I decided to branch out and get loads of German and Austrian routes in the winter sales. This is no dig at DTG at all, as they are pretty accurate, but the appeal of German routes seems to be questionable. Much view. wow scenery .
Hopefully we will get a greater of variety of German routes one day so it is more on par with UK content Germany has a lot of interesting lines in real life, but most German DLC's for TSW feel similar to each other and make the German rail network seem boring I think TSG routes (like Niddertalbahn and Mittenwaldbahn) are always great though so I am looking forward to those
Always find it amazing how Austria (sometimes also Switzerland) is simply associated to be Germany… the picture is not Germany, it’s in Austria. But in general I would agree that especially modern German lines are very often stuck between huge noise barriers. However, it’s not so bad in TSW, I think…
The enjoyable part of German routes is learning the PZB and LZB safety systems and then taking a great loco (there are several whether you want modern or historic traction) and negotiating a busy route - Frankfurt S Bahn or Frankfurt Fulda - during rush hour with all the layers. The scenery can be nice, but often there's no time to look at it.
Utterly well spotted. it is indeed the Class 47 on Semmeringbahn. I've spent a lot of time in Austria in the last few years so this dlc and add on was a no brainer for me. View attachment 208154
There are some gems amongst the German routes but we definitely need to wean whoever it is at DTG with the whim to focus on these double track electric DB Red interurban projects to try something different. TSG offset that to some extent with their choices but they can only do one route at a time. So many more scenic, single track or diesel operated routes they could focus on.
Agree that the choice of routes ingame makes the German rail network seem more boring than it actually is. I just saw that Dresden-Leipzig is on a 20% discount on Steam at the moment, and picked it up. Did a whole-route run, and found it to be incredibly boring. Haven't been a huge fan of the original Dresden-Riesa already, and in my mind the extension towards Leipzig adds little in terms of driving experience. Leipzig Hbf looks rather neat, but that's about it. As Vern already said, DTG's fixation on double-track electrified main routes connecting one large-ish hub to another is getting old very fast. Maintalbahn may not be the most visually appealing of the German routes, but I keep coming back to it because it's got a different "feel" to it. Germany has so much more to offer! We've got many good diesel trains ingame by now, why not another diesel-only route? Allgäubahn, Marschbahn, Vogelfluglinie to bring up some big names, but also numerous smaller routes. Something in the Bayerischer Wald region, or near Lake Constance. Or the beautiful line across the island of Usedom. Each of them and many others would offer a lot of variety to the game.
We more routes like maintalbahn and nitherlban sorry about really bad spelling but you kinda know what mean.
The problem with German branch lines is the same as anywhere else, it’s the lack of traffic which then makes people think it’s dull and boring with limited gameplay which we all know isn’t the case. Sadly I feel outside of these forums that knowledge isn’t shared and the twin track electric routes are what sells so this is why DTG focus on these.
It's a sad truth that most German branch lines don't have very attractive timetables, gameplay-wise. Hourly regional end-to-end services, that's it. By far the most of them don't have any freight traffic at all. And if we go back in time to the 70's or 80's, it doesn't look much better.. Back then, those smaller branches usually had like 10-12 daily regional trains and a varying amount of freight traffic, depending on the particular route. Imagine how players would react if they got a new route DLC with a timetable including only about 20-30 services. I said it before but since repetition sometimes is key: In my opinion, instead of standalone branch lines, it would be nice to see more branches included in larger routes, much like the Meißen branch on Dresden-Riesa and Dresden-Leipzig. This way, we would not only get a full and varied timetable, but the route as a whole would feel more "network-y" and alive
Not strictly so. If you fire up routes like Obereruhrtalbahn in Zusi 3 it has an extensive timetable but offers a diesel operated run through lively winding and hilly terrain plus a couple of single track branches. The game cannot exist forever on a dose of hyper busy short main line sections, otherwise forget Germany for a minute for the UK we will never see the likes of the Kyle, West Highland or even Highland Main Line routes in the game (or Cambrian Coast). I don’t care there are not that many trains in the timetable,nothing to say you can’t repeat the same run but at a different time of the year when the scenery is the main attraction.
The only thing that stops me using Zusi 3 more is the lack of a save game, oh and the wait while you fast forward to your train’s start time.
Those walls are an absolute blight on real life German railways, ruining many a journey for the passenger. If you can't stand the sound of a few electric trains don't move near a railway.
Germany has walls while Network Rail here in the UK has their linear Forest! Ruins the view from the train or those who want to watch the trains pass by. Not to mention, most areas that aren’t obscured by foliage are now fenced off with that godawful 8ft palisade fencing. Total overkill bearing in mind most railways elsewhere in the world don’t fence it off at all!
In my town, a busy railway line runs through the city center. A forest has been planted about 50 meters away, or noise barriers have been installed. They haven't come up with anything new in the UK.I understand that it is not so interesting to look at the fence, but it is also not so fun for the residents of nearby houses to listen to the sounds of the railway around the clock without any obstacles.
I guess we forget that not everyone is a rail enthusiast and takes pleasure from the sight and sound of passing trains!
I love it because there are so many points of interest along this route. You can drive a passenger train the entire route. You can drive a freight train the entire route.You can either go onto the branch lines to the factories and leave your cars. Or take the small single-track line to the port. Or you can shunt in the port and then head back out. In my opinion, the replayability is enormous. That's why it's such a shame for Stuttgart that there's nothing like that there. The route ends with boring end-to-end drives, and there's simply nothing else to do. Of course, this is my opinion, but DTG deserves praise for the Dresden-Leipzig route, as there is plenty to do on the branch lines, which, for example, is almost non-existent on the Frankfurt-Fulda route.
I would actually love to see Maintalbahn extended to cover the more scenic portion beyond the current terminus.
The main thing is that the interestingness of the route is not sacrificed for the sake of picturesqueness. At the very least, DTG could have released a new schedule with BR294, but they didn't even add it as a replacement, which modders could easily do.
the obere Ruhrtalbahn would be very nice indeed (although, to be precice, its also a mainline by definition ^^) long distance services ended in 2003 but it still has good enough regional services and even regular freight. another good choice for busy diesel route would be allgäu which would also provide IC services. but for smaller branch lines i get the argument with the quiet timetables, on most lines you have the hourly DMU run and thats it. Like on niddertalbahn where the scenery makes up for it, but i get why very often the standard electrified mainline is chosen as even without networks like Dresden or Frankfurt S Bahn you have way more service variety there. And for the fencing: DB is installing lots of sound barrier walls, but other than that routes often dont have any fencing other than vegetation. on many places you can walk straight onto the tracks. Even the 300 kph Cologne Rhein Main high speed line isnt completely fenced off, i remember an ICE hitting a horse at full speed, that wasnt pretty to look at lol Also scenes like in the OPs picture where there are sky high walls on both sides of the line do exist, but are not as common.
S-Bahn Frankfurt is the most unique route for me when it comes to German routes, it just hits differently. Mostly because its stations are both overground and underground. It’s like Rapid Transit V2, but better. I hope to see an improved timetable for console's when they fix the memory issues for the game.
Simple, they consistently spend a lot lol. It’s more so about money, and less about what people actually want.
Lots of German routes have great scenery: Ludwigsbahn, Linke Rheinstrecke, Salzburg-Rosenheim, to name just a few, and Germany is famous for its hills and rivers.
