Hi everyone , I have enough money for another route dlc, but I can’t decide which one to get . The routes I have left to buy are: Rhein Ruhr Osten Ruhr Sieg Nord West Somerset Railway Rapid Transit Hauptstrecke Munich Augsburg Tees Valley line I already know which of the routes which are yet to be released I would like to purchase, it’s just these routes that I can’t decide between
I can only really judge the two British ones as I don't own the others. Out of WSR and TVL though I'd definitely say Tees Valley would be better to purchase first as it's got plenty of both passenger and freight action and it's not too short. Its services are also quite interesting with the opportunity to load and unload wagons and do some shunting with the 08. I don't really play WSR that much as it's highest speed limit is 25mph which can become a bit tedious on a run that takes over an hour, but it is good if you just fancy a leisurely drive not needing too much concentration.
I own all except Munich-Augsburg so cannot comment on that. West Somerset is a lovely looking thing but is tedious and the lack of options in the scenario planner to do anything remotely interesting is disappointing. Even the ability to run around would be nice as the Mk1’s are so well modelled and I love fiddling with the buckeyes etc. Tees Valley is a great route with some good atmosphere. Best enjoyed with the class 31 DLC. Lots of varied trains and services with some shunting too. All locomotives and stock are well done. Don’t expect any spectacular scenery as the real thing is pretty plain and run-down and they have definitely captured that. I look forward to running the stock on NTP when they fix the scenario editor bugs. Ruhr Seig Nord does not show its age at all and with some adverse signals can provide one of the most enjoyable and satisfying drives. Lots of great freight services supplemented with the Regional stoppers. Great scenery winding through the valleys. Rhein Ruhr Osten is great for variety. You get a mainline run and a separate S-Bahn run. They split up for half the map and then rejoin and run parallel for the other half. The gradients are challenging with the long freights and the parallel running with the S-Bahn is great fun. Additionally it adds S-Bahn services to Köln-Aachen which was a big selling point for me. Some of the track is like a rollercoaster which is great fun although the sudden gradient changes need smoothing out as they look and feel silly. Rapid Transit is a nice route, the tunnel section around Leipzig being particularly nice. It captures suburban Germany perfectly in my opinion- pleasant, green and maybe a bit bland. If you want regular stopping then go for it. With the scenario planner you have no flexibility- it’s basically one way or the other with no sidings or other tracks to use. At least you can get some different trains passing you and if you put a train in front of you then the PZB is a challenge- more so in the tunnels where the signals can be barely a train length apart.
Out of all the routes you mentioned I only have the German ones so here is what I have to say about them: Rhein Ruhr Osten: A nice but a bit short route which offers a variety of types of services, you can drive S-Bahn or freight and if you have Main Spessart Bahn you also have the Regional Express trains. The S-Bahn goes on a different branch than the freight and RE trains. Plus, it adds S-Bahn and more freight services on Köln Aachen. Ruhr Sieg Nord: One thing that is common between this route and Rhein Ruhr Osten is that they both feature Hagen station. This route is a bit slow but twisting and turning alongside hills with lots of trees is just gorgeous. You also get the East German made DB BR 143 loco (even though this route is in the former West Germany but these locos were made just as the Berlin wall went down so they're across the whole of Germany). The DB BR 143 isn't very fast (120 km/h max.) but is very pleasing to drive. You also get the DB BR 185 for various freight services. These locos can both be used on other German DLC's. Rapid Transit: The very first German route for TSW ! Honestly I only like the part in Leipzig, the rest looks bland but so it is in real life. And the Talent 2 that comes with it hasn't the best sounds compared to the Köln Aachen one. The only thing I like is passenger services with the DB BR 182 and Dosto coaches (if you own the DB BR 182). Hauptstrecke Munich Augsburg: If you play TSW2 on PC you'll have additional layers with trains from other routes, if not you'll only have the ICE and S-Bahn services. BUT: this route has very frequent services on both the ICE and the S-Bahn, I also prefer the ICE 3 variant from this route maybe because it has a screen instead of dials and light bulbs (there is not much differences with the ICE 3M from Köln Aachen apart from that). The platform destination boards work. There is LZB on both the S-Bahn and ICE (but the autopilot is only on the ICE since the S-Bahn train lacks AFB). And the DB BR 423 S-Bahn train is quite nice to drive apart from its brakes that are made out of cheese since they brake much less that the DB BR 422 and 425. Also there is a minor bug with the ICE from this route: for some reason the emergency brakes never triggers if you let the Sifa repeating Sifa, Sifa, Sifa, even though the voice will say "Sifa Zwangsbremsung".
