Hello everyone! Welcome back! Today I want to talk about the Acela DLC, and how I think it's one of the, if not the best Loco DLC for TSW! So lets get started! First off, I haven't encountered any game-breaking bugs which is always good! Usually I'm content with the DLC as long as the thing works, however the Acela takes it to a different level! It feels smooth to drive, the safety systems work great, the sounds and model are great, and overall it's one hell of a good DLC! Not just all of that, but the attention to detail is crazy! I didn't notice until I went to look, but the foot pedals under the engineers seat work! They didn't need to add that since the acknowledger is on the top along with the horn, but they took the time to add a horn and acknowledger foot pedal along with the side window blinds! You can actually open up the side windows! Now, I may be BIAS since the Acela is my favorite trainset, however, I really think it's amazing, and should be considered a standard of quality for all loco DLC's going forward! Even If there are a few bugs, those can be worked out in due time! Thank You DTG and cActUsjUiCe!
I thought this and the NY-Trenton DLC looked great on-stream last night (and it was great having cActUsjUiCe there too!) - I will definitely picking both up, but with costs going up all over the place and with no 10% pre-order or day one discount it'll have to wait for later... and look forward until then!
The team really did a fantastic job overall. Not perfect by any means, but it's of exceptional quality overall.
I just completed my first run in the Acela in Boston - Providence. No issues, either with the train, or safety systems. Looks great, sounds great, runs great Also some of attention to detail is amazing, like modelling the "exit" position on the cab light switch. It will turn the cab light, and automatically turn it off after certain time, so the engineer can exit the cab under light. And the reworked signaling system on the route made the route much more enjoyable. Being able to approach Providence without any weird and suddent speed drops and restrictions make this so much more fun Thanks for all the effort in this US release
Is it me or is the penalty brake system broken? PCS should surely release after a brake suppression setting and train speed is brought down below the penalty speed? I had to take the brake all the way to handle off to get PCS to release. Bug?
Love this train! Just did a full run on Boston and smooth as butter (other than overshooting Rt 128 station by quite a bit). I am trying it on Trenton and having a weird issue. Train 2155 From Penn... Starting from Penn, safety systems on, load passengers, close doors, release brakes, ready to go... ATC says Restrict 20mph. Start moving... as soon as I hit 1.5mph I get an overspeed and penalty brake? Am I missing something?
It's not the PCS. ACSES is de-energizing the magnet valve for the brakes during a penalty brake application. So upon penalty, the brakes go to Full Service. Once at or below the target speed, you can recover the train by setting the brakes to Suppression or higher. Sometimes it doesn't immediately release control of the train to you and I'm not quite sure why. But most of the time it works fine.
Thank you, yes I tried again and recovering worked with Suppression. The first time I was panicking and the Acela ground to a complete halt. Only then Handle Off was necessary.
Per my reply to you on Discord, I remember Paul (trainsimulatordriver) saying that there's a weird order of operations with the reverser and ATC/ACSES. Set reverser FIRST, then enable the safety systems. Shouldn't matter but apparently it does? Please try that.
Having driven the Acela a couple of times on NEC Boston - Providence I have to say it looks and sounds amazing. It has definitely added more action to the Boston - Providence route.
Not familiar with the Acela, but took a service out on Trenton-NYC. It sounds very quiet outside away from the engines… like I can hear track joints and ambient sounds, but no wind noise I don’t think… it seems very quiet. Have I got a dodgy install or is this correct? edited to say playing PS5 version on PS5
I would also like to add that the way the Acela looks & feels is great - the sounds massively let it down though, they aren’t great.
ive noticed in this vid above that the acela has both pantos up, but in the game itself only has the one panto up, or maybe i didnt notice both up
Had a great run in the Acela today too. I’m curious in the real world how do drivers typically use the cruise control? Solely for long stretches with constant speed or do they use it as well for speed changes, slowing down for stations etc. I found what worked best for me was disengaging it for speed changes then re-engaging it, but I’d be curious if anyone knows what the pros do.
Brandon talked a lot about that on the stream last night. The way he explained it is that in real life most drivers use the cruise control for most their braking too (dynamic brakes), for speed changes at least. ALSO, your throttle position directly controls how much power your dynamics produce. For example if you have drop your cruise control to slow down you will slow down faster if you have your throttle in notch 10 vs notch 5 etc. And the way he explained it with automatic brake is that it’s generally only used for station stops and for suppression braking due to a speed drop.
Acela is great to use. Only did the tutorial, but I like it. One thing I would like to see improved is the fan sound which turns on almost immediately after the loco starts moving and immediately when it comes to idle which was also mentioned in SP's video. But, it doesn't stop me from playing.
Interesting, since that's pretty much how I drive German trains with AFB- which, I understand, is totally against DB regs. Maybe it's an American thing?
I like what I've read and seen about the Acela so far. Is it worth buying along with the new NY-Trenton route?
If you are going to buy NY-Trenton anyway, then yeah Acela is a pretty useful addition, it adds a decent amount traffic to a quiet route and it is quite something to see it whizzing by (check video reviews though as AI Acela can have quite the performance hit if you are playing near the capacity of your machine. Console might not be as bad). You also get substantial distances at top speed, and the route itself feels very very very long so the high speed services do not feel like they are over in a flash by any means. But if you already have Boston Sprinter then Acela by itself is a perfectly good loco to go with it, of the two routes Boston is the more challenging for Acela because of its more frequent speed reductions and conflicting signals, but the 150mph stretch is fairly short in total, shorter still if there is a train somewhere in front.
The Acela is definitely fun. I bought it for Boston-Prov which will already give plenty of play value, and will pickup NY-Trenton in a future sale as not in a particular hurry for it.
a small update to do JD is to slightly reduce the sound of the fans so that we can also hear the sounds of the train but the DLC is very good
Did you acknowledge the alarm? You need to both move the brake handle to Suppression and acknowledge ACSES (or ATC).
Thanks, that’s really helpful information. Especially this tidbit, I never would have guessed that. I’ll play around with that tonight as last time it felt like the deceleration wasn’t strong enough to be useful, I probably didn’t have it sitting in throttle position 10.
I also really think the Acela turned out amazing. Easily took Boston-Providence way up my list of most played routes, even though I normally only stick to German stuff. It looks and feels amazing! I also love the screenshot I took of it leaving Boston shown below.
I also noticed this. As someone who usually plays German stuff, and doesn't brake with AFB, it feel really unnatural. It does make some more sense if you consider that German locomotives usually have independent controld for Electric and Air braking, whereas in the Acela only braking by cruise control with let you brake with only E-brakes. Guess practices differ everywhere.
Yep. My typical thought would be if my goal is to slow down, drop throttle to 0. But not the case for using dynamics/cruise on this one. I only know this because of Brandon's comments on the stream, but it seems key to operating the train.
i didnt like the sound in general from the acela, the fans or whatever it is are way to loud, driving with a windows open is annoying on how loud it is apart of that the rest is great
The Acela looks really great and I was looking forward for this DLC, but the sound of the fans are like a broken vacuum cleaner. I don't live in the US and unfortunately I've never seen an Acela Express in real life, but when I compare the one from the DLC with the real Acela, the sound is worlds apart. I love loud fans like the one from the BR 143 / BR 112 which is way too silent in TSW3. But the screeching fans from the Acela gives me headache....
According to Brandon, he rode in the cab of an Acela to get some sound recordings and he said it really is that loud and that the engine room doors do a great job at muffling the noise.
still they should tone it down just a bit like 20 or 30% because is annoying and makes me want to alt+f4 or move to another train
Woah! I like it too! Just did a run on Providence - Boston. But the fans are indeed really loud. And yes, they are pretty loud (like a lot of TGVs too) in real life as well. But this is a bit overreaching perhaps.
Here's my recording of the blowers while sitting in the secondman's seat. The door directly behind me was open and then was closed as we were departing. You be the judge. It's really loud.