For me, there’s no other North American locomotive that gets braking physics as right as the SD70. The minimum air reduction is less than 10 pounds (should be 6) and the dynamics behave properly. (The only thing lacking in the SD70 is a distance counter.) Other locos that get the dynamics correct have too large of a minimum reduction. The ES44AC on HSC has a better initial reduction, but the dynamic brakes seem unreliable. I love the HSC route, but dealing with the ES44AC dynamics can get frustrating as I try to dial in the appropriate braking blend. How I would love to run the SD70 on the HSC timetable around the Curve and up the South Fork branch. For a while, the SD70 was available in the SPG timetable. The SD70 made SPG runs quite realistic and enjoyable for me. With the expansion pack, the available SD70 services were significantly curtailed. Now, those services are gone altogether. Please DTG, free the SD70! Make it available in other timetables. We need to bring realistic braking physics to HSC and SPG!
While CSX did only own 20 SD70ACes and retired them in 2017, it would still be more prototypical to have them for SPG than the weird painted Stealth SD40...
Speaking of 4831-4850 do they have the same headlight configuration as the existing Sherman Hill UP SD70ACE? if so then a reskin to turn those into CSX 4831-4850 for Sand Patch Grade as a DLC with SD80MAC 4590-4602. The combined train is 9300 hp comprised of SD70ACE 4,300 hp with SD80MAC 5,000HP. Journey Mode Chapter 5 SD70ACE SD80MAC Giant Power if made. That should solve the Missing SD70ACE issue. Furthermore, 7300 hp if coupled to SD40-2 or New Journey SD40 CSX-S. HSC Version of SD70ACE these are Norfolk Southern 1000-1225
As much I get why there's a push to replace them with the SD70 in the timetable, this is a fact - the locos themselves should behave prototypical, especially the ones that came after SD70.
More options for the player is always good IMO. Of course they should also fix the ES44AC and AC4400CW.
More options are good, true- but that should include the option not to have yellow UP locos all over Sand Patch.
Fair enough! So this brings up a technical question- is it possible to have a loco available for the player to drive without that loco subbing in on AI trains? If so, that would seem to be a good compromise.
It is, the Enhancement pack 1972 Stock can be used on all 205 services, but it itself only appears on 4 (all parts of one railfan run) as AI.
Honestly, I just want a way to drive any train within the pre-built timetable. Same rules as the scenario planner ‘off the rails’ option, but without the need to build your own scenario, which is too limited, and since we’re a longggg way off having anything decent to build with, I think an ‘off the rails’ mode for timetable would be the next best thing. Overall I don’t like how limited the customisation aspect of the timetable is, if you want to disable a layer or substitution, you have to delete a DLC, the same for liveries. My GWR livery on the 387 is great…on GWE, not so much on BML. Similarly, the MRCE 182 is great to see subbing, however having the 112 seemingly wanting to run 80% of all dosto consists across all German routes, has left me without the 182.
Yeah, I'd really like to see this. Though maybe a future DLC could move some of these locos to other routes. Like a CSX SD70 for SPG, NS SD70 for HSC etc, etc. Ya know, where realistic and appropriate. DW
