Hi all. As a little background, i love modern-era UK routes and own almost all modern routes and DLCS. However, i have yet to enter the historical sides of things, and thought a great route to start off with would be Blackpool Branches as i’ve heard nothing but great things about it. That being said, should i pick this up? How do historical routes differ from modern era? (E.g safety systems, locomotive operations?) in terms of layers, i personally own both Northern Trans-Pennine and spirit of steam. I would like to experience semi-full timetables before deciding if i should move forward with historical routes or not. I Know TVL, BR Heavy Freight Pack, BR Class 20, and the BR Class 31 are layers but not sure which ones would benefit the route most. If you could buy 1 or 2 DLCS that go along with BPB, what would they be? Sorry if there are mistakes in there, i am quite tired after work I much appreciate your feedback and hope you all have a great day!
definitely one to pick up, it recently got a mini remaster and if i was stumbling into it for the first time i’d think it was a recent release. for me it’s probably the best BR route i own, preston carlisle is nice but doesn’t offer the variety that blackpool has. safety systems- pretty much more of the same, aws and dsd function in exactly the same way. there’s also some semaphores throughout the route but they’re easy to grasp and there’s plenty of documentation and guides on these. any of the freight locos will also make a difference, but they’re not a necessity. the 87 and 86 also layer in as ai but this is only for a short section so it doesn’t make the biggest difference.
Blackpool Branches comes with quite a lot out of the box (142, 47/4 and Class 08) so you'll get a good amount of content already. Tees Valley Line will give you Class 101s to drive on the route that basically do all the same things the pacer does, the Class 37 and the PCA and HEA wagons so I'd say TVL offers the most. Since you own NTP you'll be able to drive the 45 on express runs and the 8F from Spirit of Steam is a rail tour.
heavy freight give you some freight wagons that i think layer into some of the freight services and the class 40 which like the class 20 (which gives you a rail tour service) you could get away with out as they are not strictly prototypical for the year its set. safety systems there isn't any, other than signals, except round preston where you have aws and is much like NTP where you have to watch the signals. however due to its length its a much easier route to learn with out them compared with NTP.
I'd add that the 20s (for which you also need TVL) give an interesting rail tour which visits various 'nooks & crannies ' all around the route.
