Okay. So yeah, there's already a C39-8 for Train Simulator Classic in Norfolk Southern and Conrail livery, just like there's already a C30-7 for Train Simulator Classic in CSX Livery. But there isn't a Conrail or Norfolk Southern C30-7 is there? Nope. Obviously, it was quite rare to see a C39-8 in any other livery but Norfolk Southern 99.9% of the time. There were also C39-8Es which were enhanced versions of the C39-8, but only two of those remain. They probably weren't any better. However, they were deemed successful and seemed to be very reliable for the most part being the first locomotive to support or feature the very first ever high tech microprocessor technology that would have made most PCs in the 1980s look slow and incompetent... That is until crews found out that these very interesting and cool locomotives were never built to last long. Yes that's right people! These locomotives were the locomotive equivalent to a yard slug, except they had cabs, and could be operated, if you were used to operating a locomotive with the long hood being the front and the short hood being the back. Most locomotives had three directions: Forward Neutral Backward The C39-8 operated in a way similar to the SD40-2 Long Hood Forward locomotive; The Long Hood was the front, and the short hood was the back. Only, the cab didn't appear to look that way if you were a newbie engineer. If you entered this locomotive, I guarantee you that you would think you were in a traditional locomotive where the low nose was the front of the locomotive, and the high nose was the back of the locomotive. Well, Norfolk Southern seems to have this kind of design as a tradition to their railroad where the short hood is the back and the long hood is the front. So they commonly have EMD and GE reverse traditional locomotive designs for them. Yup, I don't blame anyone of you for thinking operating a C39-8 was like operating any other locomotive. So here's where get into the negative aspects of the locomotive. Now you see, the locomotive wasn't all that in a bag full of chips. It may have been the biggest chip in the bag, but it had far too many problems to be picked out of the bag first. In fact, many of the C39-8s had the same problems. Let's take a look at what dastardly pranks this locomotive pulled on its crews. Firstly, most of the Dash 8s were very problematic according to many NS crews. The C39-8 struggled with a freaking list of problems. Not that big of a list, but still quite impressive for such a unique diesel electric locomotive that you wouldn't just randomly stumble upon anywhere else in the world. For starters, the locomotive was more or less a "rough ride". My guess is the locomotives' cabs had a tendency to rock, rattle and roll down the lines in ways that many conductors and engineers found very unbearable, uncomfortable, and just downright ridiculous. Let's also not forget that the Cab views were not pleasant, as if you look from the main windows, the actual cab view seemed to be much lower to the ground like with the GP60M. Then there was the tendency for Dash 8s to overheat. While locomotive some locomotive designs were near grade A science in the 1980s, the dash 8 felt more like a waste of horsepower and potential to many engineers who had the unfortunate task of operating them, though there were some that called these beasts railroading legends. Then there were turbocharger issues. (E.g., turbochargers catching fire and melting the paint). Good God, despite not being an engineer, I can't even imagine what those poor crews went through with this fault. I don't exactly know how C39-8s actually worked aside from what the dlc displayed and simulated, and some small details I might have seen on YouTube, but I can already tell that these locomotives were a sharp bite in the ass to anyone unfortunate enough to have to operate them. The turbocharger and Prime Mover often experienced "teething" issues as well. Thankfully, these issues were mostly resolved with revised C39-8 designs, until the C39-8E came out which had most, if not all, of the problems resolved. Thankfully, VRC left most of these issues out of their pro range locomotives though it would have been cool to have a feature, where allowing these faults to occur at random, as long as it was optional and could be turned off or disabled at any time.
Sadly, with VRC gone from TSC for awhile now, I don't see anything being done with their content ever.
Some people been wanting them to come back, especially since their old U28CG they released years ago is better than DTMs one that came with the ATSF pack.
I know. I watched Schnauzahpowahz's review on the ATSF pack. I honestly like the lights on the F3s, but the U28CG is literally the most inaccurate locomotive in the dlc. Here's a real one for reference: That's a real ATSF U28CG. The sounds are also inaccurate. In real life, their engines were very noisy even when starting and shutting down. This locomotive doesn't appear to be noisy AT ALL. I wish the dlc model really was that loud, but the locomotive most likely lacks a start up and shut down feature.
Also, I don't doubt people wanted the C39-8 back. It's really unique, especially to NS, and makes it even more unique since a few went to CSX. In fact, there are a few Dash 8s that still live.
