Didn’t see it posted anywhere so just to mention Sherman Hill seems to be on sale for a while for £16.24 if you have PS Plus in case anyone is interested
I saw that, but do I really need another American freight route... What're people's opinions of it on here?
Fabulous if you’re into American freight. It has to be your cup of tea though, so what did you think of the other American freight routes you’ve got?
I mostly enjoy them for a bit, but rarely go back to them. I should make a point of giving them more of a go.
For all of you who are undecided, I’ll try to concisely present my opinion of SMH (having bought it on day one). My experience is on PS5, so I can’t talk about the restrictions on gen 8 SMH. The most obvious advantage of SMH over other NA routes are the consists. These are much more realistic and believe me when I say: Controlling a 100 car train down 1.6% gradient is a completely different experience from doing so with a 50 car train. You need to be much more aware of both what’s currently going on with the train (current gradient, how much brake force is applied, …) and of the shortcomings of the air brakes (time to apply, pumping up the pipe after release, …). There will be runaways if you don’t know what you’re doing. The somewhat slow pace of NA freight is something I assume most people here are aware of. However, SMH also offers something new here: hotshot intermodals. While you want to stay at (or under) 30mph downhill with most trains to keep the dynamics in effective range, the hotshot intermodals are light enough and overpowered enough (in terms of locos) that you can have them racing down the track at 50mph (up to track speed limit) as long as you keep on top of things and stay on guard. Last thing I’ll talk about is scenery. This one is completely up to your preferences. For some (like me), it’s lovely prairie with beautiful views and nice solitude. For others, it’s just empty and lifeless. Take a look at streams/videos or screenshots and decide for yourself if that sort of scenery is your cup of tea. As an enthusiast of American freight, I can recommend the route. It’s not without its issues - in-cab signalling is still broken and the framerate (on PS5) drops down to 20-25 at certain parts of Laramie (if you look in a specific direction, that is). Anyways, I hope this wall of text is useful to some of you
So I've only had a quick go so far, Done the introduction section and the first training activity, Locos look and sound gorgeous, The scenery around the yards looks brilliant and I could almost feel the heat of the desert sun lol, However I've that when in the cab of the loco the colours are bleached white but return to normal when on external view. This is the PS5 I should mention.
Very good summary. I'm thinking I might buy it after reading you. But I wanted to ask you also about the sounds, something that is very important to me. I've run Sandpatch much less than I would have liked because of the mediocre sounds, especially of AC 4400 and I wouldn't want the same thing to happen here. Does Sherman Hill feel like an immersive experience thanks to good sounds or not so much? A few more questions, sorry if I abuse a bit : -Does it feel like a varied gameplay experience with different services from each other? -Is there interaction with the scenery, is there any train loading in the quarry for example? -Is there shunting in the yards, coupling and uncoupling, train formation? -Does it feel busy with the available traffic? -Is there static rolling stock as for example in Dresden-Chemnitz? -Do the scenarios offer some complexity or are they mere A to B services as is often the case on TSW? Thank you!
Glad to be of service, erg73 This depends a bit on your level of suspension of disbelief. The SD70ACe uses re-worked Class 66 sounds (which uses the 12 cylinder version of the SD70’s 16 cylinder engine) since no real SD70 could be recorded currently. Personally, I think it works out really well and sounds a lot better than what they used for SPG back in the day. Maybe look up a video and see what you think yourself? The SD40 uses the SPG sounds. However, the best thing here is that both the SD70ACe and the SD40-2 use new horns which sound absolutely fantastic! Especially the SD40 horn. To an extend. Don’t expect the variety of something like DRA though. Some services run along the entire line, others are split into two parts with a pause at Hermosa. For the mainline traffic, the difference is in weight. There are hotshot intermodals, medium weight trains (manifest, fruit, and coal mainly - yes coal trains aren’t heavy since they’re only 50-60 cars for some reason), and heavy trains (ethanol and grain). All of them require slightly different handling down the gradients. The switching services are less switching and more local traffic to some industries around Cheyenne/Laramie. Nope, no loading services. There is one mainline train starting at the quarry though. As said before, there is some shunting, but most of the SD40 runs are local traffic to industries. Take cars to the industry, do some switching, take different cars back to the yards. I think there are some pure shunting services in Cheyenne, but I can’t guarantee that right now. Within reason for American routes. You do usually pass something between 3 and 5 trains from what I recall if you run the entire line, so it does feel more alive than SPG for example. There’s some in both Laramie and Cheyenne. Bit of a mixed bag. To be blunt, most scenarios don’t do much of interest. However, the “Magnet for Trouble” scenario is very good if you like some narrative. It’s supported with custom placed scenery assets as well.
This is also on discount in NA PS Store it appears for Plus members... 35% off - ($25.99 Cnd). Thanks for the tip, another now off the wishlist added ;-). I normally like to wait for 50% offs now that I’m starting to add a bunch, but I do enjoy NA lines and freight. Cheers!
Paging Lamplight sorry to post here but I found your info/guide a great read and of course I took the plunge of the route and made the purchase. Familiar with SPG and CCR… why oh why can’t I get the loco to move? Love how it’s a totally different beast but jeez… I’m struggling to get it going. Lead/cut in etc, done the hill start training module. it’s literally the second drive in the first chapter (hermosa-cheyenne yard) 106 cars. Am I being inpatient at low power? Too much power? Why does bail off then trigger a wheel spin when it’s released already?
Tynmar Two things: Did you turn on the banking comm? If so, please check in what position the reverser in the rear DPUs is as there was/is a bug with these not alligning properly with the lead loco. What are your brake gauges reading? Before the rear (not the front) is at least at 75 psi, the train won’t move a bit. With these 100 car trains, that can easily take 10-20 minutes at the start of a service. Please report back if that helped you. I’m sure we can figure out what’s going wrong if none of that helped
Lamplight thank you for coming back to me. Was just explaining to TinTin that it was your post further up that prompted me to give this route a try banking comm was on, never checked the rest. Silly me to assume they would be set up. And dammed if I’m walking a mile to check the rear. some 10 minutes after I posted it finally moved without a struggle or slip so can only assume it was the brakes. I can’t remember what the readings were at the time. Now struggling with the SD40 on SPG, maybe time I take a break thanks again
You can just use the rear camera for that. Personally, I’ve never experienced the un-synced reverser issue, but I figured I’d tell you about it just in case. Sure sounds like it then. With SMH services, it’s best to start them, set the lead loco up, and then make yourself a cup of whatever your preferred hot beverage is Rubbish. No need for breaks when there are trains to be run I’m glad to hear it. It’s always nice to hear when you could help someone out