Did Dtg Give Up On Us Fright Routs Are They Not Profitable No More It Seems Like It's Just Been Pass

Hopefully it includes freight and it is not (commuter) passenger only.

 

There is still some routes that can incorporate both.

-Amtrak California and UP/BNSF
-Amtrak Pacific Surfliner and UP/BNSF
-Metro North Hudson Line and CSX
-NEC NY to New Haven with CSXs Oak Point Yard

 

Surfliner would be cool. Driving the trains at the Pacific coast. Amtrak action with the iconic Genesis locos besides impressive UP and BNSF trains.

 

The important thing for load freight in mountains is that it gets there, not that it gets there fast. Some of the monster compounds of the WW1 era (like the Virginian 2-10-10-2 AEs or the Erie 2-8-8-8-2 Triplexes) could only do 5-10 mph flat out! But OTOH they generated 175,000 lbf of tractive effort up those grades.

 

Reading through some of these recent posts by DTG Matt and others it seems it’s more about the style of future content to see, rather than worries that they are going to downgrade quality for reasons of it’s easier and sells more.

I suppose theirs comfort in that

though I definitely think sales should continue as a higher parameter than player numbers when deciding similar style routes, can’t say I’m a fan of it being judged by player hours or whatever DTG uses to track this as much tbh.

edit: with regards to Clinchfield, I’m not really an American freight fan for multiple reasons probably the main being too slow for me most of the time, though I don’t rule routes out because of that and I have a fair few American freight routes.

Though when the route first got announced I was interested, I picked it up at release I think it was, haven’t played loads of it but put a fair amount of time (fair in my sense, that will vary by person) 25mph is something what kind of stops me going back as often (same with WSR) scenery I quite like (LGV scenery is ok but distant scenery is it’s problem I think)

 

Thing is the PS uses SC-44 Chargers, so dont expect any if a PS route comes out in the future unless its part of a later P42DC DLC.

 

Yep on peninsular corridor, the only thing holding me back from playing it more is the scenery. The route, and the services as well as loco DLC is all great on it.

 

Realistic?
Cajon Pass is a very steep grade.
It is normal to spend a good hour or so just climbing a mountain grade.

Look at 27 minutes 30 seconds in.



Train Sim World IS realistic. The train physics are realistic.

 

Yup, so realistic I cant throttle up SD40-2's when spawned in free road....
So realistic, I cant MU a UP AC44 to a SD70Ace, but I can the other way around.....

 

ROFLOL.

Steam locos anyone?

 

I have to say Clinchfield is still one of my favourite routes. Despite the bugs and bad night lighting, I really enjoyed the different branches ja services etc.

 

Completely agree with you.

 

Hello DTG Matt,
Thanks so much for the detailed engagement with this thread. Understanding the behind the scenes business side of route production decision making is very helpful.
Obviously I'm personally very keen on seeing a South Florida route come to fruition in TSW. I seem to remember that when you were working with Tri-Rail to obtain licensing for the TSC route, Tri-Rail was somewhat cordial and approachable to your inquiry, but at the time simply did not have an organizational system in place to handle the administrative and legal process of granting a logo license.
I'm hopeful that might be changing as they now appear to have a contact person for that purpose. I attached a screenshot with the info from their website.

For what it's worth, I would be happy to help out in any capacity that might be useful to you as I'm located in West Palm Beach. Maybe a face to face meeting with Tri-Rail could get the ball rolling. I'm also receptive to doing any support task you and your team may deem helpful with regard to photos, sound samples, local knowledge, etc. Please feel free to contact me if I can help in any way to make any of this happen.

 

There is a Shortline RR game set in the 50's coming out this month on steam early access, so those devs think it's worth a shot. It's about building up your own company from scratch. Personally like Matt, I think this would make great subject matter for some dlc here, but it seems the masses are obsessed with racing from A-B as fast as their little choo choo can take them. I reckon serving industries down a shortline with numerous spurs and switching requires far more skill and thinking. I don't know what that says about the masses, draw your own conclusions.

 

If LGV Mediterranee is so popular, why did DTG never make any DLC for it?

 

Said it before, one of the best parts of Run 8 is not the 400 mile drag from Fresno to Seligman but sorting out all the locals, running to and from the industry spurs (or Trona) leaving the cars for several in game hours (varies from anything between 2 and 48 or even more) at the various locations. Pick them up and form into outgoing manifests, using the humps at Barstow and West Colton where you can.

 

Right.

Or another LGV route.

Or another route set in France.

On the one hand, DTG have created scarcity for anyone who would be interested in French content. On the other, we have several options available for US freight, one of which, CRR, is apparently not that popular. Perhaps if there were many French routes and CRR was the only US freight route, things would be different.

Again, a good example of how comparisons between DLC can be so fraught with complications.

 

Let's see - - - the last "Fright Rout" I can remember was a long ago Halloween special for Train Simulator. No insult to the OP intended, especially since I thoroughly agree with him about the ongoing drought of U.S. freight routes as well as a dearth of switching. But let's note that TSW4 has added a number of both (through freight and switching) types of activities to extant European and American routes. I'd like to see some of the freight (oh, okay, and passenger) routes that used to fill so much of that now rail-less territory before Eisenhower proclaimed a need for the interstate highway system: a triumph for truckers, a rout for railroaders.

 

The only other french route dtg made in tsc was the extension to lyon but that's longer than the longest route in game.

Another thing to consider is the new safety and signaling systems if they need to be modeled and simulated. Another is access to reference material.

 

Infamously there was loco DLC as well.

 

There is the cross border route of Bahnstrecke Strasbourg - Karlsruhe

 

DTG Matt: I live close enough to Baltimore to be willing to do a photo run for you at the B&O Museum. I could also, within reasonable driving distance, book a railtour with the desired period coaches and get very snap-happy on the trip.

 

Yes please

 

Another one which I've mentioned before and something a bit different is the old Milwaukee Road electrified section through the mountains, with the "Little Joe" locos. Avery to Drexel is probably one of the few default routes I evr drove in Trainz, simply to experience this delightful route and unique experience.

 

DTG employee Kevin McGowan was working on one for TSC way back in the day, but he kind of disappeared.


Even ported the EF-4 to UE4 to be in TSW back when it was still new.


These photos were found on his Flickr.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/23134467@N05/

 

Me want!!

 

Now that would be a dream come true for me. The available freeware Milwaukee Road electrified sections were enough to get me back into Open Rails. What I wouldn’t do to get my hands on these old-school electrics in TSW…

 

But surely if LGV is popular, then DTG would've make another one by now. Sure they would have to gather refrence material, but they do that for most routes anyways. I don't think it's impossible for them to make another SNCF route but it doesn't seem like they want too. Yet they will make slow heavy freight routes that don't seem to be popular. It does seem odd to me

 

they’ve also said BR wasn’t popular but made 3 DLC’s I think it is for 2 BR routes (4 if you class DLotGW as BR dlc for GWE)

guess dlc doesn’t take into account popularity all too often.

 

The most recent of the loco DLCs you mentioned was released over 2 years ago.

Look at TSW3, DTG themselves didn't release any packs for anything other than the 3 core routes. It wouldn't surprise me if the reason they recently switched from a planned German loco to an Austrian one is the same, more people will own the core Vorarlberg route than any particular German add-on route.

The only real hope for loco add-ons to anything not a core route will be via third-parties.

 

timeframes don’t matter, things take a time to get round to, they wouldn’t release dlc for a route what didn’t sell, that dlc was also locked to each of them routes at the time.

it’s that or DLC for DLC isnt depending on sales of the original, or BR never sold bad like they say.

 

Sad news and RIP.
Would be nice to see Avery to Drexel or similar with the “Joes” at some point as a remembrance.

 

That's terrible...
Rest in Piece Kevin, hope you can drive all the trains and routes up there...

 

Sad news, indeed. For what it’s worth, my condolences to friends and family. Still, hopefully his vision of Little Joes in TSW will come true someday.

 

That's definitely good to see that there are US 3rd parties who have decided to come onboard for TSW and interested in seeing what they have planned

 

It's unfortunate that the class 1s don't allow for recording trips but as you've said before on streams they do have railroads to run and don't have the time for a train simulator you all did get close to doing a recording trip out in Colorado with Union Pacific until covid ruined it

 

Would that rule out a 3rd party deciding to make a loco for it?

 

Nightmare of a CRR loco DLC by DTM......

 

I would happily buy a shortline dlc, but for me if a dlc has slow speed limits it needs a good scenery to keep me entertained (NID or BPO level). But even on other routes I would like to see the local industries served where appropriate (like what you tried with RSN and the 363 dlc, even if some industries are still lacking service)

 

Three pages in and not one post playing off the typo in the OP and requesting a halloween themed ghost train DLC in the same, ahaem, "spirit" as the holiday express?

 

Same here. Living in England I see our own clanky old stuff all the time, so I tend to go for the heavy U.S freight most of the time. Like yourself, I respect them wanting to do passenger routes, but I too hope we get some more heavy America.

 

So been playing SPG today, and despite it being the 1st TSW route, it still holds up so well.

No floating or sinking buildings.
No ugly crossings.
Only some minor issues with distant textures, on top of the change from clear to snowy, which looks funny.
Nice amount of Unique assets along the route to help you dictate where you are.

Even the ballast blends better with the scenery than newer routes.

Its not a perfect route, but it still holds up better than Sherman Hill or Cajon Pass.....

 

Might pay a visit to SPG myself after.

 

The only odd thing, is that I never saw a AC44 spawn in, all the road trains had SD40-2s on them aside from 1 coal train with a lone Dash 8.

 

holiday express was the end of a dream for me...

 

I play it regularly. It's my go to route for freight. Still the standard for quality route building in TSW.

Took a long time to build and it shows.

 

Im curious if Sand Patch Grade would ever be open for a TOD4 upgrade, as well as some new loco DLC's. Could use some SD80MAC's or smaller packs with the ES44s. A retro Chessie pack would be fun too (If done properly)