Lots of great screenshots, some history and information about the route, lots for everyone, great article.
And flagman. Until 1980, archaic steam-era regulations required every train to carry a flagman, whose duties on diesels included reading the newspaper, doing crossword puzzles, and playing cards with the conductor.
Great article, Gary Dolzall \o/ Atomic Berta, King Coal - what a family... coalocalypse is coming! Great shots too. Everything is so well composed in the CRR symphony. So good! Posting a detailed moody map by Tom Connell about existing in-game location could be superior PS This one is extraordinary!
Every preview article with information and pictures from this route surprise me and have me even more excited for a release date. Amazing pictures and amazing history surround this route. I really can’t wait to get to experience it for myself. Great job Gary on the article and great job DTG on the route! *Detail, detail, detail!”
So many cool services on this route and it is single track which makes dispatching complex. I am looking forward to seeing what Matt does with the service timetables. We already know it looks great. And, there is enormous gameplay potential here.
Lol, they are releasing good content at a high rate! I picture what TSW and these forums were like back when MSB was released. This was at a time PC received routes a month before console, and at a time when a lot of the community was unsure and couldn’t get an answer as to what DTG was working on whether bug fixes and/or upcoming content. I am still amazed how DTG really embraced a “change” when TSW2 was announced and it makes me so happy to see DTG, TSW2, and the community where it is today.
Wow, just wow! The route is looking very nice, lots of potential for it to become a best seller! I must point out the attention to detail, it’s just amazing! It’s also great that each service isn’t just a copy paste “move freight from point A-B” but it’s instead like having many extra scenarios, so I gotta give praises to DTG for taking the time and effort in doing this, and just making a very interesting and enjoyable route overall, now let’s just hope there’s not a lot of bugs in it on release day!
I never told my wife how much a DLC costs, only telling her "there is something new for the train game" ;-)
Wow! This is much better than the not so beautiful Arosa Linie! Not an awful mess with little trees. DTG seem to have put more effort in this route, certainly more than South Eastern and Rivet's lazy Arosa!
Ouch! We should also point out this is the first TSW2 route to feature scenery as well as this. I think it’s very well a mixture of how the routes scenery is laid out, mixed with the experience DTG has gained. I don’t think it’s fair to call those routes lazy, but I do think it is fair to say that this route is outstanding!
The lack of trees simply lets Arosa down, but this is not lacking in terms of vegetation, although this isn't my ideal route but its pretty nonetheless
Really looking forward to this. I always enjoy Gary’s articles, full of interesting information and some great pre-release screenshots. In one of my earlier posts, I referred to a great video I bought back in 1992, ‘Coal Story’, which described in fascinating detail CSX’s operations at the time on the Clinchfield between Dante and Elkhorn City. So the names, Greenbriar, Haysi, Nora, McClure, Rex, Moss and Fremont mean a great deal to me even though I live in the UK and have never been able to visit the Clinchfield area. I already have the Clinchfield route in TS1 but I’m especially looking forward to what should be a stunning route in TSW2.
Reposting this for the benefit of those who have not seen it. A little graphic I put together after the 1st Clinchfield stream using info provided by Matt re distances and using google maps for names etc. It puts a bit of visual context to the branch lines mentioned in Gary's article. There is quite alot of track mileage in this DLC (In fact the most to date in TSW/TSW2 ~65miles). It is looking like one of the meatiest expansions to date...especially for the freight lovers amongst us. The lovely terrain coupled with the enhanced service mode will certainly keep us all busy for some time.
The route looks great, the services look interesting, just wish we had that little bit more, but still, this is gonna be a great route.
Great article, Gary. This route has so much potential, especially if we ever get to make our own consists. It hasn't changed in any fundamental way since CSX took over, so there are lots of locos that wouldn't look too out of place: SD45's, 50's, C30-7's, even the Sand Patch Dash 8 and AC4400CW. You might even see an SD70 or 80MAC. And of course, the Geeps would fit right in too. I don't know how many of these locos will ever be made for TSWX, but you never know
Very nice example of the map. 65 miles is the most track for a route and the best part is it’s not just A-B but A-B-C-D-E-F. Having a route with 4 branch lines, as many miles as the main line gives this a huge advantage. Add in the new locomotives and new rolling stock and the caboose. Gameplay wise this route has huge potential to set a new standard for the experience we get from TSW2. Bring on a new era for DTG!
Thanks for posting this, and yes there is a lot of track mileage in this route, the most so far, not A-B but overall. This helps me visualize how the map would look like in TSW, as well as the length of each branch line and how separated they are. This route has a lot of gameplay potential, which is what makes it stand out from all the others. We can now go from one end of the route to a branch, load coal, take that train back, couple it to another train, take it to the last branch on the mainline, load the extra cars you picked up before heading down, then take the whole train to the other end of the route. This is certainly way more interesting than the gameplay seen in SPG, as you just drive a train on a double track mainline for 2 hours.
No doubt, this will be a rare Day 1 purchase for me. Like others I’m eager to get going but I think this is one route definitely not worth spoiling with a slightly rushed release - even if it means waiting another month or two.
I started a thread here on similar lines a little while ago. CSX's operations over the route did seem very similar to the Clinchfield's, certainly in the early 1990s. SD40-2s (in YN2) on local tipple/mine turns (possibly with the SPG CSX coal hoppers although Clinchfield coal hoppers were still in use worked by CSX locos in the early days after CSX took over) and Dash8-40CWs on through manifests would be right for the early CSX period and could possibly be layered (?) from SPG. If layering is not possible, a loco pack as suggested by MetrolinkF125#916 perhaps including an SD45-2, a C30-7 together with contemporary freight cars would be great. There are lots of possibilities!
And this pack could make great use of the double timetable feature, with two separate timetables, one for normal clinchfield operations, and one for CSX operations with the locos included in the pack, that way we can choose whatever we want to play, without having to use layers since a CSX Dash 8 running past a CRR F7 kinda looks unrealistic on a day to day basis.
And as an era bridge, the SD-45s could be in Family Lines paint, used on CRR locos through the early 80s and on into the CSX era for many years (locomotives don't get repainted in a hurry).
Excellent idea. I bought the "Diesel Legends" pack partly because I wanted to encourage this kind of add-on. I hope it's selling well. The split timetable would certainly work well for Clinchfield. In fact it would work even better because the largely unchanged infrastructure would not be a distraction as it is for some players on the GWR.
I have an issue with Matt's assertion for this route's timeframe being "early 80s," and Gary's that it represents CRR's "final years as an independent railroad." It doesn't seem to work. While it is true that CRR formally ceased to exist in 1983 when it was absorbed into the Seaboard System, it had been bought by Seaboard a decade before, and from 1971 onward CRR locomotives were being repainted in Family Lines livery, which had been done to the majority of them by the time of the merger. Moreover, over the 70s the F7s were gradually withdrawn from mainline service, replaced in that role by bigger, newer traction like the SD45-2's; by "the early 80s" the few remaining would only have been seen on branch lines.
Actually outside of CRR #800 all F-Units seem to be gone by the late 70s, with most A and B units being traded in to EMD for SD40s and SD45-2s.
You may have a point, but, if memory serves me right, the TS202X version was also set in the "early 80's". However, the initial article for the TSW2 version mentions the " late 70's and early 80's". And another article claims that CRR was taken over by Seaboard in 1983! So some fact checking was a little amiss, I guess.
In terms of RR timeline, CRR was bought by Seaboard Coast Line and SCL's subsidiary Louisville & Nashville in 1971, but continued to exist as an "independent operator" for legal and regulatory purposes until 1 Jan 1983, when it was formally dissolved and incorporated into the Seaboard System.