...so much easier without the blasted hills of NTP, its almost pleasurable, I forgot its easy to drive on TVL... But...in the scenario of following a late train they do give you plenty of time to achieve the destination stops. I then had like 4 minutes at one of the stops kicking my heels as I got in early. I am not complaining, it was nice could hunt around the platforms for missed items! D
Not just the hills, Paddington approach aside, you have no speed limits to contend with because you're not getting close to 90.... Just like the 166 every stop can be approached in an identical fashion....
I just ran that same scenario and it's fine, but i was struck by the lack of AI trains. I'm not very familiar with the route, but I would expect it to be busier, given the major cities on the line. Incidentally, I know I could look this up, but how do you switch on the safety systems?
The AWS switch is under the secondman's seat. It's easiest to get to if you stay in the driver's seat and turn in that direction, but you still need to search around a bit to find it.
The timetable is very poor considering it was suggested that it was set in the early 70's. It must be set pre 75/76 as that was the time that the HSTs were starting to come on stream. I actually have a copy of the Western Region time table for 1973 which should be pretty representative of what the pack was sold as. British Rail, in the 70s rarely made major changes to their timetables and year after year they would basically be the same. Some examples just taking 1 hour of departures from Paddington: 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Class 1 TSW -10.20 Bristol REALITY -10.00 Swansea, 10.15 Bristol, 10.30 Paignton, 10.45 Weston Super Mare. Class 2/ Suburban/ Local TSW - Class 31 10.28 Didcot, DMU's - 10.00 Grenford (in reality these started at Ealing Broadway), 10.11 Reading, 10.59 Slough REALITY - Class 2 services - 10.05 Oxford, 10.15 Didcot, 10.30 Reading, 10.45 Reading, 10.48 Oxford SUBURBAN/LOCAL - 10.22 Slough, 10.52 Slough So in the TSW 70's world there is 5 departures. The real world of 1973 there was 11 departures. And then, of course, there would be the arrivals which would probably be of very similar numbers. This is why Paddington resembles a country terminus rather than a main line station in central London.
No surprises considering the modern GWE timetable on TSW has very few services compared to real life as well. There should be approximately 12.5 trains an hour that run on the main (fast) line leaving Paddington: 2x South Wales Cardiff/Swansea (xx15 and xx45) 2x Bristol (xx00 and xx30) 2x Oxford/Cotsworld (xx20 and xx50) 1x West Country Via Berks and Hants (xx03) 0.5x Cheltenham (once every 2 hours) (xx36) 4x Heathrow Express 1x Newbury/Bedwyn (xx06) In TSW, there seems to be only 3-4 high speed services an hour. Factor in it’s the same in the other direction (arrivals) and factor in it’s a very similar situation for the commuter services as well as a lack of passengers, it’s no wonder GWE seems like a ghost town but also more importantly it is also why you almost never encounter cautionary aspects. For the hour of 1000 on the old timetable before it changed in December 2019, I count 49 train movements (departures and arrivals) at London Paddington. On TSW, I count 16. So TSW only contains about a third of the services compared to real life. Even taking out Heathrow Express/Heathrow Connect, there should be 37 departures/arrivals an hour which is double to what it is on TSW.
Yes, that is very immersion breaking. But if the situation is similar here to that with Bakerloo, the issue is, at least for now, memory usage and the long-touted optimization: they could include all the real-life services (on Bakerloo the full timetable has already been done)-- but it would crash the game. At present it simply can't handle that number of trains all at once (and remember, it isn't just visible trains; it has to track every one currently in existence anywhere on the route).
Anyone else having intermittent brake lapping issues on the 101? Sometimes it seems to not lap and releases all the brake pressure and I go sailing past the platform! I can’t work out why it is only happening occasionally.
Actually I encountered one playing as the Great Western Express it was actually an evening high-speed train service from London Paddington Station to Reading final destination Penzance. Where I Encountered a red signal 2-3 miles away from Reading Station speed in that area is 95 mph that's TSW 2020 on Xbox Series X.
Talking of 95 mph in the 47, it doesnt quite make it for me I tend to get 93ish before needing to start to break to come in to Reading!
Reading this is making me even more pleased that I didn't take the plunge and purchase this pack. If it is supposed to be set pre 1975/76 then apart from the 08 and 52 the other traction is totally incorrect. Class 31's wouldn't have worked stoppers to Didcot! There were some at Old Oak Common but I think they worked mainly parcels trains and maybe engineers trains. I think they may have worked some Oxford services and some to Worcester and Hereford. Bubble cars would have of course worked to Greenford in those days.
theorganist its "fun" to drive the trains effectively without speed limits on a flat track? When on NTP/TVL you have the pesky 60 mph speed limits and can't get the beasts up to full throttle. But it still doesn't solve the problem of the GWE being a rather boring drive, and taking the 45/47's pad-red it is literally once you hit the 50mph board sticking it full throttle and leaving it until you 2 miles out of Reading. As you don't endanger the route speed limit one bit! Driving the stopping service 101's is fun for a bit, but again compared to the modern train hitting 90, maxing out at 65 feels a little underwhelming? I will try some of the freight/08's this week, but on the Xbox doing the switches is a nightmare (at least I find) in that using the map and pressing A DOESNT do anything... grrr (but thats another gripe of mine) D
I am sure it is fun. For me personally it is the lack of realism which I can't get past, but each to their own.
Did you know that in GWE, the max speed for loco-hauled trains never goes above 75? 90 (and 125) are for DMUs.
DMU's like the class 101 were restricted to 70mph. A class 47's top speed was 95mph for normal non restricted examples, I think Westerns were 90mph but not certain.
There are two systems of limits in effect: the posted track limit, which applies to all trains (segregated by type), and the individual train Vmax. The 101 is limited to 70 because you can't drive one any faster, at least not without breaking it, and that applies wherever it's being driven.
I have heard of many cases of them going faster than 70mph from drivers and passengers sitting behind the driver. I think 70mph was the limit imposed on them as much as anything, although the gear ratios selected had an effect. Some of the intercity units were capable of a higher top speed as they had different gear ratios, but they were still restricted to 70mph. It depends on the make up of the set too, a single power twin with only two 150bhp engines probably would just reach 70. A class 110 running without a centre car in the late 80's with four 180bhp engines would certainly potentially have been capable of going faster.
