In actual fact from what I've seen the 153 is the saving grace of the entire route and is built to a decent standard as are the sounds... But that doesn't cloud the fact the rest of the route is as dull as rain water in terms of what it could of been and suffering from quality issues. But that parts been discussed to death... It would seem that a fair amount of time and effort has gone into the 153 and it holds up well and the quality shines through... Why the bloody hell doesn't it have a route to match? It does give the impression that route itself and the 150 are from the same factory line, and the 153 from a completely different factory line... Whether there's any truth to that we will never really know. Very much like how the 390 is of a far superior quality to the 350... One feels built 'in house', the other feels a 'third party' build.
I just watched the DadRail video as (apart from the 50 second advert breaks) he is generally quite objective. He was only driving the 153 in his first clip, from Coryton to Penarth. I mean, yes the 153 doesn’t seem too bad and from the cab the scenery etc. looked just about passable. However the sticking point for me is this really is a diesel bus service. On the basis of what I just watched, then if this had been £20 for the two trains (bearing in mind one is reworked) and the route as is, or, it had included Barry Island and at least one of the full northern section Valley Line runs (maybe Rhymney) for £30, in either case a purchase might have drifted clear of my Steam Wallet. But, just like the Class 700 on SEHS, the Class 153 as it stands has no scope to show its full potential on this short all stops route. So despite the slight tingling in my fingers still going to wait for a sale, but maybe concede when it’s under £20 rather than under £15.
Yeah that's really annoying. It's as if it's an admin tool or a development feature has been left on. Really immersion breaking and bad for screenshots
Looks like I'm going the opposite way to many people here... Despite Rivet's past half-baked productions, I was one of those who was rather looking forward to the route and had it on my virtual wishlist since it was announced, regardless of how much mileage would eventually be included. Purchased it on release day, played for 40 minutes, then requested and obtained a refund from Steam (earning it the dubious honour of now being the only TSW UK DLC I don't own). I started off with the "Translator" scenario and within seconds I found that you can't use the first row of passenger seats on the 153, which didn't give me a great first impression, in addition to the various other issues with the 153. After completing that, I played a bit of free roam and discovered the widely-reported areas with the scenery that would make MSTS blush. This was already starting to feel like a deal-breaker for me, but then I encountered the "absolute bare minimum" approach to some of the stations which really broke the immersion. Hop to the other platform, seriously? Why even bother with that feature? To top it off, the next scenario I tried used the 150 and took place in the rain, rendering it unplayable since the wipers don't work on this unit. I have no problem with DLC getting minor updates a couple of weeks down the line to fix issues found and reported by the community, but clearly here a decision was made to release a product with weeks, if not months, of development and testing still left to go, fully aware that it wasn't up to standard. It seems I made the assumption DTG and Rivet had learned from past "mistakes" (in quotes because it's been the same story every time so far), particularly with all the rushed fixes they had to bring in for WCML-S and the Leven Line, but apparently they're going to continue with the same approach in releasing unfinished routes and stock and then fixing them up to the minimum acceptable standard once they see customers REALLY aren't happy. Future Rivet releases will be no-go or sale purchases for me. JB
It's very strange. I had it show up the first time i played the route, but not since. I wonder what triggers it?
So are the br153 issues based on the system it's on or is it ever version that has these mentioned issues?
I've had it show up every time. Though sometimes if your not looking directly at the train it'll disappear. Guard mode is horrible with it though.
The short length was a good enough indicator to me that there would be a lot of stop start runs. After all, 150s and 153s aren't generally long distance trains.
Well, 150s (referring to 2022-23 period) were also used on the Marches, while 153s on the Heart of Wales. I agree that they're quite uncomfortable on long distance runs! PS. I've a soft spot for TfW 158s... I hope they'll arrive, alongside a suitable route!
153s are also often used on the 2210 CRE-CDF. I had that shift 3 days in a row, it was diagramed as a 153, and run as one every day.
Literally all of TFW’s sprinter fleet can be made use of along the NWC, which I think should be the next Welsh route. For me CCN serves as nothing more than a pipeline to get some TFW stock, as a route in the scope DTG have gone with, it’s probably the worst part of the TFW network they could have gone for in terms of actually driving these trains. The 20 minute Crewe - Chester shuttle runs have more driving than CCN does. LLD-LLJ is probably the only thing that exists which could rival the short running of CCN. I get people like to be really defensive of DTG, but just making stuff up for them looks pretty daft.
From my former Wales and West days, the original plan was to deploy on branch services such as down to Pembroke Dock and in Cornwall, or to provide additional capacity by strengthening two car services. However it wasn't long before they were being deployed on Central Wales or Cardiff all the way down to Milford Haven. In fact use on the Valley Lines is probably a comparatively recent development. I know at the time, from a Control point of view we expressed grave concern about deploying a single car train with just one engine on long remote routes, where the nearest assisting train could be hours away. Compared to a two car power twin Class 101 or 108 with four engines, giving some measure of redundancy. However as usual, management knew best and they started popping up all over the place.
I can only hope they leave the north Wales coast line to JT, as we'd potentially only end up with a Chester to Llandudno route. JT would make a fine job of it where DTG would give it to 3rd developer to build.
Cardiff to Milford is still a very long run! We used to do one around 5am. Every single stop, including ninian park. By the time we got to Carmarthen on our way back for our break it was around 5 hours on one train!
Exactly the same happened with WCMLS didn’t it? You know there was a time when content like this was an exception to the norm, now I think that is being reversed with routes from JT and TSG being the exceptions to the norm.
I’m guessing this is nothing more than denoting the stock that typically serves the routes in the timetable.
Given other timetables have similar files, you're most likely correct. Or they may well have included the services in the timetable and put the paths in but without allocating any stock to them.
The 150’s cover the 67 allocation & the 231’s are covered by the 153 & 150. 197 is the same with 150’s doing those. Everything in that screenshot is already pathed & subbed in game.
Makes sense - tbh I haven't really looked too closely at the timetable other than just driving/guarding a few services.
I'm guessing this means that if a Class 67 or 197 ever appear in the game, they can appear in the timetable for this route with minimal work. If so, shows some good planning to avoid issues, such as with the Birmingham route where stock like the 390s are now available but cannot appear without a whole new timetable being created.
I think they've learned from their mistakes by doing this. Almost every timetable now has the appropriate layers filled in, awaiting a possible time when the stock that ran that layer becomes available.
The thing is - if there is a shift towards these much shorter routes, TSW routes haven’t really been that long anyway, what would we do with a c67 or 197? We would need a Cardiff Central - Shrewsbury route to make the MK4 trains even remotely suitable, who would want Cardiff-Hereford for instance? SWC in TSW maybe? Swansea - Bristol? That would make the 197s (and a GWR 800) at least viable. Swansea-Cardiff feels more in scope, though. At least, considering the route lengths we’ve been getting.
Just curious to see what the price is going to be for a 137km route with 1 new train. As its about the same size as a DTG route. And how many months have they been working on this route? If its more expensive than a DTG route I'll be disappointed.
I did look this up but i'm still not sure what the difference is between the br 153/3 and the br 153/9 is.Is it the size/seat configuration/rest room options cab controls/door placement or what?
The main difference between the 153/3 and 153/9 is that the 153/3 is PRM compliant and the 153/9 isn't. PRM (Persons of Reduced Mobility) compliant units have a wheelchair accessible lavatory and have designated areas for 2 wheelchairs rather than just 1.
What's really weird is the game has working elevators and handicap onboard restrooms but i haven't seen a single wheelchair user in the entire game yet.Thou there have been more then a few AI passengers who look and act disabled but i chalk this up to there programming more then any preseved disability.
Yeah by now every single customer who is also active in the forums knows by now, that this "learning curve" LOVE was just a bad joke. The release of these unfinished dlcs lately is fully intentional by skipping the polish and go lazy with the timetable. Many aspects of the dlcs dont even come up to minimum standards we had years back. Im totally fine with skipping dlc after dlc. My last day one was mbta boston, which impressed me by the visit of their workshop when dtg collected the sources.
While my opinion is tainted by my lack of interest in a tiny network around a city I have no interest in visiting and have a preference for electric networks, it just looks so dull as well as badly made. I'll get it for the 153 once the route is on sale for less than £20 and there's a layer for that unit on another DLC like the East Midlands network or if there's a longer mainline route in Wales that it layers into.
Watching part of the second DadRail stream (the two hour plus one) this morning completely reaffirmed my stance, too. Every time he called up the route map, it is just tiny, tiny, tiny. There is no meat to it whatsoever. I don’t know who makes the final call on pricing, whether it’s the EP, someone else or a collective decision but no way on this planet does the value come anywhere near £30. If nothing else, I can see even the variety of short runs on offer getting monotonous and boring after a couple of times over each section.
Very good! I was going to complain that the thread was getting a bit off topic with all the SimRail talk but I’m glad it didn’t stop now.
What I don't understand is why the 150 and 153 don't layer into other UK routes as they have been used the length and breadth of Britain. If licensing is a problem they could be included in a generic Regional Railways style livery or the plain white livery seen when units get debranded. DTG need to add more value to the DLC by making existing assets useable in other timetables. They do this much more for German routes.
