2% gradient from Laufach to Heigenbrucken poses a real challenge for heavy freight- very easy to stall out. Regional express trains are fun to drive, too. And then there's the 204 dlc which I like but leaves much to be desired..
MSB is good, but as you say the 204 leaves a lot to be desired. The 363 is the better option for German diesels. Particularly with the blue 363 in Dresden.
Northern Trans-Pennine for me. I have become very familiar with the modern route in my uni years and experiencing some of the history of the route is awesome. The grimy atmosphere, and winding through the hills is quite an experience in itself and the selection of rolling stock is fantastic, especially with the Heavy Freight Pack. If the preservation crew can add the 3-car 101 and 31s to the timetable it will be damn near perfect for me as a single route. As for Tees Valley, once again has that lovely grimy feel, offering some spectacular industrial views. The rolling stock is once again awesome, but driving the route itself can be a little dull and repetitive though and the Class 31 +101 loco-hauled services just feel a bit odd, aside from that though, but the route does have many of my favourite toys in the game. In terms of "modern" routes I've had a fair bit of fun with most of them, but none of them captures my interest as much as NTP and TVL, I'd probably say either Cathcart Circle because it's a fun little network to play with and I enjoy the 314 a lot, I am most certainly a bigger fan of overhead AC units that 3rd Rail. East Coastway and Great Western are fun but I never really play them for more than one service at a time because they're a bit dull. I do like the South Eastern Highspeed, however, I'm not really interested in the high-speed part. I suspect when I get the Brighton Mainline that will surpass both of these for me. West Somerset, I enjoy a lot, as a complete change of pace in some really cool, unique trains in some nice pleasant scenery. The preservation crew's work on this route really has taken it to another level, so I can honestly say it's one of my favourites. As for Bakerloo and IoW, I just don't find myself drawn to them really but that's because I'm not really interested in Underground Stock. If you haven't guessed already, I'm quite excited about the West Cornwall route, not least because of the new toys. No idea how much I will enjoy the route itself, but I'll certainly enjoy the rolling stock.
Agree 100%. The 363's services on Ruhr Sieg Nord are the best! Hoping the 232 will be really great like the 363..
Since i dont know any of the TSW2 routes in real life nor i have good knowledge on all those details that can make a DLC really good, meh or bad, my opinion is exclusively based on how much i enjoy driving on each route. I like British routes a bit more than the rest, because they feel familiar to me. Railways in my country (Argentina) were in their overwhelming majority built by a British company between the late 19th century and early 20th century, therefore our infrastructure, altough much has changed in the last century, is still largely influenced by its british roots. A lot of our stations, while some were heavily modified, still retain some British look. So whenever i run a British route i feel this is the closest thing to my country's railways i can get in this game. I divide the route DLCs in tiers (only the ones i have played, obviously): S tier: Cathcart Circle Line, Long Island Railroad, London Commuter and Nahverkehr Dresden A tier: Peninsula Corridor, East Coastway, Southeastern High Speed B tier: Boston Sprinter, Great Western Express, Tees Valley Line* and LGV Méditerranée C tier: Hauptstrecke Rhein-Ruhr, Northern Trans-Pennine (route only, locos are amazing), Ruhr-Sieg Nord D tier: Arosalinie and West Somerset Railway F tier: None (Sand Patch Grade would be the only one here but it is part of the base game and not a DLC) *: I have bought it very recently so i have played it very little yet, so take this with a grain of salt Edit: forgot to include Boston lol
But which one is that? Of all the routes I have carthart circle is the only one I yet have to facepalm
I only own the routes included in the base packs (TSW2020 & TSW2) so given that - Northern Trans Pennine - because being British I'm comfortable with the look & feel, I love the scenery (it's 60% of the experience for me), I prefer older settings, (ideally pre 1970), and regional routes, I enjoy the challenge of driving underpowered locos/heavy trains/steep gradients, with the ability to break the loco due to the lack of protection systems Main Spessart Bahn - Lovely scenery, shiny modern locos, different signals and PZB to learn, banking, fast passenger & freight. On all station stoppers, it's about the most frequent stopping frequency I can tolerate. Of the routes I don't own, I'm interested in - Clinchfield (scenery), but it may be too slow for me unless train control can keep me occupied. London-Brighton (scenery). Southeastern High Speed - The Javelin is a lovely looking EMU especially, in the blue SE livery. TVM I'm really waiting for steam and the associated historic UK routes.
I'm also waiting for steam. It would be good if they made a steam timetable on West Somerset railway, and made some other heratige railways such as Severn Valley Railway with steam included. And routes set on the steam age, like a route in the 60s or 50s.
NTP+heavy freigh Love everything about it: The locomotives - I'm a hug fan of loco+coaches operations love the shunter and the shunter operations. Love the ladscape, the distinct sections of track and the epoch.