Medway Valley Line Discussion Thread

Discussion in 'TSW General Discussion' started by Mikey_9835, Dec 8, 2025.

  1. Fawx

    Fawx Well-Known Member

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    Your ini will need to be changed, or use godmode to have route specific inis.
    It's not something that is fixable, as we are using certain values internally to get our lighting setup. If we remove them it will be back to default lighting, which will ruin the experience for console players and pc players who don't use mods.

    We can't change the route to accomdate mods, when it will result in a worse experience for the majority of the playerbase who don't use them. It's the mods that will need to adapt in this instance.
     
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  2. JetWash

    JetWash Well-Known Member

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    To reiterate what Adam has said and clear up any ambiguity at all, there is no CTD bug on PC.
     
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  3. justcallum2

    justcallum2 Member

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    I will give that a try and report back , very strong chance I’m just being a fool haha.

    Update: yes thank you I’m getting some Aws sound now , I thought I had turned off that setting months ago silly me
     
    Last edited: Apr 7, 2026
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  4. samfjsmith

    samfjsmith Active Member

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    thank you both, I’ll look into using a different ini for different routes
     
  5. stujoy

    stujoy Well-Known Member

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    Glad I could help.
     
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  6. aroused by trains

    aroused by trains Well-Known Member

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    Is there any way to get the speed limit behaviour correct for Yalding crossing, i.e. it no longer applying as soon as front of train has passed over crossing? Hoping it is as per Bakerloo line but maybe that's by cunning manipulation of limit based on known train length.
     
    Last edited: Apr 8, 2026
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  7. JetWash

    JetWash Well-Known Member

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    What do you mean? It does behave correctly.
     
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  8. bescot

    bescot Well-Known Member

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    Ah I know what you mean.
    It was tried during development, but due to a core isue with differential speeds, it did some weird stuff. It worked for passenger trains, but the games idea of freight linespeed jumped about 45-20-45-20-45 as you ran past the crossing.
     
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  9. Jude Peters

    Jude Peters Member

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    I have a question, what are some of the main key areas on the route that are explorable by foot that go a bit away from stations and are scenic, pretty and just a generally nice place to walk to? (I’m already aware of Ayelsford village being explorable which is very nice) ;)
     
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  10. aroused by trains

    aroused by trains Well-Known Member

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    The speed limit appears to be set over the crossing until the train clears it, rather than just the front of the train. Am taking what bescot says as this being a core limitation which isn't particularly surprising?

    The practical effect of this for me is fairly limited but a bit of a shame - my journey recap shows me as a speeder* (or alternatively I could unnecessarily drive slowly for a few hundred yards). For those who care about points and things I imagine this might be a bit more of a shame. If nothing can be done then it is what it is but hopefully I'm clear at what's up?

    *tbf compared to the journey recap in my car it's nothing... but I like to do things right in TSW.
     
    Last edited: Apr 9, 2026
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  11. flukey#4378

    flukey#4378 Well-Known Member

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    So when does the speculation on what firefly are working on next begin ;)
     
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  12. toahac

    toahac Member

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    Let's just hope it is going to be as awesome as the MVL and that we don't have to wait toooo long for it to happen :cool:
     
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  13. dudders

    dudders Well-Known Member

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    I cant wait for there next route. Its all I play now. The lighting is so much better on this route. When you play other routes compared to this one everything looks over exposed. Performance is good as well. We have been spoilt and can't see anything else from anyone who will match this.
     
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  14. Jon B

    Jon B Active Member

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    I agree, that’s the only trouble with this route - I don’t want to play any others now (with exception to GWE remaster which is also fantastic)
    It took a while to get used to the lighting changes on console but I actually prefer it now. On Xbox at least I find the route looks best without clouds enabled.

    Thanks Firefly for giving us this level of quality, can’t wait to see what you come up with next!
     
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  15. iamachuchu#8180

    iamachuchu#8180 Well-Known Member

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    yup, can confirm thats its ruined most other routes.

    I played a few German/Austrian content last night and the foliage looked radioactive green.

    I dont want DTG to steal Firefly's thunder, but they must make it compulsory that all future releases has that same colour tone. Even if it means delaying their releases.
     
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  16. paulossj4

    paulossj4 Well-Known Member

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    My guess...

    It might be Wherry Lines, since someone was developing it in the editor, then they had to shut down the project because they said it was already being done.

    It could be that route because the team admitted they like routes with beautiful scenery, so one thing has to do with the other...
     
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  17. 85hertz

    85hertz Well-Known Member

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    Firefly doing the Wherry Lines would be mega. Probably the only third party I'd want doing it.
     
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  18. flukey#4378

    flukey#4378 Well-Known Member

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    I don't get the fascination people have with the Wherry lines, I have it in TSC and yes its nice but overall to me its just meh and not one I go back to, there are better lines out there then that imo....is it a British thing?
     
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  19. Concorde9289

    Concorde9289 Well-Known Member

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    I personally don't really see the appeal of the Wherry lines to be honest. It probably has its charm but it doesn't seem massively interesting. I've heard that the class 755 trains that run the line are really good but again, not really a train I particularly care about. Nor do I have any personal connection to the route or area whatsoever.

    However, it is an area of the United Kingdom that hasn't had many TSW routes and it seems there would be a large amount of players that would enjoy it, so it'd be an alright choice I guess.
     
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  20. theorganist

    theorganist Well-Known Member

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    I think an up to date Wherry lines with a 755 and modern signalling is less appealing than one set 10 years ago or so with mechanical signalling and maybe a Turbostar or Sprinter.

    They would make a nice rural network and do have some charm although the scenery certainly isn't stunning if you like mountain landscapes but is pretty.
     
    Last edited: Apr 14, 2026 at 1:27 PM
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  21. Wivenswold

    Wivenswold Well-Known Member

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    Possibly. I love the Wherry Lines as I love rural East Anglia (that's why I live in this corner of the UK). East Norfolk's rural areas are unique, broads (large lakes), big skies due to the relatively flat landscape, stunning sunsets, rivers full of long-boats in the summer and loads of great walks.

    The railway network is a very good one for "there and back" driving duties, you have three routes between Norwich and Yarmouth/Lowestoft, interesting bridges and with pretty much any era some interesting rolling stock. In the sixties it was the domain of Cravens DMUs, then Class 101s, 156s, 150/2s,158s on East Midland Cross Country trips (the only rolling stock that's been a permanent fixture over the last 30 years), 153s, 170s, the famous "short sets" with Class 68s then 37s and more recently the Stadler Flirt Bi-modes. Many of the stations are historic, sadly Oulton Broad burned down a week or so ago and then there's Gt Yarmouth which is a typical modular 1960s building, of it's time but a low point on the network. There's also the yard at Yarmouth which is owned by a company that provides retired trains for hire for use in films adding the potential for unusual workings.

    If you're after an action packed fast drive Wherry Lines won't be for you. But if you're after something completely different in TSW and love a relaxing escape away to put life's pressures on hold. Then you'll love pottering around the Norfolk & North Suffolk Broads.

    I really hope this happens, it'll be unlike any other DLC in TSW.
     
    Last edited: Apr 14, 2026 at 4:06 PM
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  22. 85hertz

    85hertz Well-Known Member

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    Wivensworld sums it up perfectly.
     
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  23. Double Yellow

    Double Yellow Well-Known Member

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    I think the wherry lines would be a nice addition to the game, but I’d hope they focus more on Southeastern content as I like when one third party dev focuses one area of the railway, just like how AAB are doing with the WCML.
     
    Last edited: Apr 14, 2026 at 5:17 PM
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  24. Wivenswold

    Wivenswold Well-Known Member

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    I'm very biased but South Eastern has had 3 releases, Southern 2. I'd much rather some independent route builders get together and focus on an area that is untouched in TSW that has mostly new types of traction to learn. Be it South Western, the Cotswolds, away from the central belt of Scotland, the rest of Wales or the Anglian bit of the Eastern Region.

    We'll have Victoria to Gillingham at some point, maybe that'll be a large release from DTG one year. That'll nicely fill-out the map in the South East.

    The problem with the South Eastern is that we've already got all the rolling stock, for those of us looking for a new challenge, the Class 375/377s aren't going to excite even though the updated versions are an improvement, the 465/466s don't get out of London much these days, the 376 are Electrostars in name with a 378 shell, the 390s aren't that exciting and there's better areas for Desiro City units.
     
  25. Phil47569

    Phil47569 Well-Known Member

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    At the point of derailing this thread even further, I will say that if they did the Wherry Lines then I would hope that they were done in the BR era, ideally early 1990s for the variety of rolling stock. Just think of the loco drags, then the summer Saturdays... Oh I'm frothing at the thought and the happy memories of my school holidays over at Vauxhall Caravan Park opposite the carriage sidings (now Eastern Rail Services yard).

    That would be the "sweet spot" rolling stock wise, there were 101s, 150/2s and 158s but the 156s were not around yet, 37s & 31s were a-plenty with the 47s featuring primarily on drags - with 86s and Mk2 "coffins". The only issue would be at Norwich where the EMU's would be missing but easily explained away by some issue with the fleet etc...

    I do fear though that it will be another modern route for a modern unit that can be driven with one hand instead of three, for the yoofs of course and not us old timers, pity :/ That said, I do enjoy Medway but that might also because it offers a higher speed than the Wherry Line and at least I can stick to the 465 which was BR at least...
     
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  26. Wivenswold

    Wivenswold Well-Known Member

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    This is based on an assumption that comments on here about an independent developer being recommended to stop work on their own version are correct, I've not heard anything myself and if it's not on the Roadmap it doesn't exist yet. However;

    If it's modern and we ignore the new signals, semaphore was in charge until recently, the new shopping centre next to Norwich Station and the stations signs then very little has changed since electrification around Norwich in 1987 so we can easily run 101s, 150/2s, 153s, 170s in one of the many liveries through the years and it won't be too immersion-breaking.

    If it's somewhere in the BR/Anglia/National Express/early GA era, we'll have a problem adding a post-2019 Timetable as there are no bi-mode Stadler Flirt 3s in game. So I'm actually hoping it's modern so we can have more flexibility for Timetables from other eras. Including seaside specials with blue Class 31s, 37s and 47s, possibly with a model of me hanging out of the front passenger door window taking in a healthy lung-full of sea-air mixed with diesel fumes.

    But each to their own. I'm hoping that Strumpshaw RSBP centre is featured, not for train simming purposes, I spent so many weekends there in my youth, crossing the rail with my timetable and camera in hand, waiting for a train, then heading off to try and find a Bittern or Marsh Harrier. It's also the only place that I've every been attacked by a swan. Ah the memories.

    And sorry for adding to the derailing of the thread.
     
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  27. Shaun123

    Shaun123 Well-Known Member

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    I did accidentally post in the feedback thread yesterday about a rare 375/9 on the Medway Valley but today is day 2 of a 4 car on the Medway Valley today, 375910 out again after stabling at Strood overnight.

    Makes a change!
     
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  28. theorganist

    theorganist Well-Known Member

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    It would for me I'm afraid. Running class 101's on a pseudo 80's timetable with modern LED signals would be diesel legends level of immersion breaking or seeing a class 40 in 1990's Penzance.

    If we are going to have historic stock let's have routes to match not some contrived compromise.
     
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  29. Wivenswold

    Wivenswold Well-Known Member

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    I guess it's different for everyone. I'd worry more about track layout and the lineside environment. If only the signals are not representative I'll live with that, I'm more concerned about what a signal is telling me rather than how it's telling me.

    Diesel Legends doesn't work for me because of the overhead wiring though the London suburbs along with the modern Reading station. That's a much bigger issue for me.
     
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  30. CK95

    CK95 Well-Known Member

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    I mean it’s a futile topic because short of JT bringing it in a couple of years (at least) I’d put my mortgage on it being modern.

    You could probably make a late RR livery pack work on a modern route, but even then there’s so much accessibility adherence on even late 2010 UK railways that it’ll look modern regardless of the signalling used.

    Especially with how clean TSW’s environment is, it can be hard enough even on JT routes to get fully immersed into a BR era timeframe, the games aesthetic is just overwhelmingly modern.
     
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  31. Phil47569

    Phil47569 Well-Known Member

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    That's why I had said early 90s, aside from the EMU's that would appear at Norwich (but not be drivable) and DBSO's, we have all of the required rolling stock available for that period - might just need a few liveries.

    I do find it slightly odd and maybe you've hit the nail on the head there that the environment is "too clean" that even the JT routes are not quite fully immersive (they are too bright for me) yet North TransPennine feels perfectly 1980s and grimy enough...

    But yeah, it'll be a modern route, again :/ As for someone making a 90's timetable for it? That could work for some, myself included. While I remember Great Yarmouth in the 90s I can't remember Norwich or much of the route so the risk of seeing something look out of place is a lot lower for me (and others) than on our own local lines that we know so well. It wouldn't be anywhere near "Diesel Legends" levels of inappropriateness, which ironically that would have been a far better received DLC had it been made for the Penzance route instead...
     
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  32. CK95

    CK95 Well-Known Member

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    To be honest I’m surprised they haven’t tried a modern timetable on a BR route. I have a feeling that would do better than trying something like diesel legends.

    Early 90’s though is generally the perfect middle ground for anything IMO, you’ve got a lot of BREL & MetCam stock running around still IRL today.

    In any case I doubt we’d even get the short 37 set era for Wherry Lines, between the stock, semaphores & lack of overheads I would put money on more than a few people mistaking it for BR era. Ideally for me a modern version would be with the 68 sets, at least we’d get some loco thrash & a loco which would be pretty universal for modern content as a whole.
     
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  33. Wivenswold

    Wivenswold Well-Known Member

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    That's the weird thing for me, I've got friends and family up there, it's got some of my favourite gig venues outside of London and I've been an away Arsenal fan there over a dozen times and I also go up there for some of the best pubs in the UK. Back in the pre-Zoom days I had regular meetings with AON and Norwich Union so while I consider Brighton to by my third home in the UK (after my village and London), Norwich is probably the place I've visited the most in UK that's not in Essex or London.

    I'm so excited by the possibility of it being in TSW that I'll happily take it in any era.
     
  34. WaveyDavey

    WaveyDavey Well-Known Member

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    JetWash & Fawx I just wanted to come back to you both about my situation earlier in the thread and the issues I was having with crash to desktop etc..... As I mentioned previously I refunded the route as I could not manage more than around 10 minutes without TSW crashing. Other routes were all OK though.

    After refunding I carried out some more investigating/digging into what could have been causing the problems going on numerous Nvidia forums and Reddit and decided to go with the slightly drastic option of carrying out a full uninstall and clean install of both the Nvidia App and also the latest 595.97 drivers. I had been one of those with a 4070 card that had been having issues with flickering in games with the new 595.xx set of drivers and therefore had been forced to revert back to the older 591.86 driver.

    I found mention of using the standalone driver install files instead of letting the Nvidia app download and install the drivers so went with that option as well as obviously fully replacing the Nvidia app too.

    Once the process was complete I found that I did not get the flickering in games with the latest drivers as I had been getting previously which was the first good thing. I then also noticed that I seemed to be possibly getting slightly better performance and frame rates within TSW compared to before the full uninstall/re-install.

    I then decided to take the test another step and so purchased the route again to see if I could now run it OK and I'm glad to say it does now run as it should. I've carried out a full run on 2T48 (Which was the run I'd always tried previously but never got more than 10 minutes with) and another run from Tonbridge to Gravesend with a 66 to test the route the other way. It also now runs fine with all my mods installed including the live weather/annotations mod and your lighting mod engine.ini changes and Godmode.ini changes for the route. (I've also added the two lines to remove the pop-in raised ballast in the 4 foot).

    So doing a full-on Nvidia app and driver uninstall and then full clean install using Nvidia's standalone installer seems to have cleared out whatever corrupt data was stuck in there (I had already carried out two or three clean installs of the drivers but through the Nvidia app obviously to no avail). I can only think that maybe something like the extra detail in the route compared to my other routes was enough to tip the card/drivers over the edge while the corruption in the driver files was still in there.

    Anyway apologies for such a long post but I just wanted to follow up on everything and thanks for creating such a stunning route.
     
    Last edited: Apr 15, 2026 at 6:25 PM
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  35. Fawx

    Fawx Well-Known Member

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    Really glad to hear it's been resolved! I know what a nightmare it can be troubleshooting things, and good on you for going to such lengths.Thank you for getting back to us, I'll add it to the list of things we ask people to try.
     
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  36. ilovelucky63

    ilovelucky63 Well-Known Member

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    I’ve noticed on the section between East Farleigh and Wateringbury, sometimes the river is empty, a bit like how some sections of the sea on the Riveria Line didn’t load before that got a fix.
     
  37. JetWash

    JetWash Well-Known Member

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    We’ve had another report of this but can’t recreate it. What platform are you on please?
     
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  38. ilovelucky63

    ilovelucky63 Well-Known Member

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    Xbox Series X. Here’s an example.
     

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  39. Jude Peters

    Jude Peters Member

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    When guarding the 465 on MVL, all you do is check tickets you don’t open or close the doors, is this realistic? I thought that on these train the guard would do the doors but as the panels aren’t modelled in game then maybe that’s why?
     
  40. Jude Peters

    Jude Peters Member

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    Does anyone know if there’s actually any AI services that go into platform 4 at tonbridge? Is this realistic that it’s barely used?
     
  41. FallenAngel00me

    FallenAngel00me Well-Known Member

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    I'm not from the area, but from what I gather, most 465s are driver only units
     
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  42. ilovelucky63

    ilovelucky63 Well-Known Member

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    I’ve only ever seen it used mid morning by 465s for slow stopping services to London.
     
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