I still love firing up Oakville for the loading services. More routes are needed with setup jobs in the timetable for those freight delivery services.
The only ones I can't get to work are the ethanol ones. Totally bugged. The rest are pretty good. I think SPG and WSR are the other ones with decent shunting and scenario moves. Other than that....
Clinchfield would be fine with a remaster. Not a ton of shunting, but there is some loading of coal. The lighting and textures are just VERY dated now. Something is a bit off about the traction too, but it's still playable. Just looking old and tired. Oakville, HSC and SPG by comparison still look good. Clinchfield is about where TVL or NTP are in terms of lighting and textures.
Nothing wrong with Clinchfield that can't be fixed with a lighting update, some minor pathing corrections and the fixing of the notoriously missing banking coms. DTG made a potentially excellent route with some initial errors, promised to fix them in short order......and then promptly abandoned the route ( and their promises ).
Me too. Would also love some cargo variations; some routes where agriculture is prevalent would be neat. Grain elevators are my jam Or iron ore unloading at a Great Lakes port.
There's already a lot of industries on existing routes that just aren't used. Even the sidings are there, there's just no scenarios routed into or out of them. We have Cargo packs, but they still don't do the sidings part, they just go mainline to mainline. We could use something more comprehensive, like you see in the TSC add on packs. For example "pick up these cars from these locations going down the line" or "bring in these cars, swap out for these" etc. It's all right there on the maps. The assets are already built. A FEW of those scenarios already exist (esp on WSR, SPG, OAK, etc) but there's just so much more they could do with simple expansion/scenario packs. All that freight that and all those sidings on the Antelope line for example and there's just one real huge "run" up and then back on the mainline in that whole timetable. What a waste.
-A few of my great suggestions (that would actually make sense): -Seattle Sounder/Amtrak Cascades/BNSF Everett-Tacoma: present-day 81.8 miles of freight and passenger action; include Sounder F59PHI and/or MP40PH-3C and Commuter Coaches/Cab Cars; possible BNSF power: GP39-3 (rebuilt GP30 or GP35), BNSF ET44C4, BNSF C44-9W, BNSF SD75M/SD75I, BNSF SD60M-3, BNSF GP50, BNSF GP60/GP60M-3/GP60B; Cascades SC44 Charger and new Aero Venture Coaches/Cab Car; also needed: BNSF Boeing Fuselage Train for Renton Boeing facility; also Amtrak Empire Builder and Coast Starlight Superliner Trains w/ P42DCs or ALC-42 Chargers -Tehachapi Pass: Mojave-Bakersfield; 68 miles; SP and ATSF 1990s; possible locos: SP/ATSF GP60s, SP SD70M/ATSF SD75M, SP/ATSF C44-9Ws, ATSF B40-8/SP B39-8, ATSF B40-8W, ATSF GP38U/SP GP38-2 -Chicago Metra/BNSF Racetrack (or maybe CB&Q or BN version if DTG can't get Metra licensing); present-day; 37.5 miles; include BNSF Corwith Yard, local industries, Metra shop facilities, and Union Station; include Metra F40PHM-3 (including special units) and/or F40PH-3 and commuter coaches/cab cars and BNSF GP39-3, GP60/M/B, C44-9W, ET44C4, GP38-2, B40-8W/B40-8; also include Amtrak Midwest SC44 Charger and Venture Coaches and Amtrak P42DC or ALC-42 Charger w/ SW Chief and/or California Zephyr Superliner Trains -UP Bailey Yard/North Platte: largest freight yard in the world; possible locos: UP AC6000CW/C44ACM, GP60, SD70M (including Abraham Lincoln #1616), SD70ACe-T4, GP40N, SD59MX; also UP Heritage Fleet: E9s, Big Boy #4014, and FEF-3 #844 -Some longer dream routes that we should get that would require multiple extensions: -ATSF/BNSF Seligman Subdivision: Needles, CA-Winslow, AZ (293.5 miles); also include Grand Canyon RR branch (64 miles); this is one of my favorite train-watching spots; lots of trains (70+ per day!) and great desert/mountain scenery; also Route 66 and lots of history -WP Feather River Canyon: Oroville-Portola; include GN/BN Inside Gateway and Quincy RR; possible locos: WP U30B, GP40/GP40-2, GP20, GP35, U23B, SW9, Baldwin VO1000, EMD FP7/F7A and F7B for CA Zephyr; also include GN or BN power and Quincy RR power -D&RGW Soldier Summit: Helper-Salt Lake City, UT; possible locos: D&RGW SD50, SD40T-2, GP40/GP40-2, GP30, SD7, SD9, SW1200, Amtrak F40PH w/ CA Zephyr Superliner Consist -SP Donner Pass: Roseville, CA-Reno, NV; 140+ miles; 1970s-90s; possible locos: SP SD40T-2, SD45T-2, SD45(R), SD40(R), SD45X, SD38-2, GP38-2, GP40-2, GP60, C44-9W, AC4400CW; could we get SP Cab Forwards in a steam-era version of Donner Pass? -A Couple of Short Lines and Museum Lines: -Nevada Northern RR: include steam and diesel power, especially #250, an ex-SP SD9R -Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge -Cumbres and Toltec NG -White Pass and Yukon NG -Aberdeen, Carolina, and Western; include ex-NS OCS F9s and other locos -Reading and Northern; include Reading T1 4-8-4 #2102 and ex-NS OCS F9s -Route updates and extensions needed: -Cajon Pass: Barstow-Mojave and SP/UP Palmdale Cutoff: Mojave-West Colton Yard -UP Sherman Hill: Harriman Line (3rd track over route)
Some interesting routes in there Jedi, but some really bad ones too =-) Having run the TSC versions and much of the same in Run 8 on those southwest routes, Seligman for example is really BORING, but Tehachapi is much requested, especially if you model the whole part between Mojave to Bakersfield. Durango honestly could be something like WSR for US routes with lots of old "museum" traction, but also it's being done by Century of Steaam much more in depth so.... not good to compete there. A better bet might be adding more layers and content to existing routes to fill them out. Just look at all that you could add to say Horseshoe Curve for rail fans for example. Some are extensions which could be fun. The Palmdale Cutoff could be fun but it's kinda niche. We really have nothing in the Midwest or Southeast, or Northwest so maybe something to represent those regions first?
I have been making do with an F40PH in Phase II livery pulling a bunch of Amfleets serving as my Pennsylvanian between Altoona and Johnstown.
I would love to see a Norfolk & Western route with all three of their iconic steam locomotives (A, J, and Y classes), especially if the German steam DLC proves successful.
I would too, but unfortunately the Virginia Museum of Transportation has trademarked the J-class. Besides, until DTG (or TSG) gets steam simulation sorted, no steam loco is going to be a satisfying experience.
San Bernadino is just as littered with places we could be delivering stuff too/collecting from. I love that we got the freight services for that one, but man they could use so much more of that map. Most of the sidings, etc. are even named. Cajon Pass is similar; Santa Fe pack helped, but there's still quite a few disused places that timetable runs/scenarios could be centered on.
I'd say this is a problem with many routes. There are tons of branches, but very few are used. Sometimes they're not used at all.
There's so much potential on a route like that for adding in some loco DLC along the lines of the Peninsula Corridor MP15DC, with a timetable of services moving stuff between these sidings in something appropriate.
While we're at it, can we ask for slightly better route design? Ran another CRR last night and it was one of them where the end point and SPAD are exactly 4 feet apart. It's an annoying challenge to try to creep that last 2 feet so you're JUST far enough to trigger the ending but not the next 2 feet that triggers a SPAD. (Although it's not actually a SPAD technically because it's not a signal but rather an arbitrary end point that means nothing.) I noticed that with the TTTE content on WSR too...stop and red points far too close together for no legitimate reason. Nothing is added in realism since it's not an actual part of the railway signals, it's just a "stop" marker set in the middle of track by the dev, and it just makes it a less enjoyable run overall. Lose-lose really.
I would be satisfied with even more services on SD40-2. At SBD they tried to use branches more, but it was still not enough. Although, it must be admitted, it's a big plus that they were used. On the German routes, for example, we have a ton of already-drawn branches that are just sitting there doing nothing.
Always felt like that part took almost as long as the run up to that point. I loved Clinchfield and probably came closer to completing that route than any other, but I did come to dread approaching the finish line. On the plus side, if there's ever an emergency situation where they need a heroic civilian who just happens to be skilled at lurching a 10,000 ton freight train just so far and no farther to step up, I'm ready to answer the call.
Except the Caltrain MP15 wouldnt be used for those sidings, as those are Union Pacifics responsibility, not Caltrains, but there is still options to expand that in the bay area (Gp40, Gp60, and SD59MXs) Part of me wonders though if the timetable just cant handle complex switching movements on a single route, and are better suited to be left to scenarios like how TSC is. I know we have some with things like Clinchfield, but that is off on a branch line, and not along a mainline, where a train would have to block a main to service some of these industries.
Scenarios are all and good, but switching also happens with busy mainlines. You just have to wait for signals if traffic passes.
I never said to add the MP15 to that route, I said a loco DLC in the same vein and following the same design philosophy as that one, with how that added a bunch of services to the timetable for handling those kinds of runs, I used it as the example because I consider that a solid example of added value for what might otherwise be dismissed by some players as a "bus stop" route. I think it's the only loco DLC where I have played through the entire list of timetable services for it end to end. Obviously to have value as a new DLC it would need to be something appropriate to the route, and which we don't currently have ingame. Plenty solid UP options on the table though.
Except Clinchfield DOES have ones on the mainline. I did a bunch of Berta coal loading last night, which involves waiting for a northbound train to pass before you can leave the siding, reversing onto the mainline, then heading up the branch to pick up the empties, taking them to the mainline and into the siding to load the first three, backing onto the mainline again, heading back onto the branch line, dropping them off, then waiting at the red for a southbound train before you can get back onto the main line, return to the siding, and load the last three. It's fairly engaging stuff, as depending how quick you are loading the first batch, you can end up waiting at different reds either in the siding off the mainline or in the branch line.
We have the MP15 design and the SW1500 is similar. It'd be low hanging fruit to add a DLC pack (like in TSC) of those in a number of liveries with a number of scenarios for all the US routes. Seems like something a smaller studio would be chomping at the bit to work on as a starter project. Something like "Legends of the Great Western" or the "Cargo Packs." Only we have a dearth of US studios to do that stuff. I'd say High Iron but they seem to have their hands full.
Why hasn't anyone developed a shipping route from Barstow to Kingman? DTG is clearly no longer a viable option.
The Santa Fe pack for Cajon Pass was definitely a welcome statement of intent, but that's about as far as it goes. US routes do indeed suffer from a dearth of solid expansion that really adds to their existing timetables in the same way UK and German routes get. The real disappointment at a missed opportunity was Morristown and the ALP45DC which never really gets an opportunity to be all that it can be on a fully electrified route.
Have you driven that route before? I know it's in Run 8 in it's entirely (parts of it on TSC) and I have to say it's BORING. It's also over 200 miles, which is many times over what a normal TSW route is. My suggestion is if you want that get Run 8. There is zero chance TSW will do a 200 mile route of nothing but empty desert without passenger traffic. You are correct that TSW is NOT your option for that. Get Run 8 if that's what you want. It's EXACTLY in their wheelhouse.
Ah, I was contrasting a 200 mile empty desert run with 70 miles (very TSW-coded) of a fantastic line through a desert canyon, full of trellis and tunnel work in a defiance of god and gravity not seen since the Tower of Babel.
That would be a more interesting run from the pictures that come up on google. However, again TSW is scared of freight-only lines since Cajon Pass. Does any substantial passenger traffic go through there to encourage the other 80% to buy it?
Carrizo has the same issues most other freight routes have, nothing but a slow crawl thru grades, which most of the gameplay selling point for it would be, since there only industry out there is the USG plant, which is still served by its own narrow gauge railroad, but that is its own challenge.
Yeah, the NG line would be runs of of Gypsum across from the quarry to plaster city. I suppose marking unexploded ordnance would make for a route task, but it definitely wouldn't be quite as scenic.
Don't worry about whether the flight route is interesting or boring; what I'm really concerned about is when I can do it again.
Related to a previous comment Princess Entrapta made about walkable areas: In the new Czech route, at about the 2:20 mark, they show a "walkable castle" you can supposedly climb the steps to and explore I'll definitely have to check that out, and if anything the new route just shows what SHOULD be happening with US routes. walkable areas yes, but also IN DEPTH FREIGHT where you service local industries along the line in a multi-part run collecting empty cars and placing full ones as you go. Also unique assets like the trees and signals. The ability to do a less traveled route that is even single track and doesn't HAVE to be a massive passenger corridor. Finally, the SOUNDS.... the diesels sound like diesels and are appropriately loud with plenty of noise and rail sounds. Just so much more immersive and less cookie cutter, quiet and "clean." More like Oakville and Sand Path Grade, rather than Cajon Pass. Just imagine if the Antelope line had made use of all those sidings with deeper freight moves to drop off/pick up cars from all those industries.Or if Horseshoe Curve didn't have those stubborn 2-dimensional trees sticking out here and there. Or Cajon Pass had better vegetation and terrain (and again used those industrial sidings that are built into the route but not used) Or even those Amtrak and commuter stations on those routes that you just drive past. It's yet to come out, yes but given the previews I'm excited about this route for what's possible in TSW. Imagine US routes given the proper attention this route was. .
