Train Sim World 2 - First Look Metro Norths Harlem Line

In real life though at Harlem 125th, you can actually see the Metlife building from the station

 

I think there may be a chance, we could see the Metlife building with draw distance set to Max and detail set to High or Ultra. From the Brighton Main Line route, I saw hills and greenery far into the distance, approximately 3 miles on a straightaway track.

 

Unfortunately they didn't got the Manhattan skyline correctly and thats why others also realize this as well, and thats the reason why i hope its not too late for the team to fix this before it released. There was suppose to be a metlife building and other nyc iconic building in the far distant as you can see from my post. So hopefully its not too late. We need to ask Matt if its possible to fix this? Also the PIS is wrong as well because its now using the color led in real life not the old standard one.

 

So you mean a custom model to make M7A? Otherwise, they would have used body shell from the Yellow LIRR M7 then tweak it to make M7A which means time-saving so is the M3A from M3 LIRR Yellow. If on sale for Xbox I'll spend most of TSW 2 on Harlem Line for easier than GWML BML ECW Drivers Remainder Appliance followed by PZB HRR Riesa-Dresden Main Spessart Bahn Future OBB

 

I Can't Really tell from the picture, so hopefully if TrainSim-Matt Can kindly clarify this so that we would know.

 

It is possible, but then again, I can assume they may also have the same base shell when the 3D model was developed. I do notice a few internal and exterior details along with some weathering, to differentiate between the LIRR and Metro North variants such as number boards, HVAC vents, door light indications, different cabs, single rooftop headlight for the M3A

 

I hope so too. From the picture, it looks like it, but the word, "Metlife" is not on the building if this is the case. Or it could be a filler placed closer to the 97th st portal to represent the Metlife building, instead of at it's prototypical location

 

Heres another far distance photo of the Metlife building


I don't know if this bottom portion would help the team.

 

If I recall correctly, the early screenshots of NEC had generic buildings, but I think they were later replaced with the real models. Same thing might be happening here.

 

Sorry for going off-topic but I just got to share this news regarding expansion for the Metro North in Queens
https://buffalochronicle.com/2022/0...ct-new-metro-north-station-in-astoria-queens/
I can't believe they are going to make a new metro north station at Astoria Ditmars Boulevard, so excited, Anyhow back to the main topic

 

Met Life Building.... I'm old enough to remember it as the Pan Am Building.

Anyway, I can't imagine DTG can use Met Life's name and logo. Trademark.

 

Maybe you are right, but we still have to ask Matt. From the picture that the team posted, it looks like they got the building structure wrong, especially in the center. There was supposed to Metlife building and another small building right in the center with the of the Metlife building with a empire state building pointy top as you can see from the photo posted.

 

I'm not saying you can't (since the photos are obvious evidence), it's just that real life objects are often visible at far greater ranges than in-game draw distances, and the perspective distortion from telephoto lenses makes photos like the ones posted incredibly un-representative of what it would look like in-game. Plus there is the diminishing return of detail in comparing the viewing angle (and size) of a computer monitor to the human eye.

 

TrainSim-Matt Here's a video of the new PIS system on the Harlem Line. Currently show at White Plain Station


Here is another video that shows the PIS System in the station as well as the journey from the Front cab window view, From GCT To SouthEast.


As you can see the PIS System that they used are the one with more information on-screen with a blue, white, color text, and color led that represent different line on it.

Timestamp:
0:00- 7:35- GCT and out of tunnel to 97th street tunnel portal:
7:35-9:34- Approaching and Stopping at Harlem 125th street
9:44- 32:51- Train run express to White Plains (You can also see the updated PIS System at White Plain as well)

 

Really hope that's the case, the route looks fantastic but Manhattan is kinda lacking in the screenshots...

 

Was anyone able to spot the air vent on side of the passenger window? cause I can't see them. As you can see from this picture and video

 

I just looked at the pictures of the M3A and it has it's air vents.

 

Can you point out where, thanks

 

Sure

 

NICE

 

Heavy mods will be needed for this release. Bronx river isn't blue at all, just clear dirty water.... brown or dark green reflected off the land and dirt... That's the same for Hudson valley (but of course, let's get real.... ain't NO MNR Hudson route will be made for TSW2, ,which could've open doors for Amtrak routes. The money is just too intimidating to make. Imagine millions raining on some dude trying to program something. With the millions falling on him, he'll just get up and walk out = no route)

 

Let me rephrase this. I'm hoping Yankee Stadium is in the game

 

They can do what they did in Peninsula Corridor to represent Downtown San Francisco and use a 2D backdrop as a representation of the MetLife building (I attached a screenshot for those who don't have the DLC). Even without the zoomed in camera effects, the MetLife building is clearly seen without effects as demonstrated by the attached photo which was taken from inside the front window of a train. Obviously if there are legitimate copyright reasons preventing the logo from being used, then they can use a bit of photoshop to omit the text. Maybe even give it a DTG easter egg and add the dovetail logo on it instead. Either way, it should be there.

 

Yeah, the San Francisco skyline is a 2D map, but very well implemeted and looks really convincing. But most important it saves a lot of graphic resources. The "MetLife" building also represents the end of the line, with the directly behind located Grand Central station. Just looked at Google maps: it's about 3 miles or 4,5 km away in the distance. So just simple base modeling is needed and of course no original branding, but a Dovetail Live, instead of MetLife logo would be a nice easter egg. What is also interesting to know is how the night lighting of the skyline is done and looks like.

 

The pictures are nice, but I truly hope safety systems are correctly simulated and sounds are decent. Cannot bear another Boston Sprinter or LIRR ...

 

If they screw up the atc again then some serious questions are gonna have to be raised.

 

Cactus is helping them.

 

Well hopefully they won't screw it up again

 

Matt want not answer

 

Imagine if the route came out next week. Am only saying that because usually pictures will say work in progress as for these pictures it doesn't say that. But i think it will come out in 2-3 weeks.

 

Probably going all the way up to Stamford and this will allow amtrak services hopefully.

 

Now I wanted add more onto that 260 service number as I've actually be doing some digging into this as to how many services this route could have. I won't say it here as a rough number was given in the article, but I wanted to try and give more insight into what that number might actually consist of, in terms of what services actually run on this route. So I've been going through archive schedules to try and find this answer out and the answer is... rather fascinating.

So ignoring the 260 number for a moment, I wanted to break down the number of services that run on the main Harlem Line route, which that number will mainly be around 186 services (which accounts to around 93 services in each direction on average) keep in mind that this number does not count the diesel services that go all the way to Wassaic, which won't be featured as we don't have the loco for that yet. Now as much as many will be disappointed that this number isn't higher, it's about right for this route as that's the amount that runs in real life, but what you will find is that there are more services running around at peak times.

Now here's where things get interesting as some that though that, because this route is only Grand Central - North White Plains, that every Harlem Line service would do just that, run the whole length without any other variations apart from some that stop at more stations than others. But I can easily say that's not the case at at. In fairness, most of this routes services will be just that, but from having a look at archive schedules, I have found that there are services that do other things on this route such as start/terminate at the various other stations along the route, and I don't just mean from having AI Hudson Line services running from Yankees into Grand Central.

The first one is a interesting one as I have found out that not every service that runs the whole length of this route actually makes a stop at North White Plains. This is mainly the case from some services heading to and from Southeast/Wassaic as some will just skip North White Plains entirely and start/stop at the next stop down at White Plains, probably because it is the busier station. I've even seen services that don't stop anywhere along the route other than the final two stops at Harlem-125th Steet and Grand Central, which I have a feeling they will be represented as AI on this route.

The other is that I have found services that only go as far as certain stations on this route, meaning they don't go all the way to North White Plains or even beyond towards Southeast/Wassaic. The main one being services that only go as far as Crestwood, which seems to have at least once per hour in each direction. I even seen some services that start at Hartsdale (two stops down from North White Plains) and a pair of services in each direction that only go as far as Mount Vernon West. But both of these services happen during peak hours and in the case of the Hartsdale services, is in the Southbound direction only (there are no services that seemingly only go as far as that station heading northbound, probably because the end station is only two stops further down).

Now we come to the Hudson Line side of this route. One of the things I was really hoping from this route was that these services would be drivable, even if it was for that short distance and this might actually happen, not just from the large service number, but also from the fact that Yankees–East 153rd Street station is going to be featured as part of this route, mainly because Harlem Line services sometimes go there during match days. Now I do expect that those Harlem Line services will be represented here, kinda like the Belmont Park services on LIRR, but I also hope that the Hudson Line services that come from this direction will be represented here, but I mainly expect these to be the services stop here, as well as Harlem-125th and Grand Central. The rest of those services that skip this station I expect will be AI only. From digging through the archive Hudson Line schedules, considering that they would be represented and be made drivable, the Hudson lines services that run between Yankees East and Grand Central would add an extra 58 services (29 in each direction on average), which would take the number up to 244 services, and would just be as simple as running between those two stations while making a stop at Harlem-125h street along the way, but would still add more gameplay variety to this route that isn't just running up and down the Harlem Line all day.

What the rest of the service number will be made up of remains to be seen, but I expect it to be mainly made up of depot moves around the facility at North White Plains and maybe even the facility at Highbridge, located just beyond Yankees East (if it's represented as well, which could be a possibility). I don't expect this route to have any layers from any other US route as nothing else from any of those routes seem to run here and even if it did, probably don't have the signalling equipment need in order to run on this route, as we saw with Boston Sprinter and trying to add freight to that route.

But all in all, I'm really intrigued to see how this timetable turns out, as this really is the first big rapid transit style commuter route we have gotten since Rush Hour and will be the big test to see if anything that was learnt from making those routes in terms of making really large timetables that have a plethora of services would carry over into any other route of that type that comes out afterwards (Not counting Luzern - Sursee as we have yet to see what Rivet's plan for services on that route is going to be). Well... from the service number mentioned in the article, it's a decent start, and even with our only route we have had in 2022 so far, Tharandter Rampe, yes the main route doesn't see that much traffic (which is about as much that did run on real life) we had lots of AI around Dresden and even a few AI services around Chemnitz, which is a good sign going forward into this route that I can have a timetable that is just a worthwhile as those routes that came with Rush Hour.

But again, this is all just speculations, as for what this timetable will actually be like, we will just have to wait for the first preview stream to really answer this question once and for all.

 

It’s also centrally positioned in the train driver’s view and is a big part of the visible skyline, so I agree with everyone that it needs to be present in the game, even if it is just a similarly sized building, as it is far enough away that the details of it probably won’t matter too much.

 

I also really hope we will have proper signage alongside the route. Speed limit boards seem to be placed near the tracks in real life (at least at some places), so I hope we will have them in game as well. I hate it when a route is missing speed and whistle boards.

 

The more I look at these early screenshots and the more I think about it, I fear the Harlem route is simply not going to be busy enough, especially at the southern end. Some New Haven AI needs to be added between 125th and Woodlawn or even just as far as Fordham. If they want to throw some red paint at an M3A or M7A, with or without pantos, I can live with that for the time being. I know this is heresy and I risk being burned at the stake for even suggesting it. If we eventually get GCT to Stamford with an M8, then we can end the pretense.

 

Very good article by Gary Dolzall as always and I really like what I see so far. Although those 260 services don't seem like much I'm sure this route is going to include a lot of AI traffic, so it's going to feel very busy. Hopefully the sounds will live up to expectations.
Just one small thing, doesn't the train seem to be too close to the platform? The front is almost touching:

Looking at photos it looks like it is a bit further away, can anyone in the area say what they think?

Penn Station comes to mind where trains literally went through the columns and platforms at NEC and LIRR.

 

Well the ingame screenshot is of an M3A, your IRL shots are of an M7A, so it’s not really a fair or accurate comparison.

The M3A does have less clearance IRL, though as always with these comparisons, the angle of the photo matters a lot, so it doesn’t really serve much use, until we see it ingame from other angles.

 

The M7As are actually notorious for a larger gap between the platform and the train compared to the M3As, has to do with the body shape of the car.

 

You are right, I put other pictures of the M3A:


And what you say about the angle is true, in this pictures it seems to touch:

 

This train reminds me of 387,377,313,314,M7. They’re all fridges on wheels. Roll on spirit of steam and something that looks different. Metal cans are so train sim 1990 now

 

Thats what i am thinking as well, since it usually the article first and then the live stream sneak peek, before the official release date according to what Sam said in the stream. I just hope that they can fix this stuff before the official release date such as updated PIS and The metlife building

 

Just letting you know joe is the one that did the timetable as he did for the London commuter.

 

you are so correct, hopefully the team would fix this before the release date. Try to ask Matt by pinging him, let see what he have to say.

 

Let's hope that's the case because am a little to hype about this. I don't know when was the last time I've been this excited about a route in TSW.

 

Was this research done using the most recent timetable? The MTA is currently still running a beefed up coronavirus timetable (I believe it's around 85% of what it was pre-COVID, although this number could be different). I would certainly hope that they used a 2019 timetable to model the timetable after, considering full pre-COVID service is still not completely restored.

 

They sa

They said the Yankees station so we can expect the Hudson line witch is ever thing and the new haven line can’t be in the game because it uses the m8. So basically I think it will be busy.

 

Thought someone might ask me on this, but the timetables I used for research was from September 29th 2019 for both Harlem & Hudson lines, so during pre-covid times (which is what I feel this timetable will be set from). Links to both timetables are do below for those wanting to find them and see what they are like:

Harlem Line: http://web.mta.info/mnr/html/planning/schedules/pdf/HAR_JAN_2020_REPRINT_Sept29_2019MF.pdf
Hudson Line: http://web.mta.info/mnr/html/planning/schedules/pdf/HUD_JAN_2020_REPRINT_Sept29_2019MF.pdf

 

Yep there are harlem line services that terminate at Crestwood and Hartsdale to get trains back into the city during rush hour

 

Look you cant always expect every passenger route to be busy. Not every route in the world is busy. You can't repaint M7As and M3A. It makes no sense. DTG may as well then repainted 387s into the Thamslink livery to add Thameslink services on BML with this notion. If a new haven line dlc comes in the future, then M8s can be layered onto the route but until that happens (which won't for a long time), it's not a bad thing without them