I've been keeping hold of these images for a while now, but I now I want to finally show you them as I feel like this is something that needs to be brought up. So for those who don't know, in a recent update, Schnellfahrstrecke Köln-Aachen's base timetable had some static stock placed in the various yards/depot dotted along the route, using content from the base route, and the likes of Main-Spessart Bahn, the DB BR 363 & the DB BR 101. Now this sounds like that DTG took the static stock from the expanded timetable that came with the New Journey's Expansion Pack and took them over to the base timetable. But as you're about to find out, this is not the case at all. To prove this, I have selected the main three areas that have received static stock and put a side by side shot to show the differences in the amount of static stock between the two timetables Aachen Depot So starting with the depot at Aachen, you can see that there is very little difference between the two timetables here. The only main difference is that the New Journeys timetable has a BR 425 stored there. But I'm not too fussed about it not being in the base timetable, as they look pretty similar anyways. Base Timetable New Journey's Timetable Aachen-Rothe Erde Gbf Moving to that yard located just east of Aachen-Rothe Erde, you can see that, like with Aachen depot, there is little difference between the two timetables. With the exception of the BR 425 in the New Journeys timetable. But again, this is something that I can live with. Base Timetable New Journey's Timetable Köln Depot But when we get to this part of the route, this is where the differences become apparent, and it is quite striking. I've put a bunch of comparison images down below as there is quite a lot of go through as this big depot. Base Timetable 1 New Journey's Timetable 1 Base Timetable 2 New Journey's Timetable 2 Base Timetable 3 New Journey's Timetable 3 So as you can see, a big difference in a amount of static stock located around here. The New Journey's timetable gives a lot more life to this area, whereas the base timetable makes a half-hearted attempt of trying to recreate what was created on that timetable and ends in the area looking rather sad. Plus, I just think that on the base timetable, the one or two IC coaches dotted around the depot here is honestly rather pathetic compared to the vast amount of them in the New Journey's Timetable as well as the ICE consist that is present on that timetable, but missing on the base timetable. I don't know why this ended up happening and would like to know why there is this big difference between these two timetables to begin with. Part of me wants to say that there needs to be more static stock located around here and it's need to look more like what it looks like on the New Journey's Timetable. But I also believe this opens a discussion on 'What on that timetable, should be on the base timetable as well' which I think is something for you to decide on that one.
The gap between new and old routes static and rolling stock is becoming more prevalent. The worlds slowly becoming more alive but the older routes are dropping behind now
Now when I first made this thread, and compared the amount of static stock between the base & the New Journey's timetables, it was mainly to point out the fact that Koln depot had been done dirty with the amount of static stock that had been placed in the base timetable, as it just looked plain sad with just the odd loco/coach thrown about compared to how the New Journey's timetable laid out it's static stock. I am now returning because, when I recently returned to this route, something had changed regarding this area. I don't know when this happened (it might have been the one that came with Spirit of Steam), but a recent update seems to have boosted the amount of static stock around Koln Depot on the base timetable. Down below is how this area looks now, with before and after shots to show how the area looked like before this supposed update happened. Base Timetable Before 1 Base Timetable After 1 Base Timetable Before 2 Base Timetable After 2 Base Timetable Before 3 Base Timetable After 3 Again, this is not the New Journey's timetable your seeing, this is what Koln Depot currently looks like if you have the base timetable (granted if you have the BR 101 to make up all this static stock). But I have to say, even if this area doesn't quite look the same as it's New Journey's counterpart (there are things like the static ICE 3 that could have also been put on this timetable here) but it's certainly an improvement ove just have one or two IC coaches dotted around the place here, like it was before this update happened.
It's interesting that the original base timetable only threw in a couple of IC coaches, all of them individual and scattered around. I was going to make a theory that related this to the Oakville Subdivision, but I realized it may have been a bit silly. I'll still explain what my theory was though. Basically, on scenarios for the Oakville Subdivision, you'll find freight yards filled with plenty of freight rolling stock. But when you actually look at those yards in the map, you'll find that only a few scattered individual cars are actually real. I assume those are there to help add a bunch of fake freight cars coupled up to them. Since the pre-update base timetable only had one IC coach by itself a few times, I theorized that perhaps they tried to do the Oakville strategy here. I was ready to point this out before remembering that this strategy doesn't well as well with passenger coaches, since you can look at the windows and immediately know that they're fake. The Long Island Railroad actually uses fake Amfleets in a couple scenarios, and while I can't check to see how good they look (I don't have LIRR downloaded), I'm sure they don't look the most realistic. So putting fake IC coaches in the timetable mode where players are encouraged to walk around and explore probably was seen as a bad idea.
