This is something I'm looking forward to, a trundle down the Cardiff Bay branch is something I always enjoyed when they had the 121 bubble car. Cardiff is incredibly busy with trains coming and going, so I'm hoping that gets replicated.
You mean W55032 (121032)? That's at the Wensleydale Railway and I've ridden on it several times (a few times in the cabs).
It's a lovely little unit. There's 2 cab ride videos on my YT channel (there is chatter between the crew) and also a video of her first run out for training last year after being repaired after an accident involving a tree before Covid.
I've not been tempted much by Guard Mode, but the scope of a network it might be more engaging than mainline routes? Plus in the future it could be integrated with the Valleys Lines through Route Hopping?
I'm looking forward to the complexity and possible permutations of this network. Such a nice change from a linear A to C routes that although fun can get old pretty quickly. All sorts of destinations are possible on this one. Do we reckon 150 , 153 or 158?
If they are reusing the 150/2, which admittedly has a very good model and artwork, they need to rebuild the physics and sounds from the ground up. It all depends on era but if set in modern day could be the "Metro" branded Flirt units. Guessing it's set beyond the period when 142's and 143's formed the backbone of the Valley Line services.
It would be a good opportunity for DTG to step in and improve the Class 150/2, which after all is the predominant train type on these lines nowadays. I somehow doubt it would be the new Flirt units as these have yet to enter service fully and have far less reuse potential than the Sprinters for layering onto other future routes.
DTG themselves in the roadmap stated 'diesel' and 'TfW', not Arriva. That pretty much confirms the 150/2 and 153 as the two options.
Agreed. It would be a bit frustrating having the Vale of Glamorgan and Rhymney lines cut off within Cardiff itself. They may be part-runs but it's better than no runs.
From my experience living on the route, there will definitely be at the very least AI freight passing through Cardiff Central. It's possible there may be some short movements from the junction north of Penarth to Cardiff also.
I've not been tempted much by Guard mode, but the scope of a network it might be more engaging with acting as Revenue Protection checking trains on various routes rather than working one train on a linear path.
Spent half an hour at Cardiff Central yesterday while changing trains. On the Valley Lines side (those covered by the route) I saw 2x Class 231 Flirts, three pairs of Class 153s and half a dozen Class 150/2s. The Class 756 Flirts and Class 398 Tram Trains are due for introduction once electrification work and driver training is complete. The mainline had GWR IET's and Class 166's, EMR Class 170's and TfW Class 197's as well as a Class 67 plus Mark 5 set, so little scope for ai traffic.
I have to concur with the class 150/2 comments; nice model from Rivet but DTG should redo the physics. Weren’t the original sounds sourced from AP? If so, they should just need DTG to improve their implementation once the physics are sorted.
Get the door panels working too. There should be one by 1 of the doors in each coach and by the staff door and for a TFW/ATW livery depending on era the inside of the doors are not red. I’d hope that DTG rebuilds the 150 from scratch.
Addressing the physics would also sort out the sounds which were, apparently, sourced from AP but just got horribly mixed in Simugraph. The 158 is not dissimilar in how the engine and transmission work (apart from a slightly higher transition speed on the Voith and 90 as opposed to 75 MPH top speed) so that ought to serve as a template how to do it.
It would be nice to get the GWR HST layering in for more AI traffic at Cardiff Central, mimicking the Castle sets heading into Cornwall, even though they rarely operate beyond Exeter nowadays. A timetable based around 2022-2023 might be the best option.
We don’t know what is included do we? If it’s just 142/143 then a 2022/2023 route would need 769 and Flirts really. But as always with TSW it will be lacking in that regard. So I’d expect a 2000 era route most likely with everything in a Regional Railways livery. But we’ll see in due course.
Especially since the 142 already exists. Just need to bung JT a tenner (!) and reskin into Valley Lines colours.
Well considering the map they showed had little TfW logos on each of the stations I'm going to go ahead and say it's not going to be 2000s era with everything in a Regional Railways livery. That seems a pretty good indicator to me about what will be included, most likely 2023 with 150s and 153s maybe ???
Well if they are creating a 153 from scratch, apart from vehicle weights the engine and transmission are identical to the 150/2 so hopefully that can be brought across.
A 153 also has massive reuse potential across the UK network. Love them or hate them IRL, they kept a lot of the rural and branch lines going and at least the conversion ironed out most of the terrible problems the 155 fleet had. Well apart from 155304 which became a long term stopper at Canton after hitting a tree near Bath one stormy evening and was the first to go to Kilmarnock, on a low loader.
So we don’t have the Pacers, so we will likely have a 150/2 and presumably a 153. But it’s going to be somewhat ‘samey’ with just the two trains and occasional Class 66 on a freight. Or do we expect a flirt to appear?
One example is they could be modified into a scotrail variant for a possible West Highland line DLC at some point
I doubt a flirt would appear, firstly because they don't operate any of the trains out to Radyr or Coryton, and secondly because the 231s are only temporary on this network. The 756s (which are the class of flirts actually meant for this line) aren't in service yet. The 231s are built for the mainline but have been put on the Rhymney line as a temporarty measure to fill the gap between the Pacers (and 769s) leaving and the 756s arriving.
Well TBH if we ever got West Highland I would much rather it was set in the pre 1988 loco hauled era and preferably before 1983 when Sulzer Type 2’s were still in charge of the service.
I think 175s and 192 would be one the route as both of them are dmu. I don't think we will just see 153, 150, 155 etc. I think we will definitely see 175s and 192. I also think we will see class 86s with there coaches
Class 153 with potentially a reworked Class 150 will do me, with some Class 66 freight workings as expected and ideally some GWR Class 43 as AI around Cardiff Central to make it feel more alive would be nice too Hope it's a purely diesel route too (i know parts of the route are undergoing electrification lately), i'm a little tired of modern UK routes with OHLE, i really hope this one is fully focused on diesel operations Overall i can't wait to find out more and more about this release as time goes on!
I think Matt stated earlier the focus is to have a diesel operated suburban network, rather than the electric bus services we have seen up to now.
If we do get a Class 150 and a Class 153, I really hope to see some unusual formations and substitution happening such as Class 153 pairs, 3-car formations of a Class 150 and Class 153 coupled. Maybe even something like a Class 150 sandwiched between two Class 153s appearing very rarely. Lots of formation variety potential there, especially with the different cab ends of a Class 153.
And then deal with the unsolicited brake applications, because the BSI couplers and electrical boxes on the 153's tended to be a bit droopy (though not as much as on the Pacers)!
I would Imagine the Class 153 will be the NEW unit for this route. Pacer will be the other primary unit. Would love to see DTG release a brand new 150 as well, but that's going to be costly to develop. Guard mode should be fun on this route!
150/153 would pretty much share the same physics, so just reuse rivet's model, change it into a TFW version and add new physics from the 153 (which in itself is somewhat similar to the 158s we already have) So a 150 wouldn't be too hard to do
We know it’s TFW so no pacers. 150 & 153 will probably be the easiest to make considering there is already a 150/2. Depends how much they can pull from that. The 231 is the only other solid option but it’s a lot of effort to make I’d imagine & you’d still need a 150 or 153 along side it, as there’s only one line served by the 231 AFAIK.
this is what i'm really hoping for! I just think this route has so much potential, i really hope it works out i think i heard Matt say the longest route you can drive on this network will be Coryton to Radyr (via Cardiff Central), which if true must mean the route is set at 2023 at the latest (as this year 2024 i believe the routing was changed so all Coryton services run to/from Penarth, and none now run to/from Radyr) if this is the case that's a good thing i would say, definitely puts the scope of the route firmly in the diesel setting and makes the class 153 and/or class 150 the most likely candidates
