Engineering Express Discussion Thread

Engineering Express

You’ll be able to explore more gameplay on the ScotRail Express route, from engineering movements to daring drags, you’ll find 5 additional scenarios, an additional timetable across Edinburgh-Glasgow and two 2 new liveries for the Class 66, namely the:

• 
  
  
  • Ocean Network Express (ONE) Magenta
  • Direct Rail Services (DRS) Blue.

..and it will feature a new emergency adapter coupler for the Class 66 to drag Class 385 EMUs. You will also be able to pick up the YGB Seacow wagon in both painted blue and unpainted grey liveries.
Both of these new gameplay packs will be available on all platforms from November 21st, and we'll be providing some more information in the coming weeks in the build-up to their release. They will each be priced at £9.99*/€11.99/$14.99.



Featured Stock:
Direct Rail Services Class 66
Freightliner ONE Class 66 66587 "As one we can"
Ex-Mainline YGB Seacow
Debranded YGB Seacow

 

Can someone explain the obsession with the class 66 by these developers? I'm pretty sure there are more freight trains in the UK than the Class 66 so wouldn't it be better to just make different freight trains than re-skinning class 66 for the 100,000th time?

Also shouldn't Rivet try to focus on improving the sounds of the Class 385 before selling a reskin of an existing train that most players already have. Also this should've been free for players that have Edinburgh Glasgow. But hey money talks in the end

 

Licensing could be an explanation for the modern content or the choice of routes is where the 66 mainly runs. If you go br blue, then it's probably easier to make freight locos. Now we know drs and one are a part of tsw so we might start seeing more variation.

 

Either they would have to do era inappropriate stock for modern routes like the class 40 or the only modern ish British loco the class 66

otherwise it would have to be a loco addon not gameplay pack, as much as I would prefer a loco tbh, and a modern or modern ish U.K. freight is quite a high up want for me personally.

 

I mean perhaps but there are other freight trains besides a class 66. It's not unreasonable to have more than 1 british freight train in game by now

 

I'm just glad that the 66 can finally come out of its EWS livery. It's a start I guess. Perhaps soon we can see more operators like GBrf or Freightliner.

Maybe we can soon get the Class 88, or the Class 67, or the Class 70, or (when it comes out in real life) a Class 99!

However, I very rarely see any of the locomotives I just listed. Whenever I see a freight train - it's always pulled by a Class 66 (or something that looks like a 66).

I don't go out looking for trains. I should do that one day.

 

I agree, the ONE livery looked nice but I don’t own Edinburgh Glasgow, and as far as I’m aware it’s not a freight focused route, so a bit strange to have a freight focused pack for such route.

£10 is quite steep to get the 2 liveries only, so will give it a pass.

 

I am so sick of the class 66 lol.

 

I enjoy it but yea TSW needs another modern freight loco for U.K. routes

 

Agreed. We need a Class 70 or maybe a 60 or even 56.

Just another cash grab, I'm afraid, from the low hanging fruit.

 

I own like 8 copies of it as this point, it's a pain going through the selection list. The only one I actually like is the "new" ecml one with the worn livery.

 

I think I favour the East Coastway or SEHS as the GWE you can’t switch to goods brakes

I usually only see 3 in my selection lists, though I don’t select services by train but by route.

 

Also notice the "You will also be able to pick up the YGB Seacow wagon in both painted blue and unpainted grey liveries". Aren't Seacows not even in use anymore? And why so unspecific with what liveries it'll be in??? "Painted Blue" = Ex mainline perhaps?

Edit: i was right

 

Would be nice to get a 56 or 58 at some point.

 

Class 67 or Class 90 I favour quite highly.

 

It were a good idea on the surface for a bit of extra gameplay for the route and some new liveries for the 66/ Seacows but for ten quid that is steep and almost the price of a much needed loco dlc (56 or 60 for me please) If it were going for a fiver I may have considered it but there are so many better things I could spend that ten quid on and get more enjoyment out of.

 

I also feel its a little much for what it's offering. For £10 I feel like we should have a good handful of services, some good scenarios (Basically a loco dlc). I also have to echo how the 66 is done to death. Plus I worry about the quality as it is a rivet product and they don't have a great history with following their content up. The route itself is still waiting for fixes I believe too.

 

yea £10 is steep for what’s on offer, it’s only about £3 off a total new loco + 5 scenarios and whatever livery/s it would come with.

£10 compared to that says it’s £3 for an entire loco

edit: you can see DTG offered the same things for £5 when it comes to ICE 1 & ICE 3 pack.

 

Another cash grab I won't be getting it I think alot of us are growing tired of constantly using the 66 it's time to bring new freight locos to the game you can make these on livery editor for free so alot will probably do that

 

If you’re new to TSW4. This will be a useful pack. If you want more life on Edn GLa its a good pack. I just hope Rivet do a good job of it.

 

Indeed. Where has the innovation that brought us the Class 20 and Class 31 for TVL, or the 40 and HFP for NTP gone? Buried in a sea of mediocrity it seems with reskins for the 66 or another one handled MU. (Honourable exception for the JT 142 though even that is losing its lustre a bit with the news that the TL11 sounds are fudged and not all they can be).

 

I do hope in the future we get a different type of modern UK freight diesel instead of yet another class 66, I'd personally love a class 68, however there are changes to the 66 in this pack that can't be done in livery designer, the different cab side windows being the most obvious.

 

Nice to get some new official liveries and different things to do on that route (which is one I enjoy) but fairly sure there’s little to no freight on that route IRL so seems an odd choice.

 

Had they included the line via Falkirk Grahamston and the nearby Grangemouth complex, there would be much more justification for a freight pack on this route. Not exactly sure what it will add to the timetable, as like others have pointed out, the majority of freight in this area doesn't run on the line represented (instead running south to the WCML via Cumbernauld and Motherwell). The additional liveries are welcome, but they should really have been featured in a new route like Doncaster to Peterborough, instead of us getting another EWS livery for the fourth or fifth time.

Also why does this pack need an additional timetable, can't these services just layer onto the existing timetable?

 

You read my mind I was just writing the same lol
Rivet seems to always do the least. Just as they did with Edinburgh-Glasgow which could had included the Grangemouth Intermodal terminal for freight and the Grahamston branch which is just two more stations Falkirk Grahamston, Camelon stations.

 

Maybe the new timetable will fix the issues in the existing one with services past midnight? And include the Class 801 layered in?

 

It is possible though lol, so that's just not true. Maybe they meant it's not possible to add it to an existing timetable? You can certainly do it on a new one.

 

These two pics were posted on the Rivet games forum showcasing the DRS 66 and the new seacow variants

 

Personally I'll be too busy playing Blackpool Branches to care about this pointless pack

 

well, Rivet already has shown us in their screenshots, that they have not represented the changes on those Class 66 irl.
(Buckeye, lights, EWS poster in the cab, 3rd-door, ...)

 

What sounds will they use, the existing AP sounds or will they attempt their own recordings?

 

100% not going to do their own recordings. At least I hope not. Audio is always rivets worst aspect, along with train physics.
Which is a shame, as their scenery building is really good.

 

Their scenery and models are great, the '38 stock is a beautiful train, but it's sounds were off for so long.

 

If the ap sounds already exist on the 66 by standard, they wouldn't need to remake the sound.

 

Personally I don't mind having this pack, it's good we finally have a livery on the 66 that isn't EWS (or it's replacement).

EDN in it's current state isn't the route for it, though. It's a fully passenger route with zero freight opportunities. The lack of Grangemouth makes it pretty useless.

If it were £5 or £6 - closer to the ROG or RHTT I wouldn't mind picking it up. But £10 for what it offers is far too steep.

"Selling 5 copies at £5 would be better than 2 copies at £10", etc.

 

The key question is what "an additional timetable across Edinburgh-Glasgow" means...

 

I'll preface this by saying that I am glad we finally get a Class 66 that isn't in EWS livery, and I will get this as I am more or less committed to owning every piece of UK content. Plus I am very rarely the type to complain on these forums about content that we get, I hand in bug or crash reports and leave it at that, I don't often vocalise opinions on what's good and what isn't. That being said, let's break this pack down for a second.

What we have is two new liveries for the Class 66 and two new liveries for the Seacow. Both of these are already in the game, so this is a pack of effectively four retextures. In other words, this offers nothing you couldn't already get through livery designer. This offers even less than DLoGW, and only just as much as WCS.

With the DRS license acquired, at the very least Rivet could have made it a Class 66 with the modified cab controls. It's hard to find images of them, I know at the very least Evening Star has them but not sure about any others:


Alternatively there's the cab installed on the EMD Euro Class 66s


I know I may be grasping at straws here and I know that quite possibly neither of those cabs would actually fit with the liveries we are getting. I just really want there to be something, anything that will make these Class 66s in any way unique from the six other ones we currently have, and I mean unique in a way that livery designer can't pull off. I think more down to earth than those cabs, at the very least I would just be happy with them featuring the updated frontage, that is with reshaped headlights and no buckeye coupler.


But then again, for all my hopes and dreams...



At the very least neither one of these should have the buckeye couplers and this could still be changed as they are still in development, but this is Rivet so I won't hold my breath. As it currently stands, this boils down to paying money for four livery designer jobs and a couple new scenarios. As for timetable mode, the last time Rivet released a reskin pack like this it only contained three new services for WCL and three new services for EDN, two of which didn't even use the new Jubilees from the addon. It was one of if not the most underwhelming timetable additions in the game's history.

At least that pack did give us a Jubilee with new features though, having AWS and the shinier bodywork which is appealing for some livery designer jobs. This pack doesn't look to be giving us even that much. The only thing I can say about it that is an actual improvement over WCS is that at least this time it doesn't look like the livery is spilling over the lines like a 5 year old's colouring book. So hats off to Rivet for that

With the DRS license, they could have at the very least thought about making something else from their fleet, perhaps they could have given us a modern day Class 37. Imagine a timetable service where you get to pull containers with a double headed 37 like those of many years gone by. I would say that the DRS license could also allow us to get a Class 68 in (imo) the best livery that unit has ever worn, but also given Rivet's track record I don't actually want them to go anywhere near that unit, and I am desperate for a 68.

As a final note, at the moment the Seacow wagons have brakes that apply way too sharply. Applying merely initial braking with even one of them attached to your train slows you down like you instantly jumped to full application, something which is almost impossible to accurately control with the Class 66's braking control. Again, this is Rivet so I have little hope of this being rectified and I fully expect these new Seacows to release in exactly the same state as the WCL ones.

 

Don’t get the point in this at all outwith a quick money maker. Genuinely haven’t seen freight on this line in many years. Not saying it never happens but this line tends to be kept for the express services with the other central belt lines seeing most freight services.

Either way, failure to resolve the long time outstanding issues on the base route, means I won’t be purchasing any further Rivet items anyway.

 

If you're after a modern freight loco then it's a 66, 68 or 70. Nothing else is about in large numbers as a fleet and on regular workings, the 60 has been barely surviving for the past 15 years or so.

 

I mean really they should have taken it to Dunblane and alloa, giving much more variety.

 

I hate to be pessimistic but I think it will be more class 66 services for this pack and maybe lock the 801 layer behind this pack.

 

The key thing about this pack is that it's not freight workings, it's engineering works. It's akin to the previous use of the Seacow wagons on WCL. They could of course have freight layers be enabled as a part of this, but it's not the main point of the pack.

I did also notice that practically in a footnote, it's mentioned that this pack will also feature coupling adaptors for the Class 66 so that it can tow 385s, the same as the ROG Class 37/7 can with Electrostars. So my guess is that this pack's new services will be engineering works and towing of failed 385 units, and perhaps (may just be wishful thinking) an actual proper RHTT movement with DRS as the operator, being that they are the actual people who run the RHTT most of the time and not EWS. Overall thinking realistically and given Rivet's track record, I imagine it will add about ten to fifteen new services using these new 66s, a few scenarios and the ability to use them on all other 66 services on other routes, about the same amount of gameplay as was offered by the ROG 37.

I whole heartedly believe that this is exactly what is going to happen. The biggest critique I had with EDN as well as many others was its bland and unvaried timetable, in which over 90% of all services were 385s. I believe with every fibre of my being that they will resolve this issue, only it will be locked behind this pack.

 

That would be a new timetable, no?

 

yes, or just extended (technically can get classed as new) depends which one they pick.

 

Given that WCL was just extended on the original, I'm hoping this is the same

 

Whilst I don’t have the route, I think that seems better for future considerations and generally their doesn’t seem to be a need stated for a new timetable.

though one could bring in loco set up times which rivet by coming up to route 5 need to adopt. (Should have done from the start of course)

 

Agreed, one of the things I dislike about routes like ECW is that the 313 added an entirely new timetable, which, while nice you can still run the 377 to Seaton, it's kinda annoying.

There is obviously space to fit in these services and the 801 ai from Edinburgh, it's pretty clear, i think. That rivet wanted to wait for this rather that mess around with the timetables twice.

 

Agreed!! It's an absolute shame we are *finally* getting 66s with the liveries of different operators, but the least amount of work is done to represent them. I was already concerned about seeing the buckeye coupler, but it's infuriating to see no modification to the exterior lights!! I would personally not care much for a cab modification, but at least I'd want the liveries to be realistic!! A shame.

 

The DRS livery also has the cab side mirrors, which as far as I am aware, were only ever fitted to the EWS locos.