I been eyeing this route as a next purchase but after reading it's comning soon thread which is just 12 pages of every thing that wrong with it,i swear i'll bet if it was possible someone would take the route out behind the barn and shoot before it was even released.now i'll give you the fact the Hamilton yard was 1/3 a ghostyard that disappeared because it was a missleading ruse,(why on mars does dtg work so darn hard on extra unuseable track).So with that nitpick out of the way has anyone who bought it or anyone who said they woundn't buy it(I know some of you did at some point),now that you had time to digest the route since it's release have any of you found anything good at all about it?
I enjoy the ethanol loading. When it works. The biggest sticking point for me is the lifelessness of the whole thing. Some scenarios do include some ai traffic, but most don't and it feels like you're driving around a diorama and not one of the busiest freight and passenger lines in Canada.
Sounds like I’m among the few here that purchased Oakville Sub (in my case, running on PS4)... and I guess I understand that. Anyway, this route definitely has some bugs (some fixed, some not but with workarounds), and some design issues (limited AI train traffic in the route overall, limited rolling stock in yards, and limited space to roam in the ‘Hamilton Explorer’ free-roam scenario), etc. That said, I’m still glad I have it in my collection. It gave me a dedicated freight route and associated scenarios, journeys and services- and it augments the UP and CSX freight options I already have in my other routes. And I definitely enjoyed using Hamilton Explorer as a sort of proving ground, building two functional unit trains there (one a 4x1 grain-train, the other a 2x2 DPU oil-train) with available rolling stock in this scenario. I learned a lot from the internet about turning up a 2x2 train with helper units, and Hamilton Explorer helped me prove that entire process out. For anyone interested in this route- I’d say pick it up on sale, not at full price. And if you run into any issues in it, search the forums here for workarounds.
I know this isn't much help to console players but pc'er really get the best perks,In searching on youtube for this route in action quite a few pc players have many of csx's rolling stock in there CN yards and siding,including car types not found on this route.i'm not sure if it's a sand patch grade perk or just a outside mod that allows this.
I like the interactivity of loading the ethanol wagons. I liked the scenarios that come with the route. But now I'm doing the services. I do these chronologically. I've done the first 10 or 12 at this time. And so far they are pretty dull. No shunting whatsoever, just line runs between Aldershot yard and Oakville yard. Was OK for the trist 4, but getting boring very quickly. I hoped there'd be more shunting and loading services...
For me the only real weak point on OSD is the absence of a heavy mainline diesel and the intermodal trains. Both would make the route much more authentic. But with the scenario planner we can do both there in TSW2, if the route will be available in it in the future. What I really like at OSD is the opportunity to build 60 car + trains in the free roam scenario and in some services that start at Hamilton freight yard West. A big progress for the future would be passanger action with Go Train, Via Rail and Amtrak like in real.
My only complaint about this route is that in some of the ethanol loading scenarios "loading" takes place during a delay that lasts as much as 20 minutes while in others the player manages the loading process. While the former situation is probably more realistic, simulated boredom is ridiculous. In some cases, I've stubbornly handled the loading myself; in others, I've tried getting out of the engine to walk around, but that results in being nagged about giving up the engine. Since there are no AI surrogate workers available to change switches, handle couplings, or, as here, manage manual loading, allowing the engineer to manage such tasks is the only sensible alternative. Waiting in the cab while loading supposedly takes place is just plain ridiculous.