I have always steered away from buying TSW routes which I already own the TS version for, my thinking has always been that if I have it already why buy it again and the Clinchfield has always been one of my favourite TS routes. But then I watched the Clinchfield release stream on youtube and it looks fairly different, so my questions for those of you who do own both versions are they sufficently different in gameplay to justify it, and which version do you prefer?
It is a fun route and there is a lot of work servicing the mines up those branches, as long as you don't mind working in the dark. Also the save bug does not show up in most of them, there seems to be only 2 that I have found so far, Limited Power and Greenbriar part 7.
Yeah. The route building is a bit weak, so getting the retexture mod for it is really advised to make it somewhat better. But questonable scenery quality aside, it's a good route.
The scenery is actually very good. Just a few areas where the grass disappeared. But overall the scenery is very good.
I don't know, to me it felt really weak. The scenery is fine at points of interest, but along the route it's just grass and tree badly spammed along the sides. Missing whistle boards before level crossings, the crossings themselves are also really ugly. Some wooden deck bridges look unnatural and for some reason are very bright in the dark. And I mean look at this terrain. This is right along the track you drive on. And the route is full of repeating ground textures like this. It's like 80% of the route was just auto generated and havn't been touched by an actual artist at all.
I did quite a lot on Clinchfield at first but then it ran a bit thin. The scenery is actually a bit samey after a while, you are hemmed in for the most part by the hills so it feels like you are driving through a wooded trough at times. I don't think the TSW version gave as much route mileage as that for TS. There are a few interesting scenarios but essentially can be broken down into two types - through running or trips to load coal. There are no passenger runs unless you go "Off The Rails". With retrospect I would say wait for a sale and keep an eye on the two hour countdown for a refund.
The TS Version of Clinchfield has a longer mainline running all the way to St. Paul. The TSW2 version only goes as far as Dante. However the TSW2 version of Clinchfield has both Freemont Branch and the Nora Spur, both lines which were not included in the TS1 version. Rolling stock wise the TSW2 version has more period correct rolling stock with the Boxcar, FGE Reefer, 2 coal hoppers, and the Santa Fe Style Caboose, where on TS1 the rolling stock is all unbranded reused rolling stock from other routes (Unless you buy the U36C) The TS1 has more variety in the locos, having the F7, SD40, GP38, and GP7 in both the Grey and Black Liveries. On TSW2 you only get the F7 and the SD40, with the F7 only in they Grey Scheme, and the SD40 only in the black scheme
Clinchfield in TSW2 is mainly about local coal trains and has a fair number of nice activities. On the other hand there are to many bugs in the gameplay, especially for the main line drives. I never owned the TS version, so it's hard to compare.
Clinchfield probably has the most unique and interesting selection of service and scenarios. and that's the biggest reason to grab it. Also I really like the F7, default sounds are meh, but functionally is solid, and it's a great looker. With that said it's also the one which I've encounter the most bugs and annoyances with. A few services are flat out broken thanks to stupidly fast AI timing, others have stupidly precise stop points, and the SD40 while alright on the whole has all sorts of little issues that make it annoying to use in service mode. Also i feel the scenery's mediocre, honestly if it didn't have the luck of coming out right after a string of dodgy releases I think it would've been more heavily criticized. The trees in particular I think were helped by that, they're better than Arosa for sure, but I honestly think they still need a lot more trees on Clinchfield. But even putting that aside there's a lot of mediocre texturing, and there's a few areas in the route where the trackside's very poorly decorated. Honestly I kind of prefer the TS Classic version as far as scenery goes, largely because the forest feel far more lush than in TSW. I've seen quite a few people question why it's so poorly reviewed on Steam, but honestly I can entirely see where those people are coming from.
There's good and bad in the route. It really does encourage you to work out train control, especially when getting the train moving. There's a lot though which is at night which is a bit arduous. It has some good scenarios though that will test you.
