Hello, There is a sale in the PlayStation Store right now. Routes that are on sale include: Birmingham Cross-City Line, East Coastway, Peninsula Corridor, Ruhr Sieg Nord, West Somerset Railway, Hauptstrecke Rhein-Ruhr, Harlem Line, Great Western Express, Clinchfield Railroad, Cathcart Circle Line, Oakville Subdivision, Spirit of Steam and Cajon Pass. Can anyone recommend any of these routes? I’m not really into North American freight, so those are automatically ruled out. The one that I’m the most interested in is the Birmingham Cross City Line, almost purely because of the fact that it’s the newest route on the list and it has the upgraded TSW3 lighting and the Class 323 which sounds lovely. It is available for 21,57 € which means it’s a sale of 40%. Can anyone recommend the Birmingham Cross City Line at that price? Spirit of Steam is available for the same price but I would prefer the Birmingham Cross City because I’m more into modern trains than older steam locomotives. East Coastway is available at a lower price of 14,97 €. I really like the route itself and the fact it features the branch lines in the east makes it even better. The only problem I have with it is the rolling stock. I am not the biggest fan of drivning Electrostars. The Class 313 is on sale at the moment too, though. It costs 7,67€ which means that I could buy the Class 313 and the East Coastway route for about the same price as the Birmimgham Cross City Line. The 313 would also layer onto London Commuter, which would make that a more interesting drive too. If you could choose between buying the Birmingham Cross City Line or East Coastway + the Class 313, which would you buy? Obviously there’s many other routes on sale too, as I mentioned in the beginning, but these two are at the top of my list. Of course, if anyone recommends one of the routes I mentioned in the beginning, please tell me. Please also mention what’s so good and special about it.
It is a hard one. East Coastway is quite an old route but I think one of the best looking still, the scenery really captures the area well. For me though it should have gone to Hastings or Ore, you don't get the full route, although you get the Seaford branch too, which for me is the best part of it as it is where the class 313 runs, which I would recommend with it as I it a nicely modelled train, the last ones were removed from service in the last few days I believe. With the Cross City you get a complete route and complete timetable and one of the best modelled trains in the sim. It has a few irritating faults though like the signals not being easy to distinguish between yellow and red, apart from some still slightly sparse scenery at the beginning of the Redditch branch it is nicely modelled. As you say you get the TSW3 features, not everyone thinks they are an improvement though, personally I do in the main. I would probably go for Cross City if I had to choose but only just, unless you weren't getting the 313, then I would definitely say Cross City.
Birmingham Cross City is a good one and I will be showing that off on Dovetails YouTube Channel from just after 5pm UK as it happens if you want to look at the route in the daytime and on PlayStation. The link is here
I’d say the east Coastway, whilst cross city is a nice route, ecw has more than one type of traction and service variety. The 377 does Brighton-Eastbourne services, and the 313 does Brighton-Seaford and Brighton-Lewes services. There’s much more variety on east Coastway and there is a depot to compliment that, something bcc doesn’t have
I have a bias towards several of the routes due to my personal preferences. East coastway has been my favorite route due to it being picturesque and rural. The 313 adds some nice variety and it is an interesting unit to drive due to the weaker brakes and the camshaft controls. If you are on a ps5, you get the 313 layer on bml. I like cathcart due to it being a frequent stopper service. On the actual cathcart circle, the stops are really close together. You will also notice the brakes aren't the strongest so you have to balance the speed you are going at and when to start braking so you don't overshoot and be late. It offers really good service variety. You got the cathcart circle, newton and neilston branch as well as shields depot. It is a 1 train route with a huge glasgow station, so it will feel empty, but I am all for service variety. WSR although scenic and picturesque, is quite slow. Max speed is around 25mph with several stretches going as slow as 5mph. It takes around 90min to finish an end to end service. Bcc is a 1 train route so birmingham new street will feel empty. Sounds, physics, simulation and timetable are excellent imo. It has stations that are close together and a single service can take around around 20-90 minutes. Peninsula corridor is a bit dated in terms of environmental details. It does have excellent service variety from local, semi express, express, freight and other fun tasks if you include the shunter. There are some issues, but it's just alright until it gets fixed. RSN is mostly a scenic german freight route. There are some passenger services, but the primary focus is on freight. HRR is great with other layers such as msb and the 101 dlc. I am biased towards gwr since I like driving the 43 on high speed services. The 166 gives commuter and the 66 gives freight services. The 166 layers into bml as playable and the 43 makes a rare ai only appearance. I personally prefer ecw and cathcart circle.
BCC is a basically aone trick pony so ECW wins in terms of variety for me even though there's only a limited freight timetable.
I would personally go for East Coastway and the 313. The route is pretty much complete, no obvious bugs or errors and everything is done to a high quality. Signals work, speed limits correct etc. The fact you have two lines also adds to the fun and the timetable can be satisfying. It comes from that golden age of quality routes like Northern Transpennine and Ruhr Seig-Nord. The 313 is very nice to drive and sounds great.
If I were you go for ECW since you can get it's Class 66 to run on other routes like BCC GWML combined with RHTT DLC if purchased. Are you into NYC Commuter rail with Working PTC then get Harlem Line.
Another vote for East Coastway. Much more variety than BCC and if you get the 313 as well it’s quite nice. BCC is also nice and you can’t really go wrong with either of them. I just got bored of it more quickly despite having lived there and travelled on it for a few years (well before it’s current setting).
Can´t comment on BCC or SOS. But ECW is one of those older routes where you still can feel the love of the devs for details and the extra mile they were walking. And it´s not the dreadful stutter fest like BRO in example. PS5 cuts trough ECW like a hot knife the butter.
Steam have had a total sale now Play Station, so what about an XBox sale? How about it Microsoft? Will you do one for when the PS sake ends on everything routes and locomotives too. It’s about time Microsoft gave the community a decent sale other that just a few selected routes now and then and make it for everyone not just Game Pass members.
