They showed the route map, it will not include Richmond or Stratford, only Gospel Oak - Barking Riverside.
whilst their is no concrete proof of that, and probably would be true, their is the point of DTG haven’t done any of them, Meaning they don’t always do what would most likely be the most popular of all routes. look how long it too for ECML to arrive and they still didn’t do one of the most prominent sections, they simply dont have a 100% focus or even probably 20% focus to the most popular routes.
Well, the only thing I want to point out is that every one has thier own preferences which is great.. I liked the Welsh routes for the fact they were in a different region. I think that is a great thing about a simulation such as TSW --- given enough time, like with TSC, and all will have a route that they enjoy..
Depends what you mean by "boring", I suppose. I've mentioned the Cambrian Line before (Shrewsbury-Aberystwyth-Pwllheli), which is not only a lovely and varied line to travel, but has enough twists and turns and gradient changes to make it pretty interesting to drive I'd think. As for Wales not having much freight, historically it was a major producer of coal, slate and steel so plenty of scope there.
With respect, you need to do some research before posting statements like that. There isn’t so much in the current day but take the clock back to the late 90’s or early 00’s in South Wales and there was still coal mining and large scale steel production. Go back a few years before that prior to Thatcher and the Tories destroying the UK coal industry, and every Valley had several pits, all rail served. There is a massive power station at Aberthaw on the Vale Of Glamorgan which had a massive appetite for coal. On top of that there is container traffic to Wentloog and again, back in the day, various other freight flows such as car parts to the Ford plant at Bridgend. Basically set the period appropriately and there is probably far more freight than passenger traffic.
I think it all comes down to perspective. They must know what statistics on what routes people play, what ones don't get touched and so on. I get some people don't like stop start, and others don't like long haul, high speed. Like a WCML for me would be dull, just like the ECML is for me. I only really run the 158 services on it, as I find the 80x dull as drying paint. But likewise, I don't particularly like the stopstart of BCC, but CCL is one of my favourite routes. So, they have this conundrum where it isn't just black and white what is popular and what isn't. GEML would be a mix of stopstart and fast services, but again, do they upset the masses and do a contained route, say to Southend and Southminster, or go out to Colchester but leave out many of the branchlines? Likewise, the only 'interesting' thing about the wcml is the train, and it isn't all that unlike the ecml, depending on where they choose to locate it.
Whatever the next routes, we should be very pleased that there are now more third party devs. IMO, JT absolutely smashed it out of the park with BPO and I’m sure their next offering will be a British route, ATS are working hard on a route, and that’s before we’ve talked about DTG, and Rivet, plus anything Skyhook might be doing!
Utterly wrong. Fundamentally, what killed the UK coal industry was improvements in surface transport*, allowing cheap surface-mined coal from the US (and even Oz) to be imported at much lower prices than the product of deep mines. If you want to blame Thatcher, you'll have to explain why all the deep mines across Western Europe closed at much the same time (though Arthur Scargill certainly did a lot to accelerate the process in the UK). For anyone desperate to work in filthy, dangerous conditions, there are still deep mines operating in Poland and Czechia - at local pay rates, of course. * mainly bulk carriers, but also mahoosive freight trains from Powder Valley.
North Wales Coast in 1995, hourly loco hauled, hourly multiple units, extra stopping multiple units, InterCity 125s to London. Freight to Mostyn, Penmanmawr, RTZ, Valley, Holyhead and Through Chester. Mix of 31s , 37s, 47s, 142s, 150s, 156s, 158s and HSTs. Some thing for most tastes. Set it now and it's a lot less interesting.
Thatcher didn't kill British coal mining, because it had already been dead for years, kept in a persistent vegetative state on government life support. All Thatcher did was pull the plug. Successive governments ever since the 1960s had cooked the books - and price-gouged ratepayers - so that they could claim the industry was "profitable." In actual fact, it would have been cheaper to import Australian coal from halfway around the world (which is why that was prohibited). A cautionary tale about the evils of protectionism.
I mean, there is certainly something to be said for being self reliant as a country when it comes to energy and food. Look how badly Germany got burnt for relying on Russia for Natural Gas.
I do hope rivet are making a Scottish route. Preferably a scenic one. But then again, I don't have high hopes for the quality of stuff their making. I was very disappointed to see the goblin line is what we're getting from dtg. The only thing that could save it at this point tbh is a class 70. Even then, it'll only be good cause of layers.
Great post. When Reagan came in and liberated the world markets, suddenly economies around the world became strong and grew. India for example. Germany. The wall came down. Protectionism is just a form of corruption really. Because it prevents free competition.
If Germany hadn't had a knee jerk reaction to Fukushima, which has 1st or 2nd gen reactors relying on a few diesel generators for pulling rods out of the reactor in disaster scenarios, then it wouldn't have needed Russian gas so much. Also coal from Australia is selling well in Europe...... because natural gas is not reliable. Even Japan who is now building around 30 HELE coal powered stations is beginning to turn their nuclear reactors back on because they are 3rd or 4th gen. 5th gen reactors are even more safe.
I wouldn't dispute that, but the same was true of deep coal mines in France, Belgium and Germany and they all closed at around the same time as the UK's, even without the benefit of a Thatcher. The rules on subsidy and tariffs on imported fuel were (and still are, for members) all set by the EU. The UK could (probably, just) be self-sufficient in energy, but that hasn't really been possible for food since the 19th century - and certainly today the population is way too large. But if there's ever another shooting war on UK territory, it's unlikely to be decided by U-boats blockading food supplies.
He doesn't. He doesn't like the Welsh routes in TS for 'some reason' that he won't explain, and then assumes that the rest of the Train Simulator playerbase think the same way. Considering his posting history and the responses to said post, it is one of the many, many things he believes that most others on here don't. As for the Welsh routes, all three in TS (at least when it comes to the ones on Steam) are decent. I remember there being a lot of excitement when North Wales Coastal was brought back with its upgrades, and I remember a lot of people I knew really wanted to get it. It's also an often requested route for TSW if that counts for anything. As for Welsh Marches and SWC, they're blander routes even if the scenery on both is good.
I'm hoping JT will do the Merseyrail Northern lines next, set in the same era as BPO. That'd be ace, though I appreciate that's a very personal view, as a lot of other people will just seeing a boring, third-rail stopper.
I think the problem with Southern 3rd rail is that it is all electrostars in modern day, and none of the interesting earlier EMUs.
London Commuter could do with a Class 455 DLC, the route is set when it was still in service and was the primary traction for the South London Metro Services run by Southern and South West Trains.
I would love to see the Furness Branch Line run from Lancaster to Barrow via Carnforth, and onwards up the West Coast of Cumbria to Carlisle. It's a very scenic route with plenty of small stops and scenarios like the nuclear flask movements from Sellafield to Heysham could be possible!
Agreed, BML still hasn't had any dedicated loco DLC's and the Class 455/8 in Southern Livery is essential in the period it's set.
Unfortunately I don't see any more dlc happening for London Commuter as the route needs a big optimization fix, it's why the 700 doesn't layer on
Not officially but if you're on PC there's a great mod adding in a lot of 700 services. Makes the route even better with new stopping patterns etc.
I actually think this is one route that would be better in the present day. I know I'm biased towards modern content but I don't think the 507/508 is terribly interesting no matter what period you set it in, especially as we already have the 313 and 314. The 777 on the other hand is quite unique and would stand out from other units in the game.
Either that or you go back to the older 502 and 503 units but I can’t see that as a real option doubting there is much reference for performance or sounds, which would probably end up aliased to the 313 or Electrostar anyway.
Yea, tbh if I was going completely selfish I'd go modern-day too, simply because my local station didn't exist in the 80s that said, the main reason I thought people would find it a boring stopper is simply that it really is a metro service. Other than start-of-the-day ECS moves, practically every single service is an all-stops run up and down each line, either to Central or on to Hunts Cross.
The next UK route is Alan Thomason? Or is it DTG? Didn't AT do WCML Trent on Stoke? Sorry I might have confused that..... Is that when we got the 91s too?
More likely class 90's as they were used for freight. That would be cool and is fairly likely given ATS's reputation. Would love for it to have a class 390 too! (And if we're lucky a class 350 alongside all that!)
I'm pretty sure the next UK route is DTG, I haven't seen any mention of it being made by anybody else, and if you were thinking of the WCML Trent Valley route for TSC then it was made by Thomson Interactive and not by ATS. Although they are quite similar names so easy to get confused, and then it gets even more confusing when I have just found out that Thomson Interactive is headed up by Alan Thomson but its not the same Alan Thomson as ATS but instead a different guy who use to be a developer for DTG?? I'm so confused now!
Would be cool if they could get the license for SWR then we could have more traffic passing through the west of Clapham Jct which at the moment looks bereft of life. SWR also have very colourful liveries and they featured a lot in TSC albeit as SWT. Liveries were the same though.
Seen as my following question is similarly related to 'New', I wonder if we can get scope that the 104 DMU on production can be layered onto the JT BPO route, as I am seeing alot of evidence that these ran to Blackpool around the era it has been set..
I think I have read on the forums somewhere that they were not present at that time in the Preston Area. Not sure tho Edit:I'm wrong
https://www.flickr.com/photos/martynhilbert/28360256433 Credit to Martyn Hilbert as it's his Flickr photo and description but yeah, even in 1986 & 1988 running to Blackpool North/South
Matt P made a point of saying they are trying things they've not done before, which has given me some hope that we'll see an AC slam door unit as DTG have avoided them so far. If I was in charge; (new rolling stock in bold) LTS Rail and freight, 312, 357 plus a modern layer for anyone with the 387 and a later Class 720 DLC add-on. Bristol to Swansea modern 387, IET, 150s, Stadler Flirts. Rugby to Stafford via Birmingham modern. 323, 350, 390. Edinburgh to Newcastle based in late 70's with HST and Deltics & Mk 2 D-E coaches Settle to Carlisle - pacers, 150, 158 and diesel and steam railtours aplenty ECML South London to Peterborough extension to current ECML set prior to the introduction of 717s with 313,387,700, HSTs, IETs and adding Class 91. In addition, I'd add AI 710s to the joint sections of the Bakerloo Line. Maybe driveable but would people want 15 minute sessions? Updated BML with 700s though the mod for it works perfectly well. Add HSTs to Doncaster to Peterborough, maybe as a paid extension to York. I'd like to see new rolling stock introduced as an add-on to existing routes. The 730 for Birmingham Cross-City for example. A note about the ATS route. It will use rolling stock that's already in the game so unlikely to be WCML unless there are plans for a 350 and 390 to be released before the ATS route comes out.
Agree with the above re LTS rail and would be amazing to see some slam door ac stock on the LTS. I know we all want our own routes but I will continue the love for the LTS line. I live on the line and know people that work for c2c so would be happy to help anyway I could.
Sorry me again, a question for either DTG or people who are well skilled in the art of building rail sim content. If extensions to routes would be too much for the operating system, is there any way that it could be done by linking one timetabled session to a timetabled service on the extension. For example, someone builds ECML South. You drive your IET down to Peterborough then you get the menu for completed scenarios which would have the option of continuing your drive, the sim then boots up the southern section and drops you into the same cab for the onward journey to Kings Cross. If route extensions aren't possible, I think most players would be happy with the "continue drive" option, especially as it doesn't take long for routes to load in TSW. jamster47. I lived next to the LTS/District Line as a kid in the 70s, 80s and early 90s. I then worked for them for 7 years at Central House, Southend, various booking offices and East Ham Depot. I love the line and I think it is top of my wish list for TSW and TSC. It's a perfect length for TSW though and I would spend hours going back and forth. It will need D or S stock though, it would be bare without them.
Thanks! Thanks! The quality in the Trent Valley for WCML in TSC is brilliant and the sounds on the Class 91 ie 225IC also excellent. OK so just the names are the same.
The next DTG UK route will be the goblin line, with the class 710. From Gospel Oak To Barking Riverside.
