Marias Pass - Ten Years Old, Still 20$, Is It Worth It ?

Marias Pass: Shelby - Whitefish Route Add-On



Ten years old, still 20$, is it worth it ?

 

One of the great routes of all time.

 

Wait for a sale, it goes for pretty cheap nowadays.

 

Will be on the steam sale end of October for Halloween!

The great thing about this route is, that it is a required asset for a few good workshop routes.

 

It comes with equipment and was a major blocker for anything American, even some European workshop.
Home to the Empire Builder and by extension a great place to run any Amtrak roster (and predecessors).
Graphically looks a bit dated / bare at places, challenge-wise it's another mountain (and a hill), length is fair (150mi), overall I'd probably pick Canadian Mountain Passes and possibly Stevens Pass first.
I don't see people playing it a lot, but definitely some. (Judging by screenshots.) However it may have been crippled by the licensing troubles that is now history, so instead of a string of DLC like Donner or Sherman, it has very few. (Unless you count the Cajon Pass ones.)

As Blacknred81 pointed out, the proper approach to (old) TSC content is to wait for sale and hoard based on regional interest.
Apart from the first year of accepting the limits and typical mistakes of the sim and its team, I've yet to be disappointed by DLC. Of course I'm running the Dolores pearl - Some people choose to see the ugliness, I choose to see the beauty.

 

Yes. It opens up loads of third party content and it is a great route in its own right.

 

Yes and no, it was made back when RSC/DTG still cared so it's got a load of custom assets, however the quality of the landscape scenery leaves a lot to be desired by modern standards, it's also still got the standard array of DTG signaling issues. It's absolutely worth grabbing on sale though.

 

There is also a 3rd party update in the works at RWA thread link here: https://railworksamerica.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=24698&sid=4d7313e4efef9c20df3d3cdd34228492

 

Great for MSTS nostalgia too

 

A few months ago it was on sale for £1.49 which was a total bargain.

 

Burlington Northern U25 loco addon needs Marias Pass. https://store.steampowered.com/app/...urlington_Northern_U25/?curator_clanid=958135

 

The U25 pack needs something else, but I won't say anything.

 

Yes. The scenarios that come with them are for Maria's Pass.

 

Can't comment on this route specifically but a general rule for me when it comes to buying DLC is thou shalt not pay more than 50% of the RRP.

My advice is to note DLC that interest you on your wish list, wait for sales and buy the one or two at the best discount. I'd add that older DLC may lack some of the detail you'd expect now but they can still be well worth having and the older items are often heavily discounted in sales.

 

That price is nearly 50% off from the new price.

 

Yep, that's the reason why I bought it. There's even recreations of MSTS scenarios on the workshop.

 

Yes, I have the MSTS scenarios. I think that the gradients were far too steep in the MSTS version.

 

They were.


Marias and Stevens Pass (plus the enhanced and backdated GN Cascadian available from RailworksAmerica) are my most played routes, that's where I feel home. Gorgeous mountain scenery and powerful US freight locos.

 

There's also the merged Marias Pass/Montana Hi-LIne on the workshop - basically allowing you to drive from Whitefish all the way to Havre. A good 6hr trip if you go slow enough.

As I don't have the Hi-Line I did a trip using the Virgin Class 220 Voyager that came with the original North Wales Coastal. Seeing as I had the tilting mechanism enabled, I was able to achieve higher speeds and did the Whitefish to Shelby section in just under 2hr.

 

Running a Voyager on an American route - did that a bit ago on the Canadian Mountain Passes.

 

The Just Trains Voyager comes with a fictional Amtrak livery (and a DB one) and scenarios for Castle Rock and Cajon Pass.

 

Yep

 

That’s not Amtrak it’s Trans Pennine

 

It's funny how the Amtrak livery looks nothing like Amtrak and is clearly a recoloured XC livery.

 

It is not meant to be Amtrak but a fictional US livery.

From the JT website for the Voyager
LIVERIES
Seven liveries are included:

• CrossCountry (current)
• CrossCountry (transitional)
• Virgin Trains 'Flowing Silk' (221101 '101 Squadron')
• Virgin Trains mid-2000s Red with CrossCountry logo
• Virgin Cross Country
• USA fictional
• German fictional

 

And the 'German fictional' livery is clearly meant to be ICE. With a colour scheme not dissimilar to Amtrak's Phase V scheme I think it's pretty obvious what they were going for.

 

It's not a bad try. My first thought was Phase 5 as well. The Chargers show that Amtrak was always a bit flexible with the liveries. I just scanned the AEM-7, the Acela, the ACS-64 and the P42DC, they all have their own significant changes, how long the blue goes back, does it have a black surround near the windows, are the coaches striped, are they gray... I agree the similarity might be too much, but the livery adds something.

Both of the previous generation of Amtrak coach types (Amfleet and Superliner) are essentially stainless steel, represented as a brighter gray, even gathering some confusion (recent thread about why aren't they dark). European stuff is anything but, so some creativity with the livery was needed anyway.

'sides, it would be time to bring the Flirt 3 to US soil. Could be a quick win, relatively.

 

FLIRT's have already entered services on a handful of routes

TEXRail


Metrolink Arrow


DART (2025)

 

Yes, I meant in-game. Wasn't precise enough with the wording!

 

This was one of my attempts a while back - unfortunately I didn't do too well though.

 

True, it feels too slow for those trains. Even for a 101, although Gear 2 is perfect for Donner Pass.
I ran this a couple years ago. It's fun because it's a different environment I've yet to find in British routes.

 

Modern era as it's BNSF who runs the route

 

Modern means it's in BNSF era.

There's a backdating kit offered by G-TraX for free that puts it into the 1950s.

 

Late 2000s Early 2010s most likely.

 

It include GEVOs (GE's successor to the "Dash 9") which were introduced to service in 2003, and are in the "Heritage 3" scheme, which was introduced in 2005. It also includes the SW1500 switcher locomotive, which has the old BN colour scheme with "BNSF" lettering, at least one SW1500 existed in this scheme as late as 2011. So basically 2005-2010, in common with many TSC routes released around that time.

 

There is a bit of history of the route in the manual and at the end, it says "Mission Mountain Railroad operates the line today transporting predominantly wood products and grain, and interchanges with the BNSF at Columbia Falls."

 

Actually, BNSF very recently took the Kalispell line back, apparently

 

Marias Pass update coming from RWA 20010-2020.

 

Let's not forget great Nick Ozorak's contemporary review - an awesome channel he had on YT.

 

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