BNSF contemporary and challenging railroading on two legendary ex-Santa Fe routes is coming soon to Train Simulator Classic, with BNSF Scenario Pack 02. The creation of BNSF Railway in 1995 formed an extraordinary railroad with two bustling and vital rail routes across the breadth of the great American West – with ex-Burlington Northern lines stretching from the Midwest to the Pacific Northwest and ex-Santa Fe rails linking Chicago with the southwest and California. Coming soon, BNSF Scenario Pack 02 for Train Simulator Classic will deliver – in ten new and realistic career scenarios – the challenges and drama of BNSF contemporary railroading on a pair of legendary lines with Santa Fe heritages – the Arizona Divide route and Tehachapi Pass route! With BNSF Scenario Pack 02, from noted developer High Iron Simulations, you’ll experience intermodal, manifest freight, unit train, local, and switching operations, and you’ll take the controls of four types of BNSF Electro-Motive and General Electric third-generation diesels to battle the steep and twisting mountain grades of Tehachapi Pass (as shared with Union Pacific as UP’s Mojave Subdivision) and tackle the roller-coaster, high-speed running of the Arizona Divide (BNSF’s Seligman Subdivision). With BNSF Scenario Pack 02, you will: Climb aboard a BNSF GE ES44DC to tackle a remarkable mix of mile-a-minute running and roller-coaster grades as you cross the full length of the always-busy Arizona Divide route with a heavy manifest freight in a two-part career scenario. Serve as engineer of a stylish ex-Santa Fe EMD GP60M powering the BNSF Flagstaff Local as it works its way west along the Arizona Divide route. After making a pick-up at Williams, roll BNSF GE ES44DC-powered Phoenix-Belen (New Mexico) tonnage eastward across the Arizona Divide to Winslow in a challenging two-part scenario. On the tough and historic Tehachapi Pass Route in California, which BNSF shares with Union Pacific, take the throttle of a BNSF GP60M on the point of a priority vehicle train for a run from Mojave to the landmark of Tehachapi Loop. During a period when BNSF was short on power, handle a burly and potent BNSF Electro-Motive SD70MAC making a rare appearance on Tehachapi Pass as it powers a Chicago-bound stack train. Tackle the grades of Tehachapi Pass amid heavy spring rains and busy rail traffic as you descend the daunting west slope of the Tehachapi Mountains with a high-priority Chicago-Stockton (California) intermodal train. As dawn is breaking on the west slope of the Tehachapi Mountains, serve as engineer of a BNSF heavy unit train hauling crude oil from Carlsbad, New Mexico, to Bakersfield. You have power on the head-end, mid-train, and rear of the enormous consist. Aboard a BNSF EMD SD70ACe at Bakersfield Yard, pull together the consist of a Bakersfield-Barstow manifest freight, enter the Union Pacific Mojave Subdivision at Kern Junction, and begin the climb of fabled Tehachapi Pass. Note: For full use, this scenario pack requires the Arizona Divide Route, Tehachapi Pass Route, Stevens Pass Route (for use of BNSF rolling stock), Santa Fe Super Fleet GP60M, SD70 V2 Volume 2 Loco Add-On, and BNSF ES44DC Loco Add-On. The ten new career scenarios of BNSF Scenario Pack 02, based closely on contemporary railroad operations and train symbols, re-create the remarkable experiences of BNSF modern North American railroading on two challenging ex-Santa Fe routes – and BNSF Scenario Pack 02 for Train Simulator Classic is coming soon to Train Simulator Classic! Coming soon, BNSF Scenario Pack 02 and its ten career scenarios will deliver contemporary BNSF railroading on a pair of rail lines with a rich Santa Fe heritage – the Train Simulator Classic Arizona Divide and Tehachapi Pass routes. In a two-part scenario, BNSF General Electric ES44DCs roll though Flagstaff as the diesels power BNSF intermodal Z-MEMLAC along the Arizona Divide (BNSF’s Seligman Subdivision). Once assigned to Santa Fe’s “Super Fleet” intermodals, still-stylish BNSF Electro-Motive GP60M 150 is on the point of the Flagstaff Local as it performs local and switching duties along the Seligman Subdivision in the company of a BNSF EMD GP38-2 and sister GP60M. With the upcoming BNSF Scenario Pack 02, you take the throttle of four types of BNSF General Electric and Electro-Motive third-generation diesel power. Having originated in Phoenix, BNSF manifest H-PHXBEL, powered by a quartet of GE ES44DC diesels, is making a pick-up at Williams and will soon be rolling east across the Arizona Divide to Winslow. BNSF Scenario Pack 02 will put you at the throttle for contemporary and challenging BNSF railroading on two popular Trains Simulator Classic routes! On legendary Tehachapi Pass in California, BNSF EMD GP60M 101 is on the point of vehicle train V-CLORIC near Marcel. The line over the Tehachapi Mountains is Union Pacific’s Mojave Subdivision and is shared by UP and BNSF. BNSF’s potent SD70MAC diesels were not regular visitors to Tehachapi Pass, but during a motive power shortage in 2014, the distinctive diesels made several appearances. Approaching Cliff, BNSF SD70MAC 9793 is working with a pair of ES44DCs to power intermodal train Z-STOWSP. Amid spring rains and busy rail traffic, BNSF ES44DC 7710 is leading priority intermodal Q-CHISTO as it descends the west slope of Tehachapi and overtakes BNSF manifest freight M-BARBAK on the long passing track at Bealville. Dawn is breaking as enormous BNSF crude oil train U-CBXBAK rolls through Ilmon en route to Bakersfield. The ponderous crude oil train has GEs on the point, mid-train, and on the rear. Having made up the consist of BNSF freight M-BAKBAR at Bakersfield Yard, BNSF SD70ACe 9350 and its GE mates enter Union Pacific Mojave Subdivision trackage and meet a UP train at Kern Junction as the BNSF freight begins its challenging journey over Tehachapi Pass. BNSF intermodal and oil trains meet on the always-bustling Arizona Divide route. Coming soon from noted developer High Iron Simulations, BNSF Scenario Pack 02 will put you at the throttle for contemporary and challenging BNSF railroading on two popular Trains Simulator Classic routes!
I want to address the sheer laziness of this pack. I'm not going to say anything about realism errors (although the photos show there is no lack of those, as usual for HIS' work), only about the lack of effort put into these. All of the stack trains are copy pasted. Every single one in the screenshots shown are identical. On top of that, the trains are made up of 5 10 car sets that repeat, as you can see in this photo here (each color marks one 10 car set). This is insultingly lazy for payware. Hell, this amount of effort is something that would discourage me from downloading a workshop scenario, and those are free. This isn't even the first time HIS has copied his trains, the player train in Climbing the Canyon (included in the base FRCE) and BN 138 (In the "PreMiUm" scenario pack) are identical barring a cut of autoparts in the Climbing the Canyon version. I also have suspicions on a few more of these trains here, and I'm willing to bet that other scenario packs also have copy pasted trains. This just straight up isn't acceptable for payware content. I hate to self plug, but for people who enjoy content that isn't copy paste slop, check Train Sim Community; me, DocTrench, Brookebeach, and several others have made much much higher quality freeware scenarios using much much higher quality stock, with trains that actually resemble their real life symbol, operations that are actually realistic, and significantly more complex AI trains than any of this low effort payware content.
HIS' previous scenario packs were any different? They need to make do with the rolling stock provided with the route I suppose, as these packs are marketed as an addition to the base route. The provided rolling stock is sparse already and usually consists of the same regurgitated ancient Kuju models and freeware. When you swap locos and cars for examples with proper physics, weight etc., are the scenarios still completable?
I feel like these are just released to generate traffic, pun intended. Ideally these can generate mild profit, encouraging and funding a route or two each year. Non-UK-US release could also be announced. In-game the two newest releases are some DB push-pull and Romanian rolling stock. On the up, nobody spits on them. I wholeheartedly agree that new rolling stock is needed. Offering use of these old packs is absolutely welcome, of course. On the cheap side, there are many new liveries on the CSX-CPKC front, plus of course it's past due to release a few Chargers. That one would be really efficient - SC-44 Pacific Surfliner (existing stock), Coaster, SCL-42 (long distance) and Midwest, SCB for Miami (Brightline, new coaches) and possibly VIA. Soon the DM this, DM that on various New York routes. Something like that could spice these packs up, just like 10 years ago the GenSet was sort of special.
I think the argument is that there is no variety to the lashup, and that the well cars are all in the same formation copy and pasted multiple times, instead of in a more randomish order. Which can easily be done with those exact set of Well Cars by using the 5-6 preset container loads provided. Instead, HIS took a preset 10 unit set and copy and pasted them over and over to make a train.
