Doesnt mean someone else can work on the model if possible(Blacksteinn made the C40-8W model, but HIS edited it for the ATSF pack) And the old GP40-2 isnt coming back, which is why I asked to make a new one based on the existing GP38-2 model.
I'm amazed by the poor view of the BP36PH, but it's like that in real life. Photo taken right in front. https://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=556246
I only caught a bit of it. The route doesn't look the most interesting in my opinion but I shall find time to watch it in full. I think they would be better off running the route in sunny weather first time then doing a run with the new weather system. When it turned overcast the route looked flat. Their streams certainly don't do their products justice. I often find watching an ambassador stream shows the route off better. It looks like it's well made and I like the liveries of the loco and stock. If the German route looks good then I might buy the deluxe edition, if not I'll just buy the UK route and unit when it's released.
Unfortunately, the game's lighting has never looked good in overcast weather, only in clear weather. Shame that the new "lighting enhancements" hasn't really fixed that at all, though considering the Jetwash Lighting mod I have installed (which is quite literally the lighting enhancements for TSW7, but for TSW6 & older) doesn't improve upon that either, seems like it's something that can't really be fixed.
We'll aim to show that tonight - first runs using Dynamic weather (Due to the time of day and year it is, chances are live weather is mostly overcast and potentially raining!). As a cheeky spoiler, we'll be starting tonight with the ICE 4
I like how almost none of the questions from the Q&A thread were answered during the stream. What's the point of these threads anyway? Don't you like unpleasant questions? And if there are no others, then no need to answer? The main question everyone's asking is: Why Boca Raton? Did you just throw something on the route map with "Where it lands, that's where we'll end up"?
Or in Jamie’s curated responses before locking the thread down… Wouldn’t it hurt to answer questions about the night lighting and whether or not we can see big rig trucks on the highways in the AI traffic? (Amongst others).
I know right he answered what 6 questions then locked it. Not all of us wanna sit through a 3 hr stream to find answers.
DTG have been pretty adamant that there will be no representation of Amtrak here, except for the "track inspection" train. But......... I couldn't help but notice in the live stream that there was a layer for the track inspection train, but also a separate layer simply named "Amtrak." Of course there could be a lot of reasons for that to appear. Some more interesting than others.
Another route without safety systems. SD40 and GP38 trains are being updated – they still lack safety systems. DTG, are you serious? It's 2026, finally, get the safety systems working. What's the point of all this? Such a small detail, but it's the final straw that kills the immersion. This was clearly a sale.
For sure you are correct, I tried to watch a lot of the stream but either didn't see that part or didn't notice. I actually do appreciate the inclusion of static stock though. Perhaps I'll spawn an F40 and go with it.
So, with an open mind I watched the entire live stream yesterday and liked quite a bit of what I saw. The foul weather during the first part was an unfortunate distraction that really diminished the opportunity to show off DTG's work, as well as the typical feel of the South Florida vibe. Once that was worked out, I thought a lot of the route captures a pretty good feel depicting the area. The various station models look good, the on site audio captures add a nice layer of immersion and the variety of activity seems like a good balance where there's something for everyone. One obvious omission loomed large for me though. As I mentioned in my first post in this thread, I was very excited that the Tri-Rail SFRTA route was coming back - this time to TSW. I was stoked to see West Palm Beach in TSW! Finding out the route was ending in Boca Raton left me bewildered and really bummed out. The northern third of this route is where I first caught the "train bug" when I was a kid. Hanging out at the West Palm Beach Seaboard station or up at the Northwood wye watching trains was almost a daily pastime. Still is sometimes! Yesterday seeing all of the timetables originating or terminating at Mangonia Park or West Palm Beach as they actually do and knowing in TSW it begins and ends on that isolated stretch of track near Yamato Road in Boca just made that "what could have been" feeling much stronger. DTG did a really nice job on the south two thirds of the route. As I said in my earlier post, I wanted to keep an open mind on the new route. I'm sure many players will like it, as it looks really good! For me the omission of the West Palm Beach area just looms too large to really enjoy the experience I think. I guess I'll sit this one out for now.
Has someone explain why this isn't a full route? Also please tell me the MIA air train is a mastery trophy
Its the same reason we always get when that happens. It exceeds the scope of the project / doing more would exceed the budget.
I have been thinking that the reason the full route wasnt made is because ..of the addition of the freight spurs industry branches in the miami airport hialeah area thats coming later on ,matt said in the stream, plus it would prob give the freight hauler mode even more things to do.
I rather hoped this would be an evolution of SanFran - SanJose, which IMO is one of the best US experiences we’ve had in TSW. The ending at Boca Raton is really poor, it’s really stumped the route beyond what’s reasonable IMO. I think this route was the collateral against the time budget for TSW7, and I fear that it’s because US content is so low down on DTG’s interest scale. Both UK & Germany have had multiple DLCs that cross others & whilst yes that’s harder for US, there are still several options which IMO there isn’t a good reason to not have been included yet. Ditto for safety systems being absent on pretty much every US route outside of NEC. The trains did look good & I really liked the liveries on all of them, just a shame there isn’t more passion put into the US side of things the decision making level of development.
Indeed, but apart from TSW6 where DTG was essentially absent across all counties on the DLC front, even having a second US route for the yearly title is what I’d consider a ‘busy year’ for NA content.
Absolutely. Juggling resource allocation on projects is the biggest challenge of managing a profitable and sustainable business. It's not an empty, rubber stamp answer to say there are restraints on what they will allocate to each project. They want to satisfy a broad base of customers(revenue) with the limited resources available(expenses) in the most efficient manner they can(profit). It's economics 101. Specifically on this route, I think they did an overall fabulous job! Think about it for a moment. Just getting the license to use Tri-Rail branding took years of work. Negotiating, legal documents, meetings, it's a long arduous process. Then they were provided on site access to Tri-Rail equipment and personnel to gather assets for this project. That's all before the first click of the mouse to begin the layout. I think you get the idea..... I could go on for paragraphs. Myself and maybe a handful of others are the outliers here. I have very detailed local knowledge and ties to the region. For most, it's a superb route and I would encourage you to purchase it and enjoy! For those that long for the West Palm Beach connection like me, I hope from a business standpoint they utilize every last resource they invested in this project to the fullest. There is future revenue in the Tri-Rail brand if they decide to use it. Why wouldn't they? It's low hanging fruit!
What an unfortunate business decision. Its like going to a restaurant and being served 3/4's of your dinner because of budget or time constraints. I would have gladly waited longer for them to complete the route completely, and I would imagine the negative reviews forthcoming will cost more than it was worth.
I hear you! I'm the last one that you would expect to be singing DTG praises on this decision. I'm very disappointed with it even if I understand it. Time will tell if they made a good choice. If the northern third of the route is important to enough people, they may act on that with a future product or update. The best way to communicate that sentiment is with the discussions we have here and of course with our money.
Originaly was made for freight, but were rebuilt when Tri Rail bought them and been operating with passenger since
After watching the stream I have some initial thoughts about the audio: - The sounds for the GP49 are great, and I'm not just talking about the cab rattling. The internal sounds in general are done well with some "depth" to most of the buttons and levers. There is also a powerful bass layer, both external and internal, that really add to the immersion of the locomotive. It's also the only locomotive that has a loud enough exterior horn. - The exterior horns need to be louder; they should drown out the engine and not the other way round. Additionally, the horn needs to be audible at a farther distance away from the train. - The interior horn for the F40 is good, but doesn't sound as great as the F40 on Boston-Worcester. - The Rotem cab car audio remains unchanged which is good. - The sudden rainstorm didn't make any noise, as I guess you would here it from the cab. - The sounds of going over junctions in the BL36PH are too quiet. - The planes didn't seem to make much noise when passing right above the camera. - I get the explanation of why it is difficult to implement AI horns on US routes, but how about the AI using the bell when arriving at and departing from stations? It would be a good start at least, and apart from a couple of edge cases where the AI probably shouldn’t be moving anyway, I can see it working on a general basis. - It's great to have the real station announcements in the game. - The audio implementation has obviously improved significantly over the years, and it would be nice to have the audio team take another stab at the original CSX Heavy Haul fleet that often gets included as freight on these east coast routes. I will caveat these points with it being on a stream and that I haven't been to Florida to hear these trains IRL. Still, I hope DTG can take something from this and make some improvements going forward, as well as continuing to do what works well.
Im really looking forward to this one. Any new US content is welcome far as Im concerned. The detail and effort put into the whole thing is really cool. The motive power on its own is fantastic. Freight Hauler is exactly what Ive been wanting for ages too!! Kudos to DTG & all involved, well done.
The GP49 s on tri rail are ex Norfolk Southern freight locomotives they were 4600 -4605 on NS 2 have been retired by tri rail , so out of those 6 4 are left so they a rare locomotive .they were built new for NS in 1980 , NS had more GP49 s but the numbers listed above were the ones Tri Rail purchased. The BL 36PH are unique they were built by Brookville Equipment in Brookville PA they a independent locomotive builder .
I wish we could get some quality 3rd party developers to do more US content ,someone that passionate about US trains and operations and will create quality stuff , wish we could get a 3rd party that would tackle a US freight route since it s obvious DTG will never do another freight only route,,As far as GP40 2 we really need it to come back into TSW CSX uses GP40 2 still a lot in local freight services in my area CSX SD40 2 s are rare now most are gone or going ..in my local area CSX uses GP38-2 GP40-2 s and GE 6 axles AC44 ES44 us
HIS dlcs are a bit disappointing santa fe pack is "okay" after having been patched (I still wanted new engine sounds for the C40-8W, nobody deserves that synthesized garbage from the SPG version) GP60M is the C40-8W with another body and skin i'm not even going to buy the southern pacific route let's see how the SD40-2 "snoot nose" turns out to be, although I think the last thing we need is another SD40 i'm honestly just fed up with them...
A single, straightforward railway line from station A to station B, operated by a single operator who runs just this one line. Apart from that, it’s just freight traffic, for which we already have all the locomotives and wagons. So, a railway line that we can recreate with 100% realism. What could possibly go wrong? DTG: Hey, let’s cut this line in half and sell half of it instead of the whole thing! XD Seriously, I’m glad DTG didn’t take on the production of the Medway Valley line, because if they had, that line in TSW would probably have ended at Yalding!
Except literally more than half of the route is here apart from literally 5 stations worth, which wouldn't really make that much of a difference in terms of services and time spent on the route (you would be spending at least an hour and a half doing one service on the entire route). This constant complaining and bickering on here about DTG deciding to not include a few stations when quite literally a majority of the route is present is getting out of hand. I get the criticisms, but give it a break.
Snoot nose is made by Adamovic Productions, who was a 3rd party Trainz developer for RRMods. And based on their catalogue on said RRMods website, I have faith that anything they release will blow whatever slop Gary & team develop out of the water in Train Sim World. https://rrmods.com/
Years ago when I played Trainz 2006 - Trainz A New Era, I frequently downloaded the freight locomotives and rolling stock from RRMods and I can definitely say, Adamovic's work for American freight is amazing. I am confident his work for TSW will be top notch. Hopefully JointedRail can also join in so we get some highly requested freight content as well
You're just making excuses for DTG. It's precisely because they already developed the majority of the route and left out only 5 stations that they should've just finished it. And it's not like the whole route would be overly long by TSW standards; 70 miles, definitely doable given the low density of stations and scenery. I said the same thing when Mildmay was announced and it only went to Willesden Junction, although I gave that a pass since it was a third party solo dev. Or when the Marseille-Avignon route didn’t go to Lyon, but I also excused that since it was the first French route in TSW. But with Miami tri-rail there’s really no excuse because it’s a core route in the flagship release and is largely reusing locos already in the game (with slight modifications obviously).
Sawn off routes is a long standing tradition in TSW… Bernina is by far the worst example, but even in the beginning GWML only went to Reading instead of the TSC version through to Oxford. Then Hagen to Siegen was curtailed at Finnentrop(?). I know I’ve trodden on a few toes with my criticism of the choice of German route and the Leeds UK route but at least they start and terminate at logical end points. Are DTG incapable of assessing whether a full route is viable with the resources they have when they whiteboard it? Surely at that stage their own yellow flag must come up and shout, this is biting off more than we can chew, stopping short isn’t acceptable, let’s find something else.
