Wcml Preston To Crewe Discussion

Class 86/4 and 47/3 will appear at Preston Carlisle?

 

Exactly the same thing happens on Tees Valley, acts like the wagon isn't there.

 

I've just gone back and watched the part of the livestream that "concerned me" yesterday and am happier, I had jumped back into it to watch the run up from SP to Bickershaw and at the time it looked like they had royally messed up Platt Bridge but upon watching it back it has been done correctly, it was just really hard to tell with the camera constantly moving around to look at things on the cab floor etc... So well done there guys & gals, very happy with that

(My physio is adjacent to the line at that spot and everytime I go past I wonder just how great it was back then to have pairs of 20s thundering past, less so if you were staying at the Victoria Hotel with your room at track level, though some of us would enjoy that).

Aside from checking in at Platt Waz I didn't really watch the stream as the JT one had covered enough for me, even with the shoutout to my reference to Mesnes Park and getting married there

Wigan looks brilliant, really went above and beyond there and I will be finding plenty of opportunities to linger around there. My "spots" at Bamfurlong are in there too and look accurate, though I'm not used to seeing it no longer overgrown like it is now.

I do wonder service wise, according to the timetable there are 666 services (loving that of course) but I wonder if some services are hidden, such as some of the loco swap moves as per Shap in order to keep the timetable tidy. I mean even after all 666 services are done I'm fairly sure I'll be re-doing some favourites and making my own trip workings and tours etc... I have no fear of not having things to do with this route.

I've got 9 days leave from Thursday so dare I say for a change, "Everything's coming up Milhouse!"

 

It never used to on Tees Valley. Must be a new bug introduced somewhere along the way of various updates.

 

It probably won't be there, judging by recent releases.

 

Harry can you instruct the team to add Chester to the roadmap please? Asking for a friend (me)

 

Can only go back as far as TSW3, but it is the same there as it is in TSW6.

 

Not initially no.

 

@JAY28

 

Thank you. I'll be waiting!

 

Alas, got my nephews visiting over the weekend - but booked Monday off work for recovery, so may well be investing then. I've enjoyed both Blackpool Branches and Preston-Carlisle, so feel it's a safe buy - though obviously seeing the glory (heh) of 1986 Whitehaven is what I'm really looking forward to!

 

Must admit I was a little miffed when Matt decided to wait till Platt Waz to look around the cab but i'll get to see it in good time!! The church on Liverpool Road looks really good.

Wigan looks amazing, arguably one of the best looking towns in the game.

 

After watching the stream, I do feel a wee bit embarrassed about having never tried Uncle Joe's mint balls, despite living in Manchester for over 20 years. Guess it's all about the Kendal mint cake for me when I fancy something of that variety.

 

100% biased but they are a top tier sweet.

 

I'm sure so, but I'm a Cumbrian lad so have to rep for my local brand - though these days I try to avoid the sugary treats as much as possible to keep the middle aged spread at bay!

Perhaps playing the route will act as not-that-subliminal advertising and convince me to buy a bag when I'm working up in Manchester.

 

With regard to the official stream, got to about halfway and wondering if anyone knows at what timestamp the questions from the forum Q&A were opened up?

Otherwise my hot takes from the stream so far are…

Looks very good and top notch with the route building. The detail at Wigan in particular is outstanding (though with the caveat as to possible effect on performance) and I loved hearing Harry’s reaction to spotting Uncle Joe’s Mintball factory.

Obviously lots of playability with the freight services but… as touched on before, scenery and train handling wise it’s not the most challenging section of railway in the UK and even stopping at Wigan and Warrington the main section is over quite quickly.

And yes, the sound squelching was definitely there even on Matt’s powerful PC and definitely not an artefact of the streaming activity as we have all encountered it on Preston to Carlisle. It really destroys what should be the smooth representation of the electric traction sounds.

 

Further to above, found some of the Q&A; thanks to the presenters for addressing mine even if the answers were not quite what I wanted to hear.

Class 304 - understandable as it would really need its own route to justify putting in the game.

Class 86/4, also understandable as they had the resources to hand and a Class 85 (or any other roarer) probably harder to source sounds for. In fact got a feeling the (freeware?) one done for TSC just aliased the Class 86.

Mark 3 sleeper, well the response on this a bit disappointing given JT’s attention to detail elsewhere. Those overnight trains formed of Mark 3 day coaches are a real illusion breaker, though maybe not so much on this route than Shap.

Sound squelching - found the response to this a bit incredulous given the many reports with the issue on Shap and the fact it was clearly evident on the first run. Yes, Matt did eventually concede it’s more of a core issue but in that case - what’s being done about it please?

On a more positive note, nice to see the work done on the Class 20’s, I could almost smell that blue haze from the exhaust. Hellfire, as we used to say back in the day.

 

We've never had sleeper coaches in TSW, either here or abroad.

I know that it's a big build for a limited number of services, and only ever a short section of those, but I think they would make for a really cool experience. And while it's only a few services per route, it's the kind of thing that could appear on many routes.

 

Indeed. The Mark 3 sleepers could be reskinned as necessary for GWE for the Night Riviera service in both directions. And for that matter the Exeter to Plymouth route, too.

 

The thing with sleeper coaches is that they have more uses than just being used on overnights, you could for instance be in a scenario where the sleeper is running hours late and it's already gone daybreak, or maybe taking a short rake of them for repair, what about 1M11 being cancelled last night? Need to take the stock down to re-balance it for tonight's job etc...

Don't forget the opportunities missed on this route as well at Preston and Wigan with the Liverpool and Manchester sleepers being added/removed and the possibility of seeing one or two stray SLEP's in a siding...

I've said it before but it is a very unfortunate one to miss, it would have been easy enough to do considering they already have Mk3s in game, for the interior just model the corridor and lock off all of the rooms, toilet, pantry etc...

 

And the problem being, if JT are stepping away from the WCML there is no other route where they could really justify doing a Sleeper pack - I can't even recall if they appeared on the ECML before the Scottish overnights were focused on Euston.

 

There was one thing off about the stream; it wasn't raining in Wigan.

 

There were still several sleepers from Kings Cross in 86, and the mark ones were withdrawn 1982 iirc

 

MK3 sleepers did indeed appear on the ECML services, according to my scribblings from Summer 1984 I was regularly seeing up to 8 per train behind a 47. Mk1 Sleeping coaches were on their last legs by then and were being replaced by mk3s, the last ones I saw were April 1983.

 

Appreciate the confirmation. I know I did an overnight from The Cross to Darlington at some point in 84 or 85 (visiting the NYMR) and had a seat in a rather nice declassified Mark 2A FK so yes if conveying SC's must have been Mk3's.

 

Steady on now, we do get one or two good days of weather. For instance, I managed to get a nice tan standing around Nor'Western for most of today on a fools errand (got bowled 6 out of 8 times today including the Badger (twice), Kettle & 2x20s, HST, Evening Star 66 and a 37), should've stayed home.

 

Most sleepers across the country were Mk3 coaching stock in our era.

The main issue we run into is that if we did sleeper coaches we'd want to do them right, not just model a basic interior where no rooms are accessible and that takes time.

We are keeping in mind that quite a few want some proper sleeper coaches though

 

Some Mk3 sleepers would also be the perfect excuse to explore the night time diversions on Preston to Crewe. Perhaps it could be included as part of a class 85 pack, much like the Mk2Fs on the 86/2 pack?

 

If I buy a steam code through the JT website, do they get more money?

 

Potentially, but you also get JT points you can use for discounts off their other products.

 

Would buy that especially for the 85
Honestly great value packs

 

They also get your money immediately, rather than having to wait for Steam to send it to them a few weeks later. I saw someone say Steam don't take any money if you buy through the JT website, but I'm struggling to believe that as Steam is still hosting and distributing the content, it would be a bit of an easy way out if all you needed to do was sell licences on your own website to avoid paying them anything.

 

Out of interest, what time do JT start selling from their shop? Presumably 1800 BST same as Steam?

While very unlikely you would want to do it, the only downside of buying a Steam code from a third party is you would be unable to refund if the product failed to deliver up to expectations. Though as I said, probably not going to be an issue here.

Back on the subject of Mark 3 sleepers, well one route JT could do to take full advantage of these is the Highland Main Line (HML) from Perth to Inverness, or at least part of it (Pitlochry to Inverness). In 1986 I think there were still two overnight London Sleeper services plus the Glasgow/Edinburgh portion train. The latter conveyed Mark 3 sleepers and (usually) Mark 2 non aircon stock. The Eustons by then had probably graduated to Mark 2 aircon for the seated coaches. Not a good experience to actually travel on sitting up with the undimmable fluorescent lighting, but other than the sleeping cars JT already have pretty much all the stock needed for a HML route in this era.

We also know JT were previously working on the HML for TSC, which suddenly and mysteriously got abandoned so presumably all the research and resources from that are still lurking about somewhere.

 

Hallelujah, l managed to find this route in the Microsoft store at three minutes past ten. That’s a first and hopefully it will continue like that. Purchased and downloading now and with a bit of luck it will complete by this evening and l will get some play time later tonight.

 

Gee thanks Vern, I'm having flashbacks to the Night-Rider services now.

I think it sometimes appears on the JT store an hour or so before official release but you can't redeem the code on Steam until Steam finally drops it, which based on the 86/4 release was around 7 minutes later than scheduled :/ No you wouldn't be able to refund it but then again this is a developer that I have no doubts over so am happy to take the associated risk of buying directly (and cashing in some of those accumulated JT points).

 

Taken from Discord.


It seems like even Just Trains are getting affected by the blurry textures bug.

Which indicates that this isn’t necessarily anything to do with the routes it’s appearing on, it’s a core bug.

Proves just how unstable and broken the core is getting, without the proper optimisation.

 

He were go. It’s not even your screenshot.

 

Does that matter?

im not slandering the route here, Preston Crewe is brilliant.


I’m just pointing out a persistent bug in the core.

 

Yes of it course matters. You are so desperate to say “look, look!! Blurry textures”.

Get a life pal.

 

You don’t think it’s worth pointing out these things?

 

They need to deal with this texture issue ASAP, it was bad 2 years ago, ridiculous a year ago & just outright unacceptable now.

Even pushing past the half-baked slop the various devs produce, you finally look forward to something releasing & if it isn’t borked on release, it’s instead corrupted by this LOVE.

 

I don’t think this is necessarily third parties fault for the blurry textures here, core bugs effect every route.

This is down to DTG to clean up this mess.


This is more like a “play with the cards your dealt with” moment.

 

Xbox Series X. Tried to start the route and it threw up an out of video memory error, told me to close any other things I had running (nothing) and crashed to desktop.

Tried a second time and same issue.

Nope. I'm done with this game. This was a DLC I was really looking forwards to and it doesn't work on console, a Series X at that.

 

God forbid someone points out a flaw with the route so that people can make a more informed purchase.

 

It’s not even a flaw they have experienced though. It’s a random screenshot from a random user. It’s absolute nonsense

 

It's accurate though, the route is a blurfest, whether or not it's their screenshot is irrelevant.

I've seen what people are posting on the Discord, blurry textures everywhere, crashing on Xbox it's a mess. Even the ambassadors are saying it's a mess on console.

It's not JT's fault that DTG's testing on console is abysmal but for now I'd recommend holding off on buying the route on console.

 

Mainly cause by photo mode from my experience and very slight cab blurry on the max speed

 

It’s not even everywhere, there’s a few spots but a quick save and reload fixes it, I’m Xbox series X with all layers

only problem is automatically crashing at Crewe

 

done a couple of runs on xbox x passenger services with the 86 all good end to end blurry textures permitting, but tried to do freight weaver to basford hall 4s55 and it crashed before crewe.

 

I think when users say ‘console’ they mean Xbox. Again, I’m running PS5 since this morning without any problems.