Feature No More Frieght?

I think the last freight dlc we had was Sherman Hill. So far the route map shows all passenger routes (I'm not mad). I realized routes outside of the US are a mixture of passenger and freight. Unfortunately in the US it's not like that at all. Just curious where freight was ranked after the survey. I'm hoping we get another freight route announced soon.

 

Given the announcement that at least US freight is put on hold for the time being due to lack of access to references, you wont be seeing one for awhile....

 

Is the OP an actual suggestion or just an observation/question?

But yes, US freight seems to have gone into hiatus.

If you’re on PC there’s always Run 8 to take care of your needs. Get the whole SoCal network set up, a few loco and car packs, then grab the “Very Populated…” scenario from The Depot. Nearly 900 individual consists, locos and industry cars positioned on the map. Literally months if not years of gameplay sorting that lot out. I made a start the other evening setting off a few intermodals and MOW trains to off map destinations. Pulled the Buttonwillow branch with the new MP15 switchers along with cars from the far end at Saco. Now formed up in a manifest ready to take over to West Colton where I’ll use the hump to sort into outgoing formations, along with any cars waiting there. Emergent gameplay which sadly, despite the much better graphics, TSW can never fulfill as regards US freight.

 

Lack of access to reference makes it very challenging. Unless you're happy with reused sounds and trains. Dtg have also received a lot of feedback from players saying "stop creating freight because it's not meeting their standards." It's either make it "perfect" or don't do it at all.

 

That's understandable

 

The last US freight route we got was Cajon pass in TSW 3..Antelope valley got a small freight service layer but have to have Cajon and Sherman hill to get es44c4vand SD70ace etch

 

For now with no new US freight stuff on the line up.. I just been making my own freights with the formation creator since it was released on consoles a few weeks ago since its a BETA not everything's working yet, ive found the only way to create a longer US freight is to spawn into free roam or timetable and can spawn 1 car at a time using the generic DTGX and RR s from the routes .its time consuming but i have made a few 60 or so car freights in SPG HSC NYT and had success. Used the SD70ace MP15 ACS 64 the acs64 does have freight setting on brakes mode guess for now US freight fans will have to try their own things etc ..hopefully at some point US freight will make a comeback ..get a upgraded freight route maybe SPG HSC or Clinchfield , that might be more possible to happen before a whole new freight route, be nice if at the least could get some new skins for existing US locos and cargo paks or new freight cars like steel coil cars ,gondolas , smaller tank cars and covered hoppers , even a 89 foot high cube auto parts box car.

 

I think the reference material and so on is only one of the reasons. The main reason are routes, that get Performance issues with the long american freight trains.

Examples:

1. CJP timetable

If you look for a service for the whole route, there is 1 only. From San Bernardino to Barstow. And if you choose that service, you have a lot of gamecrashes even on PS5.

2. Example

Clinchfield Railroad.

I built a nortbound empty Coaltrain starting at Dante. It had 2 F7A, 4 F7B, 93 Betlehem coal hoppers and 1 caboose. First you had massive stuttering. Than I made a safe game. But each time if I tried to load it, it crashed.

3. Boston Sprinter

Put a 80 car Intermodal train at the Tawpucket Yard era. Made the destination for it at the last freight yard before Boston. It crashed aufter 30 minutes.

4. New York - Trenton.

Put an 80 car Manifest to run from Secaucus Junction to Trenton in free roam at the complete timetable. It crashed many times.

If I made the same with the reduced timetable, there were no crashes.

Conclusions:

TSW needs massive optimization of memory use.

 

The train i set up in NYT i spawned on foot in free roam walked to the south of Trenton station near where cant go much further I spawned 2 ACS64 electrics 1 each of different creators club livery s set up brake mode to freight coupled the 2 units together , Then i spawned 50 SMH reefers it lets you spawn 50 only ,,then i spawned 10 different auto racks 1 at a time then coupled my engines to the racks and reefers, then set route to the tunnels .train ran fine for me reached top speed of 129mph with my train fast est freight on NEC ..Got trains to work on SPG HSC the clichfield route gave me instant deraiments when trying to couple up my engines to train at 1 to 2 mph. Still need to try sherman oakville cajon boston and LIRR 2

 

Also the other freight runs i used the SD70ace it operated fine compared to the Gevos had braking issues with them or the reverser would dissappear ..I enjoy running the SD70aces more now not a bad engine once you get used to operating them

 

also got the MP15 to work thats another favorite i use in free roam formations the peninula corridor and the HSC GP38 2 s work ok . The AC44s kinda iffy ,c40 8w runs decent , the SMH cane creek SD 40 2 s run ok ,,the SPG SD40 2 gp38 2 forget it... The GP9U is ok had a few issues in certain routes guess just trial and error to test what works and what don t.

 

I keep hearing this but I've never read those words on the forum. Since you use quotation marks perhaps you could reference the quote. Players have criticised some US freight routes for various reasons but no more than UK routes.

No-one here has called for DTG to stop making freight routes. Maybe another forum? Or it's purely chimeric. I suspect the latter.

 

TBF, I did sort of said something on that "DTG should stop making US routes as a whole due to terrible quality"

*shrug*

 

Not every quote is a direct comment from someone you know. Have you never done air quotes in conversation to make a point or emphasis? And here is a direct comment

from matt.

 

Thank you for your answer Matt. I'm on PS5 with additional 2 TB SSD.

 

I had disappeared reversers if I spawned an 50 car coal train from SPG with SD40 in the lead at Jamaica.

 

I ve had braking issues using the SD40 both the SPG csx sd40 and the clinchfield one ,, free roam and in game on tsw 4 i cant do any of the SD 40 scenarios on SPG cause the brakes either stop working or wont fully release..in TSW 2 i was able to complete 2 out of the 3 csx sd40 scenarios ,the clinchfield i cant complete the 2.00 hr dante yd switching scenario caus of brake issues brakes either no brake or brakes wont fully release or a few times the only way to stop was to apply emrgency braking .

 

After seeing what DTG did with LIRR 2.. They should highly consider doing that with a US freight route or routes would like to see SPG HSC clinchfield get this seems from what ive been reading in forums. That SPG is a fairly popular US freight route in TSW even with it being a older route .SPG was the route that got me into TSW also HSC was my first purchased DLC then got all the Us freight routes ..

 

There really isn't a US freight route that can be extended without the work into a full new route with not much changed in terms of the limited playability.

SPG? Too big to the next yard/ stopping point.
Clinchfield? Unless you extended it to the same point as the TSC version, but it doesn't really add anything but the exchange yard and track with the N&W
Sherman Hill? The missing track 3 but thats about it, maybe a redone Heritage Unit pack with proper textures, some new stock, but still not much else.
Cajon Pass? I want the UP trackage from West Colton to the Pass, and from Daggett east of Barstow to Yermo, with proper mixed traffic, but that may be a bit much.....

 

Would like to see scenery improvement s TOD4 , A route extension like on SPG maybe extension from Rockwood Pa to Conellsville PA or Rockwood to Confluence Pa , one problem.could be including the high and low grade lines that start in Confluence Pa csx operates both directions but low grade is used more by heavy EB trains ..the Clinchfield maybe similar scenery improvements. And route extension be neat to include the famous Copper Creek Viaduct its a Clinchfield land mark and popular photo sopt for railfans.HSC i know its a skyhook route but similar make scenery TOD4 maybe extend route to Conpit JCT just west of Johnstown sang hollow extension Track 3 , the large power plant could be included at New Florence pa it burns coal and served by NS .. Also maybe new locomotives could be considered bring the SD70ace to HSC so could have the rest of NS heritage fleet , Add the ES44ah from HSC to sand patch and other routes with UP CSX BNSF skins and some new freight cars and cargo paks with new scenarios also would be neat to have CSX era on Clinchfield since they operate the line currently like west somerset have classic and modern CSX timetable scenarios..

 

M

Maybe if no route extension s guess just give freight a make over and do new routes that have great scenery to run through like large steel trestles AKA feather river route on UP or a route that has decent amount of freight and passenger traffic in 1..there are lots but licencig or access is major road block

 

Thats great to hear about the latest update on Clinchfield ..The 1 thing that may make extending to conellsville it would be a end to end crew run in earlier csx days crews ran Conellsville to Cumberland , then slowly csx eliminated that by extending crews to run cumberland to New Castle Pa quite a distance ,, but other important operations in Conellsville it s a base for adding pushers on the west slope of SPG back in chessie system B&O days it was busy small hump yard

 

Wow that would be nice. That would be the CSX Kingsport Sub. Gevos and SD70Ace in blue would be very nice there.

 

But why? CSX only ever had 20 of them, and they got rid of them. Should put more focus on expanding the Gevo than chasing a niche loco on a Class 1's roster.

 

If

Thank you for that facts. That means they have SD70M and SD70MAC in use.

 

An ES44AC in CSX liviery and with operational radiators like the BNSF ES44C4.

 

they could add SD70 Macs SD70m engines sound similar to SD70ace also could use ES44c4 engine sounds for ES44ah they could use C40 8w sounds and make standard cab C40 8 s could do SD50 s 60s etc engine sounds all similar. Also the ac44 could be layered

 

CSX does have Ge Dash 7 in use too?

 

as for retro they could add the Gp7 GP 9 to clinchfield original route they have similar engines that in the F7

 

no they no longer use dash 7 models back in the 90s early 2000s rhey did

 

to

day csx uses es44ah es44dc ET44ah ,rebuilt SD70 macs , AC4400 there are still a small amount of C40 8w s running GP38s GP40 2 for locals still some SD40 2 s too

 

the ET44 s would probably require new sound access so those wouldnt be done ..CSX is having old AC 4400 s rebuilt into AC44CWM they just get the newer GEVO cab s but same sounding engine as AC4400 still

 

UP, CN NS CP CSX are all getting these new rebuilt AC44cwm models since the brand new locomotives are more expensive and the market is kinda stagnant for them

 

CSX had 10 leased ST70aces for a few years they were in CSX paint , but about 2 years ago CSX sent them back to progress EMD that model kinda a flop only UP still runs SD70aceT4 s csx labeld thirs as ST70aceT4

 

That's cool. I really like the route idea. but got stuck after loading the first batch on the first journey and gave up since I don't know much of anything on USA railroads. I'm willing to give the route another shot though.

I hear a lot of positivity on route extensions. LIRR being the first paid redo with an extra branch plus the removal of certain things because of licenses has been recieved pretty badly but after seeing the stream and the work that went into it I'm considering getting it on a sale. I still feel a full route price is steep if there's only a 10% loyalty discount. but hey that's what future sales are for. I think that if everyone will like something is a bad thing to go off. the community wants a lot of different things first. we all want a lot of routes over the entire world with all the existing rolling stock that drives or for historical timetables drove there. new functions and no bugs at all and everything to TOD4 are also really cool. but in the end priorities have to be made and there's always someone dissagreeing with that. For example the thread on extending Dresden - Riesa. there are about 5 different paid options to extend the route. some bringing something new. some extending what we already have. some in between. and some people prefer certain services to other ones, so you can never please everyone. unless the wrong build shown like Fife circle happens. there is no way to completely unite the forum. TSW5, Preservation, New routes or rolling stock, updates or extentions to existing stock.

All is now a sensitive subject to talk about with no to few communication on why stuff has been decided to be let out. People really are unhappy why there are only 1116 and Bmz coaches for Semmering on IC, EC, RJ and EN services. instead of an answer that everyone wanted that is probably "we want to add all of that should drive there and will try to get that in with later DLC or updates, the current stock for Railjet are placeholders to make the route less empty" we got in a stream after months of asking "wait we only made one coach? oh I guess we had no time" that leaves so much speculation and conspiracy theories. and with no change to that communication. stuff like the BR 420 and HMA thread will be a regular thing on the forums.

with that being way longer than what I wanted to say I really hope to see some way to get US freight back in the game. although my personal interest isn't that big for it. it would be sad to see it go down like steam. with all the negativity on the forums I have to say since the goblin the EU releases have been way above my expectations and I hope to see only more progress and quality. same goes for skyhook on MML. hope they look at the 187 one day but rivet can learn a thing or two from skyhook. if there is another month of no news on a FCL update or fix I am suprised the release hasn't been held to fix the problems.

 

Thank you for your information mate.

 

I think even GE soled more of it's ET44 Tier4 locos at all arent such an success than Tier2 locos. The reason I think that they don't have so much advantages than Tier 2 locos by their arrival. When Tier 2 locos appeared around 2002 they substituted mainly older SD40, 50 and older GE locos. In opposite to that AC44, C40, AC44 and SD70, SD70M and SD70MAC were not old enough for substitution. Compared with that older locos, that Tier 2 locos had 3 advantages:

1. Lesser fuel consumption
2. More sustainability
3. More Power (so you need lesser locos for on train [for instance 2 Gevos instead of 3 SD40-2])

The only negative thing was the higher price.

Tier 4 locos came into a completely different environment:

At 2016 the fast majority of existing mainline locos were Gevos, AC44, C40, C44 and SD70 (in all variations).

So one of the advantages the higher power wasn't at the side of Tier 4 locos.

So the Class 1 operators prefered to rebuild their existing locos with more efficient prime movers instead of buying the much more expensive Tier4 locos. One example is the the rebuilding of Dash 8 locos to AC locos at the wonderful NS Altoona workshops.

 

High Matt. What you said about Clinchfield CSX timetable brought me to the following idea:

What about an Chessie System timetable for SPG (similar like the Diesel Legends for GWE). The rolling stock we could get from CCR with new paintings for the SD40 and F 7 snd the Bethlehem Coalhoppers.

 

Yes Ge been the dominant US locomotive manufacturer for a good while now EMD used to be the king , i never thought back in the day ge would snuff out EMD as the dominant loco mfg here in US

 

1. The Chessie System never repainted any F7's into their scheme.
2. There really isn't much stock difference that would make it much more interesting aside from a new coat of paint.

I guess if DTG wanted to pursue that route, they could mix in Chessie paint with B&O, C&O, and WM painted units, but they haven't done anything like that since SPG released. Would open the F7 back into the question but it would be a mess trying to make it work.

They would also have to make sure to get the sub lettering correct with each road number, as each loco still retained their original owners marking on the cab.

 

I ment Tier 4 freight locos at all aren't such successful than Tier2 locos.

About the question GE or EMD. I like both. Especially it wouldn't be good for american freight if there would be one monopolist loco manufacturer. Competition is allways good for further development.

 

that sure would be sweet to play old chessie timetable in SPG ..but there is a lot of cool retro liveries in creators club to download and play thats what i do in free roam etc

 

Would be great if DTG brought a CSX ES44ah to SPG and CSX clinchfield modern timetable if the latter happens .the could do CSX heritage unit paks even though a lot of railfans here in US are complaining about the way csx has chosen to paint them , I personaaly am glad csx is doing heritage units ive seen a few of them in person on my local csx line

 

I love the Chessie Systems livery.

And I would like to add longer trains like at SMH, HSC and and CJP.

 

Matt said somthing on another forum about they working on more improvement for formation editor . I hope they can work on the US freight train length to make longer trains be able to use creators club livery freight cars and not have it crash or say not enough space or memory etc