Good Evening. I was sitting on my armchair having a cup of tea thinking about which route I should drive and whilst I was doing this the wife had some music on the Alexa in the kitchen whilst she was tidying up. The song Red Red Wine came on and I instantly thought about a time when I was on a 323 going to Aston station to watch Forest play Villa and there was a younger lad on the train with loud speakers playing the song Red Red Wine on repeat (rather ironic considering he was off his head). I am now off to play a 323 service on BCC. Another example is every time I go into the upstairs toilet at the end of the landing I think about London Commuter as on the evening when I purchased LBN that toilet had 'issues' if you know what I mean! This led me to want to share a question for a bit of fun: Do any other people (you) associate certain songs or events in your life to certain routes in TSW3? Feel free to put your thoughts below, whether they be your story/song and route or pointing out that I am completely barmy and lost my marbles!
NEC Trenton to NY Penn this showed me the American side of main line commuter rail since I had a 2004 era picture of my Mum taking a picture of me at New Brunswick Railway station. My train to NYC and Back to New Brunswick was the Arrow III the locomotive on my profile picture. These were built from 1977-1979 making them the same age as a Press and DB BR155 DB BR420 HMA 1977-1979.
Sure is and they're due to be replaced by MLV III power car which can be controlled from NEC NY Penn to Trenton MLV I-II Cab car. Mate, I can update it for you that my Mum and my brother did go on an MLV I-II 7523 on my suggested route the Raritan Valley line as the next NJ Transit route.
Well, Bakerloo reminds me definitely of the 20-year-old me trying to lug two gigantic suitcases, a briefcase and a bass trombone on the Tube from Victoria to King's Cross. Oh- and for some reason the Victoria line was OOS so I had to take the District and change at Embankment. Fun times. Then the train to Cambridge was stopped for over an hour in the snow.......
That reminds me of something. As some here will know, I spent six months in Brighton recently. A few months ago, I was taking a Thameslink train from Brighton to London. Shortly after leaving Brighton Station, the train suddenly slowed down to a snail’s pace before stopping. The driver informed us that we hab been instructed to go through Clayton Tunnel at no more than 5mph due to reports of flooding and our train was the guinea pig to test the waters (pardon the pun). Before we even got there, the driver received another call and informed us that we’d have to be routed around London Bridge later on as there was a train on fire there. In the end, I got off at London Blackfriars with 1,5 hours delay. It never rains but it pours, I guess.
The Bakerloo reminds me of when I was in London last year and my family had to decide the Victoria Line or the Bakerloo Line to get to Oxford Circus I think it was, I said Bakerloo because of the TSW reference but everyone else said Victoria , I sighed as I missed out being on a TSW route in place of the Victoria Line , but I have been on TSW routes IRL though
I remember I spent Christmas Eve 2020 playing LGV, so it's always felt quite festive to me. Might explain why I have a bit of a soft spot for that route. Oh, and for a few days in April 2020 I had unbearably bad kidney pains, and when the pain wasn't too severe or had temporarily faded I tried playing GWE to take my mind off things. So I sometimes associate GWE, and specifically local services with the 166, with the feeling of me praying the pain wouldn't come back. I'm fine now by the way!
Out of interest does this make you want to play the route more or less? Good to know you've recovered.
I would say if I go someplace in reality that’s in the game, I’ll have a want to spend time on that route when I get back home, it happened when I was travelling back home from where TVL is set in and I went over the A19 road bridge (also represented in game) that happens to go over the line itself right as a class 156 was travelling the line, or when my route home was on a diversion passed Tees Yard. As TVL is set in 1989 It doesn’t include the same rolling stock so I decided to use the WCL 150 as a substitute in scernario planner, as well as populate the yard with 66’s as that’s whats usually there when I see it.
Thanks! No it doesn't really affect how often I play it. It helps that GWE is the TSW route that I'm most familiar with in real life, so when I'm driving on it I'm thinking more about times I've traversed it in the past, and all the changes that have been made to it since 2016. Sometimes my brain will remember "oh yeah, I played this when I was ill", but TSW wasn't the only game I played during that period. For example I remember I was playing Far Cry New Dawn when it started again and I more strongly associate that game with my illness than TSW.
This is another good example of when it happens to me as I quite regularly pass through Darlington station and there is always a part of me which then just wants to go home and drive a 37 on a heavy freight train out of there instead!
So there is one story I always wanted to wright down and this might be quite the fitting thread for it. I will start of by saying, that I do not own Cajon Pass and might never buy it, nor did I have any idea were the Cajon Pass actually was. It is a bit of a shame, because I like how the route looks and I like US diesels, it is just not my prefered driving style. Anyway, I was watching one of the preview streams when I suddenly realized: Hey, I know this place! This looks exactly like the railroad next to the Emma Jean's. So I started to look it up and indeed, this route actually does go through Victorville and it does go right next to the Emma Jean's so it was indeed what I thought it was. Now I must mention, that I only drove by there a couple of times on a trip to California and actual live half a globe away from the location. However it is, the route building cannot be to shabby if someone far away from local can immediately recognize a remote location.
