Halloween Teaser Of The Upcoming Loco And Route? What Do You Think It Could Be

Class 323 and that's it.

 

Yup, it's been agreed that it's the class 323 on Birmingham cross city. The achievements were leaked recently and this just confirms it

 

Its all well and good having these snazzy marketing campaigns, but when they've already leaked the info it becomes stale.

They did it with TSW3, which admittedly probably wasnt intentional. But with this they knew that the information is going to appear on steam database on X day so it completely inexcusable.

 

Cross city line is coming

 

32-miles of track if all included.

 

Is it just me who expected so much more from the first TSW3 route?

A shortish route with seemingly just one train included (and perhaps a 66 yawn)

 

Definitely not just you mate.

 

I will still get it if the 323 sounds are okay. However I am in agreement this needed some padding for a TSW3 route with either the line(s) to Walsall and/or Wolverhampton if only because assuming Soho Depot is included for ECS moves then a few miles more wouldn't hurt. Could have a nice network. Hopefully we will find out more on Thursday.

 

Yeah, Wolverhampton/Walsall is a must for me too.

 

It really needs more than just 323 to Lichfield, 323 to Bromsgrove, 323 to Four Oaks, 323 to Redditch, the odd AI class 66 and a ghost town Birmingham New Street - the same problem as Cathcart etc e.g. what do you do once you've done that? Other connected routes would be great, particularly those that allow for medium to long distance services and justify another piece of rolling stock.

 

That feels almost impossibly slim. The least they could do is offer Wolverhampton and Walsall.

 

that would work in that Bescot would allow for freight workings and Wolves would allow for short hops on XC/Avanti/LNWR/etc services

 

Exactly. We know they have the Avanti license and LNWR are a branch of WMR, but XC are an interesting case since, despite being the easiest to reproduce (you can just repaint the GWR HST and do the interior) they have had issues with their licence in the past.

 

And yet they are DB...

 

The issues were a while ago, so there’s always a chance they’ve patched things up.

 

I guess we'll find out soon enough (probably in the next couple of days given they've started officially teasing it now) but I fully agree with all those who are saying that it would be far too empty with just a 323. Every run will just be green lights all the way home surely, and New Street will look almost empty.

A 170 would make a lot of sense and could at least be used for the Hereford semi-fast runs (and maybe Cardiff too if the XC license can be obtained). Even if they aren't playable services they would add a lot of variety to the southern section of the route, and the 170 would have extensive layering/re-use possibilities in the future as they're common across a lot of the UK network under many operators.

Unless DTG have some sort of nice surprise in store for us (fingers crossed!) then I really think that this would have been better done after a WCML South route so at least 350 and 390 layers could be used at New Street. The 323 has quite limited future layering/re-use options as well which makes it something of a one-trick pony (whereas at least the 314 in Cathcart could be used on more ScotRail content in the future).

The bottom line for me is that the timetable and layering function of TSW really should be factored into deciding which routes and locos to make. At the moment it feels much more like (at least UK) DLC is being picked as if they're still making it for TSC and each route is independent of others, which simply doesn't hold and leaves TSW's best feature on the table.

 

A short route with another single train would be poo - hopefully we’ll get more than one train, but I’m not holding my breath.

 

This is a pretty unlikely thought but perhaps if DTG are using this as a basis for an expandable network in the future, that would work quite nicely. But my understanding is that optional route extensions are yet to be cracked from a technical perspective so I wouldn't hold your breath.

 

I just hope they do a better job with the sounds this time

 

Class 323 Birmingham Worcester via Lickey Incline.

 

323 does also fit the Manchester area the Glossop Line which is part of the TSC Woodhead Line. The video by Glovestrains is Class 323 Manchester Picadilly to Stoke on Trent

 

Worcester is not electrified, still worked by DMU's. AFAIR wires only go to Bromsgrove.

 

Correct

 

Ok then and for Freight locomotive what should they be. Rather than a class 66 why not make it class 70.
Option 2 class 60 with TEA Tankers