Glossop Line: Manchester Piccadilly - Hadfield And Glossop

Reviving this thread now we have heard about Glossop. This is practically Part 2 of the OP, so let's take a look at what we know so far:

The Class 323 is now, 100%, in Nationalised Northern style - this was presumed but we now have confirmation.

The DLC description found on the Xbox Store states that there will be a 10% Discount (only Confirmed for Xbox, so far) for owning Birmingham Cross-City, as it also features the 323. It's unclear for Xbox users how this interacts with the Game Pass 10% discount, although an announcement is probably coming in due course. According to the roadmap, this route is 'Next Arrival' and is likely to be released this month.

Timetable:
The Class 323, as you'd expect, forms the vast majority of services on this route. It operates at 2 train per hour (2tph) frequency and leaves short turnaround times at Glossop and Hadfield, of roughly three minutes in many cases.
The only known layer is the EMT 158 from Midland Mainline, which has one playable service - an ECS run.

Scenarios:
Scenarios are the interesting part; we know of one in particular detail, a Guarding and Ticket Inspecting scenario. It's the only scenario that doesn't involve the player driving a train, instead you'll be guarding the train and checking passenger tickets - even interacting with them. The Xbox Store Screenshots suggest that there will be one involving some sort of lineside works.
From the June Roadmap:
"I think there’s some great scenarios for this route which include some fun new things players haven’t seen before in scenarios, such as burst pipes flooding the tracks and a photo competition where players get a camera to use (more on this one soon!)"
- Liam

Screenshots:
June Roadmap

Riding in the Guard's Seat, that's new...


So is performing guarding operations.


And interacting with Passengers.


And checking tickets!


The Class 158 (Layer)

 

Xbox Store "Leak" (Pt. 1)

 

Xbox Store Leak (Pt. 2)

 

May Roadmap

 

This is looking like it will be quite a lovely route.

 

It looks really fit from those screenshots… looking forward to grabbing it at the end of the month!

 

In the first screenshot we can also see a class 66. So I guess that will be included too.

 

Well It wasn’t JD that leak it this time…… well is not really a leak but I’m sure those pictures were not meant to come out yet.

 

Oh wauw that look stunning! The Northern livery is spot on! Absolutely a requirement to buy. For me it's more fun with shorter routes that has a less speed in it. This kind of end to end run has so much to offer than running like Kassel Würzburg with 280 for near a hour and 60% in a tunnel.

 

It does look nice but immediately evident how empty Man Picc looks in that screenshot. It’s Glasgow Central and Birmingham New Street all over again. At least they could fill up the platforms not included in the operational track database with static models, a couple of Pendolinos, a Voyager and some other variety of local train. They don’t even need to have fully modelled interiors, just sit there as background scenery.

I’m assuming from what’s being said then, that you can’t generally go out and act as Guard on any train in the timetable. It looks like the element is restricted to specific, scripted, scenarios.

 

Man this route, Cross City and the Bakerloo is the reason why we need a West Coast Mainline route in tsw3 so we can have class 90 class 350 and Class 390 to fill up these big stations

 

The screenshots look very good. Will be be getting this on release. Shame they didn't turn it into a mini network by adding a couple of the diesel routes and a Sprinter. I would happily have paid £30 for that.

 

Much agreed with you here - this is perhaps my biggest frustration with TSW overall. I'm certainly happy to see new routes/TOCs come to TSW, but why does every new UK route now have to feature some of the largest stations in the UK - which, without appropriate rolling stock, are just almost completely empty and thus not very immersive.

I get the argument that having large stations already modeled for TSW means potentially future routes can utilise such stations and existing traffic to be much busier. But, if so, why has there yet to be another route that has featured the likes of Glasgow Central, London Paddington, New Street, or even Manchester Victoria and/or Leeds from NTP etc?

In my opinion, DTG shouldn't be trying to include the largest of stations with each first route. The best example of this is London Commuter - the route, including the likes of London Victoria, was busy because ECW, SEHS, GWE etc came before with the extra relevant traffic. Could you imagine what London Commuter would of been like if it was the first and only route, it would be completely empty - which is what's happening with a vast majority of new UK routes nowadays with TSW which is annoying.

 

It’s worth noting the store screenshots of the DLC can only show the content you get with the route itself, so no additional layers. Who knows, there might be some more stuff in Piccadilly station with the layers.

 

This is my gripe with the UK side of content. Buying a bunch of single train routes with no layers just does not interest me that much. BCC, Cathcart,Scotrail Express. Where is the logic of DLC choice for the UK? German content in comparison feels quite complete so even if the route is not that great I can take a bunch of different trains for a spin there. Even Niddertalbahn and Linke Rheinstrecke provide layers for one another. If they can fill the gaps in the timetables on the UK side I will be a very happy and generous customer.

 

Problem is very little can prototypically layer in, passenger train wise it is just the MML 158 and even that strictly isn't 100% accurate although it's close enough.

Anything else would be completely wrong with the exception of an occasional BR Blue rail tour.

 

Indeed, it's exactly the reason why I love German content in TSW - busy timetables and stations, varied rolling stock and service types (commuter, high-speed and freight) etc. However, to be completely fair though, it's much more complex for UK routes to be similar to German ones due to the amount of different TOCs and appropriate rolling stock etc. Though, despite this, some UK routes can be very busy with multiple TOCs - London Commuter and SEHS are great examples - if DTG select ideal routes which also can link with existing TSW content. For example, even though AI-only, I really like how St Pancras from SEHS is now busy thanks to the addition of EMT HSTs from MML - it's stuff like this which makes routes interesting instead of empty, one-loco routes and so on.

 

I agree. If I remember correctly Matt Had mentioned last year that going forward they were going to build routes with a plan but it seems especially with the UK routes Is fire and forget. But in their defense players would probably complain if they just concentrate in one area. In my opinion there should be a plan in place to build with expansion plans. If not we will continue to have empty routes

 

20 quid for this, no brainer purchase for me, looks great.
Agreed with Verns comment about adding some static models to the bigger stations to give them a bit more life.

 

The route does look great and I will definitely get this.

 

I used to commute on this route every day. The scenery is actually quite varied, even though much of it is suburban.

It is a shame they didn't back date it to around 2002. In those days the occasional class 101 substituted for failed electrics or power outages - and they were thrashed to pieces to keep up with the electric timings. You could even see 47 or HST diversions on the west end of the route in those days

 

German routes get that because there's one passenger operator, that runs everywhere. Trains from a route in one part of Germany can appear at the other end of the country, as far as TSW is concerned.

Britain is, of course, unable to do this. It's fragmented regionally into different TOCs, some of whom will say no to working with DTG, some will say yes.

ScotRail and Southern are the only, modern, TOCs to appear twice. Southern's stuff all works together era-wise, ScotRail's doesn't. Although that was inevitable because of how long-running ScotRail is, and the rolling stock evolution going on.

The Southeast is the only region, so far, with sufficient rolling stock to feel busy.

The next seems to be the Midlands/North, with the 323 (WMR), 323 (Northern), 158 (EMT), HST (EMT) forming a strong starting point. If Skyhook continue to build on the Midlands, then we'll see even more. I suspect that DTG will aim to work on the West Midlands/Northern Region, perhaps looking to build around Manchester.

We'll get there with UK Content, but at the moment it's not quite plausible. (Not to promote my threads, but) I discussed this at length here, with a few examples: https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/the-connecting-uk-routes-thread.69898/

 

Regarding ScotRail I'd really like DTG or a third-party have the next Scottish route featuring Glasgow Central again - maybe with something like a Class 320, or even a 380 - in the same era as the 314s from Cathcart, then at least the station will be somewhat busier rather than being completely empty.