I thought so cause other diesel hydraulic locos like the G6 makes noises if you use the dynamic brake. But I’m not an expert. Maybe someone in this forum drives it in real life and can tell us how it works
N-Wagen do have their own switches in each coach where you can set the coaches own lights or the whole train light. Not possible from the loco. Correct, this only works when the two 218s coupled directly together. There is a HEP signal cable connection needed for that and only the loco has it. Fixed all three things here on my side. Will be there with a coming update.
I’m with you, loco itself is excellent but needs its own route. On HBL there’s maybe only 10 to 15 passenger services to run during the daytime, depending on month. Night lighting stinks, so I won’t even touch night runs. I can use it on Maintalbahn but does that route even crack the top 20? It’s not in the better half imo. 218 really needs a good new route to thrash on, hopefully DTG can deliver something
I have just read about it again in the documents for the 218 to get the idea what i missed with that, as it seems a few poeple mentioned it missing. First, for the G6 it's totally different how it works. The G6 uses a pair of converters for each direction and for braking it simply switches the reverse converter on. That's why the brake effort raises massively with lower speeds. It's acts inverted to the TE because it is basically TE. For the 218, the h-brake is a retarder concept. A stator and a pump, no turbine. This all happens on the output side of the transmission. Oil is filling into the h-brake and generates BE. That generates heat. The heat needs to be transported away. For that, the diesel engine spins up to notch 5 to make the oil cooler run faster. When the train heating is on, the engine already runs at notch 6. So no spooling engine then. Of course, it's not implemented yet. I will see if i can add that (bit of a pain tbh. as i need to re-do a lot of other things with that). In Terms of other noises coming from the h-brake. Yes, they are there bit quite silent and nearly not audible when the engine is running at notch 6. When idling and you are in cab 2 you can hear it from inside too. That noise comes from the output gearbox (Abtrieb). Same for acceleration but way louder.
The other route these were fairly well known on was the Eifelbahn from Koln to Trier via Gerolstein. Never done it in real life but apparently very nice. Think I’ve actually got one of the old Rolf Stumpf audio CD’s that includes a passage recorded from a 218 over that route. Back on topic, I would have to concur the audio level declines dramatically if you go to exterior view and move away from the train even slightly. Should really be louder than the cab in outside view and should not (IMHO) fade out as quickly as it does.
That's is made this way to prevent phasing. If i make it audible for larger distances you get ugly phasing when two locos are near by each other. There is not useful way (yes there are technically ways in the world) to prevent that.
Thank you for enlightening us. Would be nice if it gets implemented some day but it doesn’t effect the immersion that much if you only hear it when the heater is off. The missing sound does not change the fact that the 218 is one of the best made locos in tsw.
what about that higher pitched noise? I can hear it both on external cameras and in-cab too... sounds kinda like slight brake applied, but I guess it is more of a product of transmission or engine? O
Discovered a small-ish bug with the exhaust. Took my 2x218 and 3 Dosto's to Miltenberg, decided to wait there and do the return trip as well. After shutting off both the locos' engines, the rear one (the one facing Aschaffenburg) still exudes some exhaust gas, as if in idle. Hard to see on the screenshot, but definitely there. Not the brightness is the issue, although it helps a little. The main problem is, that there's light coming in onto the indicators from the front, where the glare shield should be. In fact it's there to prevent just that
ok, will try today or tomorrow, no idea how dead I will be when I get home from work but I believe it can also be heard in this video: around 9:30 it can be heard, but also when he switches to the inside of the cab I can sometimes also hear it inside (probably also cos of Scout Mode, which is Creative SW thing for my external sound card - it raises up all kinds of sounds from the background, which can be helpful in TSW when checking lets say if an engine produces power etc)
That is what lots of other people might to miss, but it is there. That is the gearbox noise from the transmission output (Abtrieb).
Regarding the unwanted substitutions, apparently you can use BR218 on freight on RRO. Good luck with these gradiens near Ennepetal Maybe I will try it by myself soon. Yesterday I drove on the Nahverkehr Dresden route with 40 container waggons and caused some grand delay for an IC train behind me
I really think this locomotive is great! I've also done a few timetable tours. However, there is a problem: the PZB indicator lights are much, much too dark!
I've only spent about an hour with this so far (one run Hamburg to Lubeck) but so far I love it. Loco seems very well done, the booming of the diesel has to be one of the most convincing engine sounds in the game so far. I am not a sound guru and have never heard a 218 in real life but this one definitely feels like you're in the cab of a loud diesel train. Also love the fact that it is usable on so many routes in timetable mode. Having a mainline German diesel really brings a new perspective to these routes. The experience is very different from the electric locos, and prior to this we only had shunters or DMUs for diesel German running. German TSW really is the best TSW thanks to stuff like this.
I agree with the gold standard. TSG are the best 3rd party in my opinion. I don’t want them brought in house though. If that happened they could only work on what DTG wanted them to and within the budgets that DTG set. As far as I understand, they already do some work for DTG as a 2nd Party Developer. So I’d prefer they stay independent.
I don't know if anyone wrote it already, but yesterday I tried to do a cargo service on Nahverkehr Dresden but the train was way to heavy for the 218 so I couldn't get it going. Playing on XSX.
I love the BR 218 (in a way) for what it is! Although these are the major issues right now on the locomotive: The outside Wiper Animation LOD is set too low, you get 25 cms away from the locomotive and the wiper animation stays where it is, huge issue. The dimmer dials on the dashboard are wrong. It should be right to set it brighter, and the other way around to make it dimmer. Wiper keys are changed around in cab 2, so the V key starts the left wiper instead of the right one, it uses the wrong horn too I believe. The GSP/Destination Board System does not display any text to which destination it is set to which makes it unusable at the moment. The physics are way too wrong, the BR 218 is not that powerful to go that fast up at a 1% gradient, not even accelerate properly. The Train Brake is very annoying to use, it immediately jumps from Released to Hold, then directly to Braking and reversed. The N-Wagen’s Train Brake controls was way better! N-Wagen issues: The PZB brightener/dimmer does not work, right now it’s just a button. The engine switches are set to off. You cannot control the train heating via the power line switch.
I have already done this. I set it to 100%. However, I noticed one thing: the fact that the lights are too dark only happens on some routes. On the Maintalbahn and in free play on the Niddertalbahn. On these routes I had to set the weather to be completely cloudy in order to be able to see the displays at all. On the Hamburg route, for example, they were very easy to see even in full sun. I don't understand why that is either. It's the same with other trains too.
Different lighting systems used by DTG. Strange. I had a stint on Niddertalbahn and don’t remember the indicators being too dim.
HBL is an older route from TSW2. The lighting on these routes is somewhat darker, with a kind of a dark "blackened" shade. I'd guess that's the reason. Later routes went to the other extreme: Partly overexposed with washed out colors.
Now I just do it like this: If the lighting from the sky is too overexposed and I can't see the indicator lights, then I just set the weather to cloudy. Then I can recognize. Apparently some routes have different lighting systems, which is responsible for this.
Still very much enjoying this DLC. Especially the sound I think it’s been mentioned already but why no rain effect on the windscreen over about 20kmph. I just got a silver medal on Foul Weather Frieght and all my deductions are for no wipers. Well there was no rain landing on the windscreen so why bother with the wipers. The fact that below 20 the rain lands on the screen fine makes me wonder if this was deliberate? I hope it can be changed please? It does ruin the immersion of a thunderstorm when you‘ve got an absolutely clear screen. Not the first DLC where the rain effect doesn’t work, probably not the last either.
I don't believe one exists. Even the lordly V 200 only did 140, and DB hasn't purchased a mainline diesel loco (as opposed to DMU) in a very long time. Although there is a diesel version of the TRAXX, and it has a BR number (246), I don't think DB actually bought any.
DB did buy the Br 245 though, which can do 160. They're just not very widespread given the largely electrified trackage and prevalence of DMUs.
I believe I saw a couple in one of Poiree's videos, thats the guy who does videos from various stations around Europe with captions showing services and such I remember looking one of the BRs on WikiPedia and being like wow, a mainline diesel with 160 kmh vmax
I've only just started digging into the 218. Great stuff. I was wondering if there were a way to switch the PZB mode from O to M on the 218? I fired up a DRA timetable run yesterday and it was in O mode once I enabled PZB, not that I was in much danger of getting above 70 kmh at many points on the long run to Dresden with 30 plus auto racks behind me . . .
The switch actually does work, but only when you switch off and on again the PZB after selecting the new mode.
Yes that bothers me in some other locomotives in TSW too. For example, the DB BR103 brake pipe gauge shows 5.2 bars when released, at every view angle while the HUD displays the correct value of 5 bars (the tail of the needle even goes through the background as if its 3D axis was not aligned with the background axis) . It would worry me as a driver if the brake pipe sits at 5.2 bars because that would mean there is a slight constant overcharge and the locomotive braking equipment would need to be fixed. IRL either the driving cabs are designed to minimize the parallax effect from the driving position, or as you say, you can move your head, but no way to do this in TSW. I thought new releases would be free from this issue, as gauges are one of the most important things in a cab. Maik Goltz could it be possible to fix the BR218 gauges ?
Assuming it gets a discount in the Steam sale, planning on grabbing the Virtual Railroads 218 for TSC, will be interesting to see how the brake gauge displays in that, too.
Just want to echo praise for the 218- it's really fantastic! Ok, now, DTG, build us a proper route to drive it on! Really enjoying the freight services on Dresden, intended or not- please don't take them away lol!
Since UEVR arrived I exclusively drive in VR - and I just had to try the 218. And what a beauty it is in VR! So many nice details, feels even more immersive than many other trains in TSW, and the sound reminds me a lot of my childhood where I used to live en Germany. To me this easily is the best locomotive in TSW; well done TSG, well done!
No parallax Sounds are awesome. And Maik they even coded a seat height adjustment in there into a single camera view. In TSW, it's a bit too low and should be raised to a Z of 112 (already modded on my end).
Well, you don't need to use slow gear because you're in PZB M or U, but any time that a train requires PZB M or U, slow gear is probably a good idea.
