After doing the initial scenarios and getting familiar with controls and some more full runs.. I'm trying to figure out some of the branches and yards.. Is there a way to get to Sunnyside Yard? Only some switches are enabled for player control it seems? There are no player controlled switches to get to that yard nor the other branches, and not routes lead there. So what is the point of that yard, if there are no scenarios with it, not available in scenarios and can't get there.. What am I missing?
Sunnyside Yard is used by Amtrak and NJ Transit. LIRR trains are not supposed to get in there. LIRR has its own facilities like the one near Hillside.
Oh yes of course. That makes sense! So then why is it included in the LIRR package? Are the tracks in packages expected to be sharable with other trains in the future? I noticed they were including some changes in the release changelog for some fixes at Sunnyside. They didn't bring over the NEC Amtrak package from the previous version, so wondering why that yard is even modeled, since TSW doesn't allow mixing other locos and cars on routes.. afaik, unless I'm wrong.
The yard is just next to the LIRR tracks so it can't be excluded, and it is fulled modeled because the whole area is actually copied from NEC New York. You could even find some NEC collectibles there but it should be fixed now.
LIRR has the mid-day storage yard within the vincinity of the Sunnyside yard, part of the East Side Access Project. It was completed after the release of the LIRR route for TSW. There is also the Arch Street shop but I don't believe it is used in the simulator.
Thanks for the answers.. But the same issue applies to all the other yards. They are not accessible. What I'm ultimately getting at, is how can one utilize LIRR yards and switching, for game play? There is just one basic scenario for that activity, and in the scenario creator you're only given rigid timetable options for station stops. All the major switches are not player controllable, so I can't understand the purpose of the extra tracks. I'd rather they left them out, rather than tease interesting places we can't get to. I want to do some yard activities, and putting trains together, but I don't see how that's possible. The packages are advertised with yards and shops, so I bought it with expectation to do some of those activities. It is unbelievable that all those tracks are completely inaccessible, and there is one little scenario using them. If that's the case then DTG are outright lying, when talking about the Hillside Maintenance Facility, when it's UNUSABLE.. They advertised scenario editor as "Go anywhere, wherever you want". It's not a custom scenarios to just skip some stations..as that is literally all it allows.. not having yards or even Belmont as an option. I'll give the benefit of doubt, and assume there's still much in the works including Scenario Planner features.
If you have the M3 DLC, then that also includes a scenario that makes you do some stuff in one of the yards. It's pretty fun, but I agree, I wish the timetable mode would also let the player do more things. Like the siding tracks near Jamaica, they could be used in timetable mode as well. Maybe if LIRR ever gets a second round for an update, then hopefully we will get a better timetable as well. Regarding Sunnyside Yard yard, I don't understand your problem. It's right next to the LIRR tracks, of course it's included. It's called scenery. Or you'd rather see a big empty space there? Also, since TSW2 didn't get the original NEC from TSW, maybe if later on the line we get another New York part of NEC (similar to the old NEC, but hopefully better), which could include New York Penn, so the 2 routes could extend each other with AI traffic - meaning you could see the Amtrak train when playing LIRR, and you could see the LIRR trains when playing NEC.
