Hi ladies and gents, I'm returning to TSW after a pretty long hiatus having not played since TSW heavy haul. I primarily played US routes both freight and commuter, the only routes I had were Sand patch and Peninsula with Peninsula being my favorite route. I recently purchased TSW3 and for the first time stepped out of my comfort zone and tried a few of the foreign routes included in the preorder and I'm having a blast with both of them, I'd go as far as to say I'm almost enjoying them more than Cajon which is shocking as I'm a huge US Class 1 fan. With that said, what are some routes either US or foreign either freight or commuter (to be honest I'd like to learn towards commuter) that are considered by the community to be if good quality? I don't mind if they don't have all TSW3 features but those would be nice. What makes a route good is usually subjective of course, but what are some of the gems in the TSW world, the routes that the community holds in high regards or the routes that are considered must haves? With how much fun I'm having outside of the US I'm sure there are many I'd enjoy but I know nothing about routes outside of the US. I'd ideally like to find routes that are like the two non-us that are included in the TSW 3 Standard edition. Thank you!
Hello, as someone who prefers European routes, I would suggest looking at: USA: Harlem Line - US purely commuter route, looks really well and has a nice variety in service patterns Clinchfield Railroad - US freight only line, it's very different as it's vintage. There are some challenging gradients and it features a lot of interesting operations on the branch lines, not only A to B runs. The scenery looks ok, but the ground texture has a tiling problem Sherman Hill - US freight only. I don't have this one, but from what I've seen here on the forum, it's held in high regard. Feels very similar to Cajon Pass For UK routes, I would suggest looking at: London Commuter - mainline from London to Brighton, it has around 1400 services making it a VERY busy route in the London area. I like Northern Trans-Pennine and Tees Valley Line as well, these two are historic routes set in 1983 and 1989 respectively. For Germany, the TSW3 Kassel - Wurzburg is the first high-speed only line in the game, but Schnellfahrstrecke Köln-Aachen and Hauptstrecke München – Augsburg have high-speed running as well with the ICE3. And if you would prefer slower, more scenic routes, Tharandter Rampe, Main-Spessart Bahn, and Ruhr Sieg Nord are great routes. Finally, Nahverkehr Dresden is a pretty good route with a mainline for IC/ICE trains, a regional line at 120 km/h, and a branch line for commuter trains.
I'd highly recommend London commuter - London to Brighton. It has over 1000 services with a variety of stopping, semi-fast, fast services as well as Gatwick Express non-stop runs from to Gatwick airport. It is a very busy route with lots always happening!
Thanks so much for this, I'm actually really enjoying the Germany ICE route that comes with TSW3, is any high-speed Germany route you listed similar to that one but with more stops or engagement between? It's the nature of high-speed rail and distances of course but as much as I'm loving the ICE route that comes with TSW3 it's basically push the throttle up and don't stop for 30 minutes, is there a route like that, that has more station stops or driving engagement?
London Commuter would be top recommendation from me too - great choice of fast or stopping services and really well modelled. Also Nahverkehr Dresden is a great Rush Hour route with commuter and freight plus high speed options layering in from other German routes. Edit to add: while the UK and DE Rush Hour routes are excellent, the Boston Sprinter route is far less impressive and less interesting - you'll spend most of your time reversing at 5mph around an enormous loop and arriving back to where you started well behind schedule!
I second Nahverkehr Dresden. Variety is the name of the game and all the rolling stock and scenery is superbly detailed. It has multiple lines to separate local trains from high speed and freight, and a couple short branchlines (the Meißen branchline is beautiful!). I would also recommend the DB BR 101 (requires Hauptstrecke Rhein-Ruhr) for faster passenger services that are more involved to drive than the ICE. Cheers
Unfortunately not. From the older routes, IC/ICE trains run on: Schnellfahrstrecke Köln-Aachen - 70 km/43 miles, ICE train only stops at Aachen Hbf and Köln Hbf, with no stops inbetween. Max speed is 160 and 250 km/h Hauptstrecke München – Augsburg - 62 km/39 miles, some ICe trains stop only at the end stations of Augsburg Hbf and München Hbf, but some services have an intermediate stop at München-Pasing, about 8 kilometres from the main station. Most of the line runs at 230 km/h. Hauptstrecke Rhein-Ruhr - the DB BR 101 DLC adds loco-hauled intercity services that stop at Duisburg Hbf, Essen Hbf and Bochum Hbf at a maximum of 160 km/h, but the line is VERY short at 46 km/28 miles. Nahverkehr Dresden - The ICE trains are layered from the Köln route I think and IC trains from the DB BR 101 DLC. These stop at Dresden Hbf, Dresden-Neustadt and Riesa. Speed is lower at a maximum of 160 km/h.
Boston Sprinter - Boston to Providence high speed (for the USA) and commuter services. Horseshoe Curve - Some decent speed for US freight and tricky slow downhill section to master, trains arent as long as SH or Cajon but longer than SPG. Nahverkehr Dresden - but you need a lot of other German DLC to get the best out of it.
Not really since it comes with a ton of base stock. The most prominent layers are the IC and ICE services. Everything else is just substitution, isn't it? Cheers
I find the service patterns very samey, the substitutions add to the variety and takes the route up a notch. That's just my opinion of course.
