Alan Thompson Simulation Route Discussion/speculation Thread

Price is okay with the discount plus two weeks gives a bit of wiggle room for the Day One purchasers to post their thoughts and help making an informed decision.

Still electric bus stop though.

 

Ok, maybe not - it's Steam only:

I have no idea of the practicalities of this, but it's a shame that existing players can't be given like a coupon code for a discount on it on their platform by DTG upon production of evidence that they have glossop

 

Steam only for the discount.

Shocker.

 

Very well-modelled route, so fair play to ATS. However, not enough realistic layers for me so probably skipping this one.

 

Did I read somewhere that the 323 gets the suspension update, or did I make that up?

 

The 20% discount may just have swung it for me to purchase but I'll still keep an eye on reviews before delving in on the last chance at 20%.

I won't have the 150&153 layering in though as I'm still waiting for a 60%+ sale on the Cardiff route and I am prepared to wait a long time until it does reduce that much

 

Same thoughts here, on both the ATS route and Cardiff City.

 

Is this a fast route or slow route.

 

All stations, it is going to be slow and stop/start probably similar to Glossop where there are a few longer gaps between stations you might get up to 60 MPH, but no chance for sustained fast running.

 

Thanks for the info vern appreciate that.

 

Cardiff was one of the most underwhelming routes of 2025 for me, the hype never lived up to the end product. £14.99 I’d bite if the price gets to this point.

 

Route looks excellent, sounds like there's a lot of early morning/late night ECS workings which is good. Like the Frankfurt S-Bahn a choice of 3 routes of sorts. Scenery looks sublime and the price is pretty good too.

I may have to reconsider my puerile ban on any further LMR content until we get an Eastern Region route. I have strong convictions but no will power.

 

Yes it’s going to be a tough one to call particularly coming hot on the heels of the E94 pack and likely only a short time ahead of the Class 86 pack. And nice though it looks, have to seriously question whether I’m going to get even £20 worth of gameplay out of it, or will it join Goblin, Glossop, BCC, Cathcart and the other bus stop routes in the play once in a while if it crops up on my playing card randomiser.

 

Only speaking from experience on the Manchester Airport line, if it's an all shacks stopper then the stations are only 2-3 minutes apart (not counting Piccadilly) however there are services which are non-stop from the Airport to Piccadilly with an admittedly not massive 12 minute path...

I think the runs via Stockport will offer a less "bus service" experience and don't forget that the Pendo and Freight services should layer on too.

 

Mistake in the press release/email…….

Glossop Line was the 2nd route to feature the 323 not the first.

 

If you're on a class 390 service there's opportunity to get up to 110MPH for at least a few miles

 

It is the first to have the Class 323 in Northern livery, which I assume is what they meant.

 

I didn’t even know there was a mailing list lol - is that DTG or linked with Steam?

 

Not sure if anyone else saw the stream on twitch last night, But I thought it actually looked like a really good route and the team were very honest and open about how long it had taken them and the difficulties posed. Whilst it does grow my gears, the 20% discount isn’t being applied to consoles, I will still pick this up on PS5.

 

DTG I think.

 

Cheers for the kind feedback mate much appreciated
Again I must stress we would have loved to have the discount across all platforms but this just isn’t possible

 

Is there a reason why another 66 was included with the route rather than having it as a layer?

 

Having the 66 in means if you just bought MAC you would still be able to run the freight services
Let’s hope we get a new freight loco soon enough

 

Quite looking forward to this, trackside scenery looked phenomenal. Also it's so good seeing realistic speed signs, the default UE4 typeface is horrid. Would DTG and other partners be able to use them on future routes too or would they be exclusive ATS assets?

 

Hi acro very pleased your liked what you saw
We did aim to make the trackside detail as good as we could
As for the usage of assets in other routes that is something we are always happy to discuss with any developer if they wished
Cheers

 

Www.twitch.tv/alanthomsonsim
Ignore the thermal events hahahah

 

Do you think there could be any scope for DTG to bo a bundle deal with this and Cardiff? Seems unlikely as I cant recall them doing anything like this in the past but I now want that route ahead of getting this just for the layers

 

I'm curious now Alan Thomson - did something catch fire?

 

Hahaha no just a very hot computer causing a few errors whilst streaming the route it wouldn’t be a ATS first look without something bad happening either a dump or crash is all part of the fun

 

That’s not something we have discussed sorry mate

 

Watched the stream earlier this morning, highly impressed by what I saw. Definitely going to be a day one purchase from me, especially loved all the focus on trackside scenery and the stations.

Alan, seeing as you have it in your display picture. Any chance of an APT for WCML Shap at some point? Pretty please?

 

The fact that you chose to stream on one of the hottest days of the year speaks volumes.
I hope you didn’t run out of beers

 

In all honesty, I was skeptical about the route with it “only” going as far as Alderley Edge, and with it having no new stock. Especially as it could’ve had the usual £30 price tag, but after seeing the stream it’s abundant how much effort has gone into the route. Plus it being only ~£20 on release (for me at least) is a massive increase in value for money compared to… other offerings imo.

The biggest takeaway from the stream was that there was just something that made the route sparkle, whether it was the texturing, lighting, detail or something else, I don’t know; I don’t want to say photorealistic, but a big step away from the “plasticky” look that some TSW routes have.

All in all, I’m properly looking forward to this.

 

Despite the TT being 2018, I appreciate that the scenery is at least to todays representation.

 

So I watched a bit of the stream, only the first run from Piccadilly to the Airport and thought I'd share my opinion as someone who is on that line commuting to the airport for work daily.

First, a few issues I spotted;

The starting point at Picc P13 is incorrect, services which are stopping to pick up passengers use the "London end" of 13, in the BR days they did of course use both sections. Also departing from P13 the train shouldn't cross over to DF and back over at Ardwick Jn but instead just stays on the right.

The platform allocations at the airport are wrong, Crewe to Piccadilly services use P4 with the reverse service using P2, Lime Street services go from P1, TPE use P2 & P3, TFW use P4 (though the first train of the day uses P2), Barrow/Windermere use P3, Blackpool is the odd one out and uses P1 and P4 depending on how a butterfly flaps it's wings that day.

The aircraft is also too high coming in over Heald Green.

None of those are game breaking, especially so with the high aircraft but they are little niggles for someone who is on the route daily so spots the little things.

Now for the good,
Well it did look very good, I particularly liked the detail approaching the airport where the long removed spur for the construction of the second runway is full of clutter. I could easily recognise where we were from the view outside because of what I could see rather than what I couldn't which is always a big plus

The detail of the intermediate stations as very good.

I fully understand ATS reason behind setting the timetable in 2018, the route mostly being the domain of TSW available traction and except for the odd nit-picker they are not really going to notice things being present from the "modern" era being included in a slightly backdated timetable. As ATS said in the stream there is potential for folks to use the creators club to fill in some traction issues. The route being built to the current date does of course provide opportunity for someone to develop the 195, 179 or TPE stock as well to feature under a new separate timetable.

Personally I am hoping that someone does something along the lines of the WCMLS "enhancement pack" which to be fair given the detail in this might not need much if any enhancing, but to offer a "new" timetable which will have the appropriately re-skinned rolling stock. To go one further I genuinely hope and pray that someone is able to offer a mid-90s timetable with appropriate re-skins given that could include the 101,142,150,158,323,31,37, HST, 47,86 & 87 but let's not get ahead of ourselves

I genuinely was impressed, throw in that little discount for already owning the Glossop route and well I'll be buying it

 

l travelled on this line from the 50s to the mid 70s and l am very impressed by the work shown by ATS who have a very small team and l really enjoy the stream with Alan and Hayden.

l my opinion this route looks as good as a JTs route and brings back some wonderful memories and is definitely a first day buy.

 

The amount of care and attention to detail by ATS really shows on this route and for their first TSW project they’ve really knocked it out of the park.

I hope they consider one day extending to Crewe which is five stops after Alderley Edge, it would be a complete route then.

Either way, Day one purchase from me.

 

It’s ATSs first route so sensible to choose Alderley Edge. I am sure it will be extended eventually.

 

Nothing prevented Johannes from doing an extension to Richmond, these can't do 4 unfortunate stations to Crewe - I can't understand it at all//

 

Yeah it’s a little annoying as they were so close to the route being complete. Let’s hope they reconsider.
As you said Johannes (another first time 3rd party route builder) took notice. Any new projects he has going forward will earn him a huge amount of trust and respect. That’s hard to come by or get back when you burn bridges (Rivet).

 

On this route are 323s 3 car or 5 car variant.

 

I wasn’t enthusiastic at first because of the reused Class 323 and it’s not reaching Crewe but to be honest, it’s Alan’s first route ever for TSW. We won’t expect long routes for their first time.

Judging from the pictures, it looks well detailed and modeled, it changed my mind and I will get it day one, the price is reasonable.

A bit sad we don’t have the discount on consoles but still the route looks well done. Can’t wait to see other projects made by him.

 

As l said, I am sure it will be extended eventually. This route as it is now is head and shoulders ahead of anything Rivet have produced. Unlike Rivet l am sure ATS will listen to the TSW community!

 

And how many of the people that were getting sharp sticks and going to boycott this route because of the development drama it had will end up buying it I wonder, also see the same people still obsessively having attempts to knife Rivet because apparently the people of Cornwall are disgusted and appalled.......

 

The route looked great, but for me I don't like the 323, we already have identical gameplay in Glossop and Birmingham Cross City. If there's enough meat on the bones using other stock then I'll pick up the route.

On the preview stream the yards passed were pretty much devoid of static stock. Hopefully that was a time of the day thing.

 

Too many broken bridges, too much trust broken, too many broken promises, unprofessional comments from rivet employees on here and Rivet forums to it’s customers, no after-care on their older routes (left to rot). Rivet don’t listen to their customers…

I think the pitchforks constantly aimed at Rivet is justified.

 

I noticed that too along with no passing trains (though I only watched MAN-MIA), I suspect that maybe for the stream they loaded a version that didn't have much else in there by way of other trains (although Piccadilly had trains).

 

I watched the first part of the stream ( cut out early, annoyed by the constant ads ).

It's obvious that a lot of TLC has gone into the route building, it looks very good. The 323 is, however not very interesting, in fact I found it less fun than on BCC.

However, it's a rather straight, flat, repetitive commuter run, which I'm just so tired of any more. Just not my thing. Each station looks like the last one and the next one. And Piccadilly looks so very empty, even though it's well built. Surprising, given the reaction to that station in Glossop. And where in the world is the AI? I don't remember seeing but one passing train.

They said this wasn't quite the release build, but I don't think any enhancements for release will persuade me to get this route except in a deep sale and maybe not even then.

Players who like this kind of bus stop route will no doubt enjoy it and they should. It's just not for me.

I'm beginning to despair as to when I'll next find something in TSW I can buy with confidence In which I'll find much replay value.

 

You say it like WCL is the only bad thing Rivet have ever done, what a joke. Rivet have this bad of a reputation for a reason, one single terrible route wont do that.

 

Just hope this route does suffer the blurriness and micro freezing.