Route Thames Valley: Windsor, Henley & Marlow Branch Lines - Feedback Thread

Switched ends at Maidenhead after bringing unit out of sidings. Went to sit in drivers seat and this happened. Had this issue before with GWE and 165 and it seems to of returned. Some seems like a 165 issues.

 

There is no mastery yet for this route is having one. dtg_jan

 

PlayStation 5

 

I have found this DLC very relaxing and wanting to continue playing the next service. I played the first departure from Slough to Windsor . Once I finished the service at Windsor, I returned to free roam where it showed the next service departing in one minute…So, I did the return back to Slough. Once I got to Slough and finished the service, returned to free roam and showed service was leaving in one minute. I figured why not, one more round trip……. I did that 2 more times .Not sure how the scheduled shift works but get the feel on how it might be done IRL

 

The only thing I have to point out so far is that the train cuts into the platform on track 5 at Twyford, whereas there appears to be a bit too much of a gap between the track and the platform on track 4. I’m referring to the start of the platform, where there is a fairly sharp curve.

 

Playing on Xbox. I’m riding the 9:31 from Maidenhead to Marlow as a passenger to get a feel for the route and I noticed that when I got to Bourne End, the driver (and her mate) stayed in, what was, the front carriage and didn’t change ends. The train took off for Marlow with no driver in the front carriage.
Edit: Same on the way back - 10:11 from Bourne End. I have’t tried any other services yet,

Also, from an aesthetic point of view, whilst I am impressed with the decor around the Marlow Donkey pub, sadly the building is completely the wrong shape.

Great walk along the Thames at Bourne End BTW. My old jogging route in the 80s

Another Edit: Mastery appears to be missing. According to the preview stream, there should be mastery to get the replica steam train at Windsor.

 

PS5 Pro

So far I've tried the Windsor Line and about 1 mile past Slough there is a bridge that has shifted in axis and there is a collision with the train bogies...... such a small steel bridge originally double-track

 

Why does the guard sit in the front cab with driver? Is that a bug?

 

Screenshot of the bridge Windsor Line. I play on Steam. Also, the windows aren't correct for a Class165, all windows have hoppers in compar with a Class 166.

 

PS5 Pro
Twyford, platform 5, collision of platform edge with train, in the curve from the switch towards the station building.

Just out of curiosity I went to look at the Great Western map and it's fine there

 

When I was changing to another cabin at the end of the service in Henley and tried to go back, they were sitting at both ends... that one stayed there and in the other cabin, after the start of the next service, another one appeared next to me... I admit, it's quite annoying

 

Not a bug. It was explained on the stream and, IIRC, the guard sits there IRL and their main job is to deal with the tokens.

 

First impressions: not so good.

To start with, I went to find the longest service available, which was the 66-minute long Class 37 railtour. The service starts at 2:26 AM. This is the view out of the cab for 95% of it. Maybe should've sprinkled a bit more light sources around.


Then, I did the 315-yard-long depot move "service." This tower immediately came into view. Man, it has to be in the running for the worst 3D modeling/texturing job in the game, right after that iconic gray house on Fife Circle. The main bulk of the tower is just a cuboid, the whole thing has maybe 100 polygons total, and the texture isn't blurry, that's its full resolution. Normal maps? What are those? You might think that this might be some distant scenery, but no.


That's how close to the track it is (the Class 37 being driven is visible, the FOV is standard). You can literally see the individual pixels of the texture from the in-cab view.


The service, which, to repeat, consisted of a 315-yard drive and a single untimed stop, has a Platinum medal requirement of 200 points. Anyone that's played this game for a few hours knows that points get awarded every 440 yards, and an untimed stop is worth 160 points. So the service cannot be completed to a Platinum medal without doing the ol' TSW back-and-forth. I thought we were past this LOVE years ago. Then again, given how the training module uses the old "30 points per section / 500 points per stop" scoring from years ago, who knows how the services were supposed to be scored. Or (tinfoil hat on) when this route was actually made.
Edit about "the ol' back-and-forth." In this case, the window to do it in turned out to be ~20 yards big. From the back, the rails just end. From the front, there's a trap switch that switches to the state pictured once you drive over it.

Let me tell you, this was the longest 1-minute "service" I had ever done.

Jokes aside, I know this is a cut-price novelty, but some basic level of quality and fidelity still has to be present.

I'll see if the impressions improve on other branches. Maybe the token system turns out to be interesting to use.

P.S. It's cool how you have to switch the braking system to Vacuum in the Class 37 before each drive. However, that control is often in the other cab, and there's no passage through the engine room. Perhaps an additional tutorial?

 

It's a 5 1/2 to 6 minute journey IRL so you only hang around 4 minutes at each station, in order to keep the 3 trains an hour schedule during the day.

 

PS5 Pro
Wargrave, direction Henley, the stopping point is located in the same place as for the opposite direction, which is not quite correct in relation to the platform infrastructure.
Fortunately, it is possible to stop in the correct place, only at the cost of losing points for stopping accuracy

 

oh cool. didn't know that. Do you know how long the driver shifts is this branch?

 

Wedding Bells in Windor scenario. PlayStation 5.

The GWE remastered mock up on a Class 165 (is a 166 with a 165 livery) is used as part of a 4 car unit. Was this meant to be?

 

No idea, but the driver at 11am this morning was not the same driver at 4pm.

 

The good stuff is absolutely fantastic, I really love the 165, the new little features like the pigeons, new vehicles, road scenery, the building interiors and the boats are fantastic. Most of the lineside scenery is absolutely beautiful with lots of clutter and foliage. I love the token exchange too it's a nice addition to see.

I just wish that there had been slightly more care put into the scenery in places. There are floating buildings, fences, vehicles all over the place as it does feel rushed to me. It just needs a small little clean up just to go over the scenery again and just fix those small errors.

The scenery at the main stations is a little bit of a let down for me too. I hope SeventeenF doesn't mind me cropping this side of his screenshot just to show that the frontage of Maidenhead station is just non-existent.



And it's really similar outside of Slough too.


IIRC there wasn't much room/budget for custom assets which is a shame because that would've really helped to elevate the route in my opinion.

I don't want to come across as being overly critical because I do love the concept of the route and there is a lot to like about it! I just find myself in the same area as TrainsimTV the detail just needs another pass over.

I don't expect it to be a perfect copy. I just hoped that a route with the main selling point being the scenery would just be a little more polished.

 

It must be quite mentally demanding, driving back and forth all day long........ I've done it three times now and it made me a little nervous.

 

Wow! I didn't even notice that, I was so mad at the tower. Doesn't it just scream "care and polish"?

 

Decades ago, the Leicester to Nottingham stopping service was a Loughborough to Leicester stopping service. My dad worked on the railway and knew some of the drivers, they absolutely hated that service as it was tedious.

 

not sure if it's worst than the "dinky" on the Princeton branch off the NEC not sure if is enough for a coffee break. but the route feeling

 

Im not sure if anyone has mentioned this but there are no route hop points at Slough, Maidenhead or Twyford on the GWE, so you can only route hop from Thames Valley Branches and not to. Im on PC

 

Is just me or is it really dark on these lines at night I mean i cant see a thing.

 

On PC, running 2H42, the stopping point at Wargrave seemed to be a long way up the platform compared to where the passengers are and where the S car stop sign is.

Found the service patterns a nice change but would be good to have a bit more variety of stock at the mainline stations, the class 70 might help with this. Also if the portals can be extended (or wrapped around to not interfere with tile loading), it would help the mainline stations feel more alive.

 

This is just malpractice by DTG. Guaranteed Johannes wasn't allowed to modify existing DLC and of course DTG drop the ball.

I'd love a straight answer on how this could happen for the one DLC that absolutely relies on route hopping.

Overall i like the branches and don't regret purchasing but i still maintain it would have been much better as a GWE route extension.

 

I love the route (s). Played all three branches in one direction set at around midday in summer. The vegetation, rivers, bridges and scenery all superb. Really captures the atmosphere of these branch lines. Absolute bargin for the price in my opinion. Minor criticism is that Bourne end station could do with a bit of polish. But overall stunning.

 

In the GWE map, HST trains stop at least in Slough... but here I feel that HST traffic is just a backdrop....... and because the trains probably enter and exit from such short sections, HST trains practically run in step... they don't have time to get moving properly ........ and I haven't seen a single HST train stop in Slough

 

The 166 windows don't open, 165 do.

Both trains, very minor issue, if you unlock the doors before turning power key and engaging reverser, nothing happens, but it will proceed to unlock and open once you do engage them. Maybe that it is how it actually works but it seems weird.

Scenery seems ok to me. Suffers from a certain graininess and unnatural highlights that is common to almost every map for the game but that is not a problem unique to this. I'm not so worried about how exactly this matches the real life setting as I've seen others scrutinizing, nor do I personally mind minor imperfections that are not readily visible from the cab. To be honest I already expected that the maps were sort of Potemkin villages and I'm surprised to find out they usually do stand up to close scrutiny away from the train line itself.