Update Cathcart Circle To Tod 4

More likely than you think! XD

 

The 158 would be able to operate edinburgh services (albeit as AI) usually on platform 2-4, at shields depot as static and driveable ECS moves to and from glasgow central, it would also be pretty intresting to have a few driveable services between Glasgow central and Newton on the 158s to recreate the diverts that have happened occasionally.
No 158s in this clip but it would increase timetable variety a lot

 

I would like to see it updated, like a lot of older TSW routes it is too dark in some circumstance and the night lighting is poor.

My first choice personally for an upgrade would be NTP, with a TOD4 upgrade, a new timetable featuring the class 31 and 3 car class 101's as well as train reporting numbers for the passenger trains.

However close behind would be Cathcart as it is a route I enjoy, being self contained and having what seems a complete timetable, I enjoy the class 314 too. Some different AI layers at Glasgow would be great to see.

 

Never been a fan of this route if I'm honest as I find it quite boring, plus the emptiness of Glasgow Central is frustrating. There are many other routes such as London Commuter that I'd like to see get TOD 4 first. However, saying that, I'd like every older route to be updated eventually to TOD 4, even better with a timetable/rolling stock update.

 

At this point, OP should probably change the thread title to "Update Cathcart Circle to ToD5"

Because if it gets ToD4 now, the route will be obsolete again when TSW5 gets announced in 6 months.

 

Well we don't even know if tsw5 is a thing or if the lighting is going to change. Tsw3 to 4 was the same exact lighting

 

Yes let’s have another slot taken up by ScotRail, seems fair…..not.

 

Better than another slot taken up by England imo.

 

They should really do something for Wales or NI. Though I guess pro rata for population Scotland is doing very well with 3 routes. Just a pity there are not more livery options up there like there are in England.
I have Fife Circle in TSC and it’s a nice route.

 

Well with the Class 380 coming to TSW4 maybe we will see this route get a TOD 4 update finally with this new add on so would be the perfect opportunity to update the route to TOD 4 DTG Matt

 

I wonder if it will include Announcements.

 

I only want them if it's the irl voice. I hate the depressed sounding rivet one.

 

I thought the rivet one did a decent job of it to be fair, betting than not having one and leaves open the option of replacing it with the real should it come about.

 

It definitely need to be. Those old TSW2 routes look dreadful now that we’re used to the new ones. I play London Commuter a lot and basically anything other than daylight looks horrible.

I’m not saying they have to go back and redo the route. But I don’t see myself going back to a TSW2 route to play a new loco. Even the 700 layered onto a reworked SEHS.

 

To be honest, the new lighting isn't that great either. The days tend to be too bright and washed out and a bunch of other things. That is why a mod exists to fix that

 

The new lighting isn’t perfect. But try those TSW2 routes at late afternoon/early evening. The sky looks absolutely hideous. It’s got this horrible yellow tinge to it that makes it look miserable.

 

Cathcart has bad night lighting, I don’t like using it for night time services.

 

Watch this space.

 

Yea. It's just I don't see dtg doing that. More likely modders will do that than anyone else.

 

The new lighting hasn't perfect that's true. In my opinion it's far better. On TSW2 routes you can be in the middle of a clear sunny day in summer and it still often feels like dusk and then you get into a cutting and it's like being plunged into late evening.

They really need upgrading in my opinion as otherwise they are some of the best routes.

 

The essential problem with Cathcart won't be cured by TOD. It's the fact the stations are in pitch darkness even during normal lighting up times. The surrounding conurbation is also darker than Edwardian days with gas lighting, let alone any ambient light. Sadly this remains an issue at the heart of most TSW content, they need to start learning how to make "night in the city" look like "night in the city". ATS and ETS2 manage this quite nicely and running WCML North and Shap in TSC also apparent how much nicer night time looks. Plus you have the pop up menu to tweak contrast etc. as you drive.

 

I find it strange - if they don't update Cathcart to ToD4 they'll have to make the new 380 use old "fake" lighting values. Which would then be problematic when running it on Fife or EG, basically locking the 380 for use with TSW2 routes only....

And I do agree Vern - the night lighting from Preston to Glasgow in TSC is just fantastic.

 

Well it's a good day for Cathcart!

Confirmed TOD4 lighting, much busier Glasgow Central, and various enhancements including new ballast and water for the River Clyde.

Today's stream mentioned other improvements to be talked about closer to release so it looks like Cathcart is effectively getting the remaster treatment. It's my favourite route so I'm delighted <3

 

Cathcart remains the best Scottish route solely because it's not a wasted potential with a poor timetable - and this will solidify that. It's a route much closer to me, personally, so seeing it brought up to standard, combined with half of the ScotRail fleet, will do me nicely. The 314 isn't something I can drive all day, so the variety will be more than welcome, especially with the 385.

 

I hope the new timetable will be a bit more forgiving, I don't think I've ever got anywhere on time on Cathcart without flooring it at max throttle out of stations then slamming on the emergency brakes pulling into them.

 

I think the only thing not explicitly covered yet that I'd like to see if some updating in and around Central itself.

The tracks are going to be plenty busy now but it'd be great if the main concourse could have more life added to it. It could do with more people and take advantage of the dioramas. An updated display board to go with all the new trains in the station would be great too.The area immediately outside the station is also a bit dated now, would be great to see it get a little bit more refinement, especially if we're getting the updated water system.

Other than that, I think everything else I could reasonably ask for seems to covered in today's news. Scottish rail fans are eating very well this year!

 

I like to think my thread here made it happen but probably was happening anyway lol

 

Nice to see we'll be getting 158 and 385 layers as well, will give glasgow central a nice amount of variety

 

A TOD4 upgrade means replecing every light source in the route. Since they're doing it anyway, there is no reason not to add additional soutces. I've noticed in recent routes the night lighting in semi-urbanized areas like Salzburg is pretty good.

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Station light-up times are addressed in a very good Bescot mod.

 

They certainly seem to have done a 180 from the previous stance and rightly so. Even though the 380 isn’t my cup of tea, it was pointless putting a train built to TSW4 standards on an old route as is.

 

I don't think this is the first U turn they have done. Maybe it could give us hope that other decisions might be reversed, if we speak up enough.

 

Steam (traction) and classic diesel/electric hopefully.

 

What a scheduling ninja you are, DTG Matt!

Though to think that despite your best efforts, there was such a fragility in allocating time that Cathcart TOD4 could, on balance, not have happened is a depressing thought, because it’ll be a real joy to some customers here to bring it level with newer routes.

I guess your answer to the question of “How do we help convince your stakeholders that TOD4 conversions are worthwhile to give time to vs the more obvious revenue drivers that are new routes?” is to all rush out on 380 launch day and buy it so that the business case for working on Cathcart is retrospectively justified! (that may be a trivialising view of the situation, admittedly), but are there any other needles that players can actively move to help move these projects out of your precious evenings and into the working day?

That’s not asking for specifics - that’d lead some people to think they could do or buy xx thing and then London Commuter TOD4 will magically appear on the roadmap next week - but more generally what would help the conversation about more TOD4 conversions change from “we think we could squeeze in a TOD4 conversion if we work evenings and weekends and it won’t disrupt the roadmap, and we might sell a few more of that DLC - any objections?” to “the data shows we should do this one next and it’ll drive £xx of revenue and it’ll be engineer yyyyy’s primary focus for a week + secondary focus for zzz weeks after that” (that’s not meant to come across as trivialising the prioritisation process, apologies if it sounds condescending!)? Maybe there’s nothing that can realistically be done and your prioritisation conversations are already in as good a place as they are ever likely to be given business constraints and available data.

I just think, we’ve already bought the original route, so without some sort of Kickstarter to gauge interest, atm the drivers seem to be either a) passion project (WSR) or b) DTG taking a punt on DLC-for-DLC (380, Acela, Vectron) and using the expected revenue from that to buy TOD4 dev time (not always enough, either, hence out-of-hours or good progress on other things freeing up time). And that’s all DTG-led, which puts huge pressure on you, whereas ideally players help ignite those conversations and demonstrate interest through the data, if they’re not already (maybe Ambassadors or beta team help with this? Is it forum threads that are producing the signal?).

 

Honestly with how good the scenery is on WSR now, I'm really looking forward to seeing how the route looks now, hopefully they've added portal and more platform functionality into scenario planner as well to let us make scenarios even more busy

 

Definitely! Would be interesting if they make use of the track to Crosmyloof and Dumbreck just to have a quick 1 stop service for players so it's not just A.I. Just a thought if they'd be willing to model those stations cause the class 380 could run to both. But aye. I'm really looking forward to this upgrade and can't wait to see Glasgow central looking busier!

 

Did the UFO mastery change? or is it just in reference to the new lighting?

 

Have there been any changes to Glasgow Central in terms of scenery or any other stations for that matter?

 

Is Glasgow central having any work done? I seem to remember it has a huge pis screen that doesn’t work, like the one in Waterloo

 

Excellent News and Thanks.
Mike.

 

Did you fixed the Dark Stations at Night?
Because the Lamps are Not working so you cant see anything

 

That’s great to hear, gonna be cool seeing the PIS screens all fleshed out, respect the commitment

 

Will the P.I.S at Glasgow Central be the new white system or will it be the slightly older orange system?

 

Going by the route is set around 2014 I think the pis board would be orange as it wasn't white during that time

 

ToD5?
Do you have a solid source for this or are you making it up completely?

 

Who said anything about TOD5