Hi Everybody. Obviously there has been a lot of negativity around American content recently. On a more positive note I was wondering which American (or Canadian) freight route everybody thought was the best? There is a purpose to this too. I am a relatively occasionally TSW player. I normally play Uk or German content but have been trying a bit of American freight recently and been enjoying it (other than the obvious drawback of the slow speeds). My first experience of American freight was on the original NEC and apart from the occasional bug I really enjoyed it, especially the intermixing with passenger services. My only other experience has been Sand Patch Grade and I am enjoying this, though the learning curve is ferocious! I actually own most content so was wondering which other US freight routes people thought good and why? Thanks in advance for the advice and I hope it can provide an interesting and positive discussion. I don’t really like to be negative but obviously if some routes have immersion ruining bugs it would be useful to know this but mainly I was wondering about the positives Ps if anybody wants to change this into a poll please feel free, unfortunately I don’t know how to do this.
Well, i think it really comes down to a persons opinion and what they like. Me personally, the ClinchField is my absolute favorite. It’s unlike most routes which is straight A-B, notch 8 for an hour straight. I really like it because it has a main branch line, but also smaller branch lines with coal loading and shunting at the end of most of them. I enjoy that all the branch lines are different from one another. The Fremont branch, for example, is a straight shot up the side of a hill, while a branch like the Greenbriar is a little less challenging. It gives a sense of difference. Me being a fan of routes set in the past, this route is right up my alley because it’s set in the 70s and features older equipment instead of newer. Matt doing a remaster of this route as a side project is really cool because it shows that this route does really have something to offer if this is your type of play style. (sorry for the pressure Matt, if your reading this)
For service variety it's hard to beat Peninsula Corridor, which gets you commuter (two very different locos), freight and switching all in one quite long package. I think a WSR-style facelift to improve its fairly bland scenery would make it one of the best in the game.
If I had to pick one I would have to say Cajon Pass. The behaviour of the train physics eventually got to a higher standard with the BNSF ES44C4 and the route itself is interesting throughout its entire length. It’s a route I can’t get enough of. Despite having two loco packs and this a total of four different locos, there is room for more activity on this route if only DTG would release a proper loco DLC for it. One of the loco packs, a reskin of the SD70 from Sherman Hill added zero extra services to the timetable and only came with very bad scenarios. The loco does add to the route though. The Santa Fe F7 did add services but is out of place in the modern setting and AI services drive without headlights on. A daft error for the devs to make and still not fixed. These things aside, I find it to be the best route, closely followed by Clinchfield, another route crying out for improvements and a loco DLC to enable more coal loading and switching on the many branches.
Thanks for these replies guys. I had totally forgotten about Peninsula Corridor. That definitely looks really good with the mix of passenger and freight. I’m glad to hear the positive comments about Clinchfield too as I have seen a few negative posts on here about bugs. I definitely prefer older routes so I am excited to try it and any route with branches is always more interesting. I think I will wait for Matt’s update before trying it. I am really enjoying Sand Patch Grade, well when I finally get my train to move! I was a bit worried the other freight routes might be a let down after it though so I’m glad to hear positive feedback for some of the other routes.
You could be waiting quite a while. Matt said that he rarely works on it and that it’s something that he doesn’t know will ever come out.
a bit off topic - anyone know of a thread here about how to set up multiple loco consist on US freight trains in this game? I remember some guys discussing it, but cannot find the post/thread for the life of me... or if anyone knows a simple guide on how to set up each loco (and thus how to check if they are all set up correctly), a link or something, let me know ... I have played this game for long enough, it is time for me to learn how to set and drive those behemoths
Have some patience will you. Things don't get made in 5 seconds and he's doing it in his own free time outside of work. It's a massive project for 1 single person because that single person has to do everything. There's plenty of other things to do while you wait lol
All you should really need to do is to turn on Banking Com on the lead loco. The only route where this is not available is Clinchfield, because DTG forgot to add this feature.
so all other locos are set up correctly? I mean, I remember seeing stuff about Gen field off in some locos and such... anyway, isnt banking comm in German locos? I would like to try Sand Patch Grade and Cajon Pass (and of course Sherman Hill, got it for free recently), and since freight services dont have time limits, I would love to check locos to see if they are set up correctly, I just dont know what to check and what to look for
No, it's a feature added to most American freight locos to represent the real world radio comms between engineers in multiple locos ( DPU's ). Turning it on in the lead loco is all you need to do. Hover your mouse over the radio console. If you want to do it the hard way, do a search for " DPU's setup " in the forum. There are a number of posts detailing what to check for in lead and trail locos.
found this in one of the posts... is this correct (and does the reverser on rear lead stay on neutral?) ? ... on Cajon Pass I think the trains have even more locos... whats the general principle(s) in these things?
I actually also just got into American freight routes about half a year ago and I really like them! (Especially since I’m in the states for a month and am able to see these giant monsters in real life ) My favourites are Cajon pass and Sherman hill. The reason is that these are the only “classic” freight routes with TOD4 and no passenger services (just a personal preference). They also have quite high speed limits of up to 70mp/h and with the repaint pack for Sherman hill you get some variety too! Cajon pass is amazing if you own the SD70ACE BNSF add on for a few bucks since you get a little variety there too. What I would love DTG to do, apart from obviously bringing in new loco add ons, would be to allow substitution of UP locos on Cajon pass since you often see them there. Only adding the UP SD70ACE from Sherman Hill for substitution would make Cajon pass so much more interesting and since the UP and BNSF versions of the SD70ACE are like almost identical, it shouldn’t be that hard I hope? Would be awesome to get some information on why that isn’t the case DTG Alex Thank you so much in advance!
Part of the problem is that DTG used one abstracted game system to model two different real-life systems: helper or banking engines, with their own crews and verbal comms by radio, and genuine DPU, which is complete remote control
