Okay DTG, I threw lots of shade with the SNCF line because it was boring and lacking things to do. You have redeemed yourselves royally with this line. So the class 395 was a bit goofy to figure out, still am not entirely sure how I switched power over, but once I drove it a bit it seemed pretty easy to use. Not anything as hard as the tgv, but not as straightforward as the German locomotives either. The graphics seem way better in this dlc, the line had a decent amount of ai services, station boards worked (said I was on time but I was about 20 minutes late) and the level crossings are awesome. The line really feels fun going from 225km/h to as slow as 15 mph at the submarine station. It's the first high speed line that really was satisfying since it isn't just full throttle and zone out. You really need to know the line and speeds. It's such a long line with conventional that the high speed is really rewarding when coming into London. Also, yet to test but I see the map has many yards with manual switches. If we have access to those sidings which it really looks like we do than this will be an awesome line to run freights, and may be our first European line where we can do proper shunting and yard work. Almost like Oakville Sub in Hamilton. Here's hoping that's the case. Yeah overall wow super happy with this keep up the awesome work!
Time to throw my 5 cents in I am absolutely in love with this route, it’s on par with ECW (can’t wait for the 313 *wink wink*) as my favorite route to drive. The Javelin is an absolute joy to drive, it has two different performance curves depending on the electric supply type so it keeps you on your toes. Hitting 225kph through Dagenham on a bright sunny day feels amazing. Sounds are ok (except the ai sound which is terrible) and modeling wise it’s pretty much spotless. Surely one of my faves to drive. The 375. Well, it’s basically a 377 so almost nothing new. Its pretty alright, sounds are meh but they don’t bother me that much since I have never ridden one irl. Solid commuter emu. The route itself despite the low LOD is so much fun to drive. Out of St Pancras KVB is ready to bash our head in if we exceed the speed limit, right into tunnel 1 and just gun it. It isn’t long though before TVM tells us to slow down for our first stop into Stratford Int. After that, tunnel 2 and gun it again, this time we reach our top speed when we come out in Dagenham, a rather pretty place after we clear the industrial surroundings. We stop at ebbsfleet where we changeover to classic UK lines. We proceed to Gravesend under a couple of ovebridges, this is where the LOD really bothers me as the only scenery is vegetation and it looks rather eh but we continue. We slow down to 15 over junctions at Strood, cross the Medway and salute the Foxtrot class submarine. Next stops are really close together so we need to keep our eye on the signals as this part gets really busy with other Southeastern services from Cannon Street or Victoria (finally a BUSY line yay!). After our stop at Rainham we can again open the Javelin up with speeds up to 90mph, again watching the signals. Best thing for me, is the AI traffic. There’s a lot of it, can’t wait for the 465 to give us even more variety. I still wish the route was extended to Ramsgate...
Wow so guess what?! That huge yard area is totally unusable for scenario planner. Wow DTG what the hell are you doing including these yards if we have no access to them ever? That's seriously not cool to keep doing this. So yeah, we can't run freights on this line at all if we want to do our own services. So awesome!
I really like this route but it’s impossible to stick to the timetable. I’ve done a few runs and it goes down hill between Strood and Gravesend. I end up 2 minutes late into Gravesend and then picking up another couple of minutes of delay up towards St Pancras. Would help if the minimum load time was reduced to 30 or even 45 seconds (as a regular user of this line it’s rare for a train to wait 1 minute in the station).
This is by far and away the best addon DTG have released for quite some time and I'm 100% happy with my purchase. My only real niggle is that those 'Trump wall' builders must have driven all the way from America because every single one of the trackside cars (excluding the ones that oddly have greyed out windows) are left hand drive. Funny what you notice
