Well I must say, I thought that the 101 was a pig to drive! What are the brakes made from? Does it actually have brakes? And the acceleration, Snails can accelerate quicker that this thing! By the time you have got up to a decent speed, you have to start hitting the breaks to make sure that you stop where you want to stop a mile up the line! Damn I love this loco'. Please! Please! Please! DTG produce more diesels of this era, as they are insanely fun to operate. The only thing that lets this loco pack down, is that it's not available in the livery designer!
The class 31 is indeed fun to drive and the sounds are great too. I just wish that the scenario planner had more passenger consists for it.
Yes I found that the lack of passenger services was a bit of a disappointment. I don't understand why DTG never gave us the option to create more passenger services. Especially as the C31 ran Passenger services on the TVL?
The 31 is one of my favourites I don’t understand why it isn’t available as mk1 or mk2 coaches consists like the 33, 45 and 47 are and how it is in the diesel legends. Surely if we own the diesel legends pack, we should be able to get access to those same consists in our scenario planner ! All we get is 31 with freight or that horrible 101
Hehe, you really have to do a mid- to long term resource planning if you somehow intend to use the brakes. But I love this old iron. Its looks, feels and sounds. IIRC you can thrash her on GWE and stretch her legs.
Amen to all the above. The 31 ranks up there with the 40 and 45 as the best UK traction in the game. But it's little short of negligent that no passenger consists have been provided for Off The Rails scenarios, given we cannot create our own. Hauling a dead DMU around, fun as it may be, doesn't really qualify.
I have the GWE on my wish list. The way that my wish list is growing, the total cost will be nearly as much as what my pc cost me to build! LoL!
Sadly I don't see it ever happening. This is another example of something that has been shoved into the dark recesses of the DTG cupboard. I just don't understand why there are no passenger services available in this DLC? I would have tagged Matt or JD to ask for passenger services to be added to scenario planner. But I'm not worthy, so doubt that I would get a response?
It could be that the scenario planner can't make formations of vehicles from 2 separate dlc. The class 31 didn't come with any passenger coaches so it would have to use the ones from either Diesel legends or NTP. Anyway, a consist editor would be a dream come true.
It is a great loco and well worth getting the Legends of the Great Western DLC to run the passenger services it has with this loco. Change the brake setting to Passenger though otherwise you may never manage to stop at a station. Always a loco to come back to time and time again and it is a shame the passenger consists aren’t in scenario planner otherwise I would be running it on every route.
NTP is my next purchase. Though how it's going, I will need to start thinking about getting a second 1Tb ssd
I meant that there are no passenger consist for the 31 even if you own the NTP. I was just speculating on whether it would be even possible with the current scenario planner. The NTP is a good route if you like Intercity passenger runs, but the class 31 won't substitute in there (I don't know if that would even be realistic).
The Intercity runs, and loco's are mainly why I'm getting NTP. I'm just totally stumped to why DTG failed to add passenger services to the C-31 DLC. If they Wanted to have TVL as a freight route, why put in a 101? Whoever did the research on the route and the 31 didn't a very good job!
Was the class 31 used for passenger services on the TVL in that era? I have been under impression that at least the Saltburn services were operated by DMUs.
I believe that they did, though I think it was mainly just filling in services, though mainly as in game, towing a clapped out dmu. Someone is bound to correct me if I'm wrong? Which I don't mind. I just wish that there was the option to use it for passenger services. and yes I totally agree.. We need a Consist editor!
No we need a DLOTGW extension that would allow the class 31 to operate up to Didcot or old oak with a ECSM. Due to you not being able to use it on the route plus if it were added as base to DLOTGW diesel hydraulic fans will be made despite this train being great
I agree we definitely need a route extension, Especially one with Didcot as part of it. I spent a lot of my childhood in the late 70's, early 80's trainspotting in that yard. So to have Didcot in a route would be amazing! This c 31 is now my favourite loco. I am just loving it. Discovered that the best way to stop it where I want it to stop, is to apply around 28% loco brake, and to feather the train break.
The Class 31 has services in DLOTGW using the passenger stock that comes with that pack. So the post was correct as to how you get the services. It also has light loco moves to Old Oak Common.
Not routinely, it would have been multiple units only. Even if a class 31 was called to rescue a failed DMU, I doubt very much it would have spent the rest of the day hauling it back and forth up the line, it would have took it back to Heaton depot I would imagine. The class 31 with some mark 1's or mark 2's as a DMU replacement would have been more realistic I feel. It is a shame it was never added to NTP as they did work over that route, if not on passenger services, although I think they may have done although they would have been underpowered to work expresses over the steep climbs..
The class 101 is actually very fun in my opinion. Its detailed in features and the brake system is well made. Together with the sound mode i like to drive the unit. Also you can make the 4 coach version out of it with a little shunting. Cant see why people have a problem with it. Local engine startup is featured + moving cardan shafts in the underframe. Tsw should get more units like this.
The Class 20 and Class 31 dlc’s are some of the best. They are the reason I got TVL. Both need better consists. Even the class 20’s would have worked summer passengers specials.
101 challenges people, gears, vac brakes and not super powerful. Many people like EMUs with one handle for power and brakes.
I would imagine that a driver making the switch from Steam to diesel would feel at home in the class 31. These old diesels make it a simulator.
The 101 and 31 are both great. This mod allows you to use the 31 on passenger services on NTP. They used to substitute for 45s/47s occasionally in real life. https://www.trainsimcommunity.com/m...edition/f2636-ts2prototype-alrhclass31ntp.pak
Here i want to show whats possible with more paths and maybe a consist editor. It would give so much potential into players hands to create very atmospheric scenarios, of course with static stock etc. First is just from WSR, needs a lot of effort to shunt for the desired consist, so i tried to make a railtour with the 31 & mki wagons from sos:
Previously we had no way to do formations that were cross package dependant, which you'd need to do coaches from one pack and 31 from another pack and use it in the scenario planner. timetables and scenarios can do it because within those bits of gameplay definition you can specify requirements that must be loaded first and all is happy. We do now have that at the formation level itself, so in theory, this ought to be possible. I'll experiment. I will not promise anything at all. Matt.
The 31 as many others say, is a gem of a loco. I had no real interest or love for them whilst in BR service, I used to actually be disappointed if they were subbed for D200 on the Carlisle-Leeds run, because it meant a slower run and, in my book anyway, not even half a good a soundtrack! Id walk past them at open days, deliberately ignore them as we drove past Bescot on the M6 being more interested in anything other! However in TSW, I at least understand why. Everything creaks, groans or hisses. The throttle and brakes are Victorian in their respective applications, the loco 'thinks' for a few seconds before either. It's got enough grunt to just about take the skin off the rice pudding when it does and when you do apply the brakes its as if you actually placed the sole of your boot on the wheel, yet upon fully releasing you may as well make a brew in the time it takes for them to come off fully. Plus it's the only loco I actually feel grubby after driving! The annoyingly now fun 31 (said though gritted teeth after consuming my hat) certainly needs and deserves more in my book.
I remember boarding a Birmingham bound train at Norwich with a 31 on the front, intending to go all the way through then back to Swindon via Cheltenham. Baled at Peterborough for a HST to the Cross then a quick leap to Paddington for another HST back to Swindon. The thrash and the lovely exhaust smell was great, but progress was just so cripplingly slow! Norwich to Birmingham wasn't known as "The Never Ending Journey" for nothing...
Baling for an HST, you must have been desperate lol. I suppose it would have been worth it for a 50 to Swindon, but for another HST? Which year was this?
The 31's replaced 25's on that service if I recall. My old neighbour was a railwayman and said that of the type 2's, the class 25's were considered better than the 31's. I wonder why the class 31 was chosen as BR's type 2 in the 80's? I know many class 31's had ETH, wonder if that was a factor?
At one point the Norwich to Birmingham service was operated by a mix of Class 120 and Class 104 DMU's so I have a feeling the 31's took over from those. On paper the 31's had more HP than a 25 so that might have been a factor too and probably more reliable than the Rats.
Ah okay, I thought 25's had been used on the services for a while but I am likely mistaken. Did the class 25's have a reputation for failures then?
Towards the end they did, which is why the 33's were brought in to replace them on Cardiff to Crewe services and 37's on the Cambrian Summer Saturday loco hauled trains.
I'd love DTG to do the Cambrian route with a pair of class 97's pulling summer specials. I used to have a family caravan by Minffordd, and it overlooked both the Ffestiniog and the mainline. The sound of the pair reverberating up the valley was just incredible! Especially up the incline from Penrhyndeudraeth to Minffordd. These tours were put on hold due to a car being hit, and the cars driver being killed on a unmanned level crossing in Penrhyndeudraeth in 2009, by one of these trains. Photo credit: Sean Thomas Seen here passing through Minffordd, a pair of 97's hauling a maintenance train on route to Pwllheli.
