I'll put the german (Dresden Riesa) route aside since it's just a recycled TSW3 route.(It's already very well outfitted with rail options) But one has to wonder why the...Antelope Valley line didn't get a exrta freight train option as well. I know this line doesn't see any significant freight traffic but still it wouldn't have been to much of a hardship to recycle one of DTG extensive US freight diesel engines and a few different freight cars as a extra train option.(Why should the Antelope Valley Line be the only one who needs to get it's freight option by owning a diesel freight route already.) Since both the East Coast Main Line & S-Bahn Vorarlberg line got themselves a freight option. With the tried and true BR 66(+Wagons) for the ECML and a DB BR 185.2(+Wagons) for the S-Bahn Vorarlberg line. Did a bit of checking and a few UP AC4400's pulling a container train and some piggyback trailers as well would fit this lines history very well.(And all of these are already in game.)
Look the german route included is also great plus even thou it's recyced it's still full of all kinds of usefull pulling power and passenger and freight options which just makes the antelope valley line feel like it got short changed even more.
Maybe I don’t understand the question, but we have options for UP from Sherman Hill and BNSF from Cajon Pass. Santa Fe F7 even has a service. I don’t know that there’s anything else that they could’ve added but maybe someone else knows that US West region better.
Your right that the TSW game already has great US freight routes but the BR 66 & DB 185.2 are already in game but these two where still added to the new routes instead of just being layered into those routes.So why shouldn't the antelope valley get itself a included freight train option as well instead of only getting one if you own a US freight route.
Oh, I see what you mean now. Yea, I don’t know why sometimes these things are included with the route (GP-38 on Peninsula Corridor) and sometimes these things are layered.
It was IMO a poor decision by DTG to not include at least 1 loco and 1 piece of rolling stock with the route, changes could of been made to the UP SD70ACe to make it different from the SMH one (Like an SD70AH), it could of had updated physics similar to how the BNSF GEVO is. But now the playable layers are a confusing mismatch of 2 DLC in which 1 operator doesn't even run here. But more people own Cajon Yet the route features AI trains that only appear if you have Sherman Hill.... Not to mention a BNSF SD40-2 is layered in to spawn at the water treatment plant, a place you can't even access (Even funnier the bridge to the plant is missing so you have floating tracks....) Either way, it's done and DTG isn't gonna change it. So it is what it is.....
I know better then to think DTG would ever do anything about this.But they ask for players 2 cents and this was just my observation after seeing what the situation currently is.
I finally had a chance to check out the route more fully and the amount of track between LA Union station and the LA river basin is staggering.There all kinds of possible freight possibility.Not to mention many other areas with extra track on this route.Including some type of freight option should have been a no brainer.
The plain truth is that DTG did a real disservice to US players by not including a freight train in AVL as they did with Voralberg and ECML and requiring extra route purchases for freight layers. They made some strange noises about " most people already own the required route(s) " but that is so far from a valid reason as to imply that we US fans are less than normally intelligent. We didn't swallow it and it will forever stick in our collective craw.
DTG made it sound like since it's mostly a single track route that there wasn't much use for any freight but if you own some it will layer in even if it limited use traffic.But if you look at the route,one can see a lot of possibilities for at least having some kind of freight included.Heck the track in the Los Angeles area alone had great potential.
Honestly, the freight potential with Antelope Valley was there, but it didnt happen..... -LATC? DTG if they had the time, could of added container loading to TSW, players could of worked the yard moving cars into each track for loading and unloading, its where at least 2-3 stack trains depart and 1 arrives daily. But instead what we got was just basic scenery, and not good one either. They didn't even reused assets from Cajon to represent LATC properly, and for some reason put warehouses on the property. -Vulcan Materials. This siding is literally labeled in game, TSW has the tools already for a rock unloading pit, why couldn't one been added here with a layered freight train representing the RVUSV train? Players take it from the Palmdale cutoff to the siding, unload, then send back empty. Yeah the train has been discontinued in 2020, but it would of added something interesting..... -The spur to the water treatment plant and LAAFP. The water treatment plant layers in tank cars and an SD40-2, yet you cant even access them due to the wall that kicks you out in free roam. Why? Who knows. But this area could of been cool to try and run the Sagus Flyer on there (With the long reversing move) And as far as the tracks to LAAFP go, they aren't really used, but this satellite image shows a 3-well car unit parked there, most likely due to a defect. If we got freight equipment with the route, a cool scenario would of been one where the player goes thru one of the defect detectors and has to place the bad order car out of their train.
