Is it just me, or does anyone else avoid night time runs ? I'm doing the "Winter Wonderland" scenario on ECML at the moment and it's just a total ZZZZZfest. Nothing to see. Boring.
Not really my point though, I was wondering if anyone else here never really bothered with the night runs is all.
I love driving (and back in the day for real, travelling) on night trains but the experience can be disappointing in TSW due to the many documented issues with lighting.
I like them. Super challenging. Takes me many runs to learn a route well enough that I'm able to drive in a way I'm happy with by day (with no HUD). Then I drive a night service, all the landmarks I memorized are hardly visible, the route feels different, I can't see far ahead and I have to learn the route again, now focusing much more on the signalling and kilometer signs. (but yeah the lighting could look much, much better)
I did an early morning Glossop run with light snow and it was enjoyable. Got some fog rolling in halfway the run too.
Ever turned your headlights off on a country road at night, with no moon, surprise! it's dark, personally i love driving night routes its like the final exam after putting in all the effort of learning a route and loco, lighting could do with more attention paid to it TBH but overall i find the challenge fulfilling, gives you a glimpse at what drivers used to deal with on a daily basis, personally gave me allot more respect for there profession. Take Care Gary
Nothing wrong with night runs. Makes a change from always doing a run during the day (night time with snow is challenging with heavy freight).
Night runs are fine if there is ambient light from buildings and street lighting to add to the moonlight. It's unfortunate that, in the UK at least, trains don't have effective headlights ( and don't give me that argument about being seen rather than seeing ahead ). Driving in the pitch dark is ridiculous and unrealistic for routes in Birmingham, Manchester or Glasgow. It does nothing to make the game playable. On the " bright " side, ECML, for instance, is acceptable and, to some extent recreates the decent night lighting of SPG, GWE and DRA.
Blackpool - Preston is good at night. There’s ambient lighting in urban areas. In rural areas it’s pitch dark (UK trains of the era having lights to be seen rather than for the Driver to see ahead isn’t an ‘argument’, it’s a fact) but you can see enough of the things you need to be able to see (signals, stations, overbridges) to know where you are if your route knowledge is good enough. Once you can drive it at night it’s very satisfying.
I actually really enjoy driving in the dark in TSW, it is very immersive too as I have the room pitch black. I find both BPO and PBO-DON have very nice lighting to drive in as well.
Real drivers have functioning headlights, reflective signage and plenty of light sources in the surroundings and in the distance to give them some ambient lighting and feeling of the surrounding area. TSW headlights are almost nonexistent on most locomotives and barely any routes have reflective signage. And even if they have scenery light sources, quite often they are too few and not visible from a distance. So can't compare TSW night driving and real life night driving.
Some routes and some trains can give a good night run whilst others can be pretty poor. I quite like starting off in darkness and seeing it gradually getting lighter throughout a service. I do tend to drive more daytime services though because it is more enjoyable being able to see the scenery.
Yes, Blackpool is OK for the most part. I too like to see my surroundings, so I drive mostly in daylight or twilight. There are some routes like Clinchfield, Glossop, BCC and Cathcart that I simply cannot drive at night because they are totally dark and no fun at all.
I would suggest driving with snow at night. At least you can see things and it's quite cosy. The worst thing for me are the station lights that don't come on until a certain time of day - no matter what the light levels. So you can drive in winter at around 6pm, everything is pitch black and then you arrive at a busy station which is also pitch black.
For those on PC the below mod extends the times the lights are on: https://www.trainsimcommunity.com/m...s-tsw4-seasonal-daylight-timers-and-emissives
I wouldn’t say Blackpool is that great at night. You are approaching to what is a large coastal city/conurbation in all but name and there is zero ambient light pollution. Running along the backs of the houses between Lytham and Blackpool South every house has the light on in every room, but it is flat effectively no better than how we did night textures in MSTS giving the material a half bright property in TSM and replacing the day black glass texture with a creamy off white colour.
what puts me off with night time schedules is the lack of ambient lighting in the locomotive cab. there is always a faint glow from the instruments and warning lights, even if these are dimmed (as they should be) yet, you have outside lights still shining through the cab walls and rear bulkhead?
