The class 166 is an absolute peach to drive. It looks and sound really good and drives so so well compared to that rust bucket scrap job rivet have created. The braking is especially nice, Not overpowered so you don’t grind to a sudden stop in brake step 1. Lovely unit to drive. That and the HST 2+4 are my favourites in the game. By far.
I gave in and bought WCL in the last sale and have done the first two or three Journey scenarios but not touched it since. It looks like a 150/2, no doubting that but the physics are still odd... Now instead of accelerating like a Ferrari they nerfed it so that climbing out of Truro towards Chacewater I couldn't even reach transition speed of 45 MPH. And it still sounds nothing like a 150 at all in terms of the engine audio. There's also a weird effect with the brake rub which seems to run on long after you release the brakes and the gauge is showing zero. However I suspect Rivet have now abandoned this as surely as DTG seem to have abandoned any of their TSW products more than three months old.
The 150 wasn't great on initial release but I still used it on both WCL and NTP (GMPTE livery) driving from Stalybridge to Victoria, however since their update a while back, it sounded bloody worse than before, I just don't bother with it anymore, just as static AI in NTP.
Rivet said they were working on fixing the 150 but that was a few months ago already lol. Since they are working on a new uk route, they might be focusing on that and the 150 gets updated later next year
There is quite a good patch for the class 150 on the train sim developers site. It still isn't up to the TSC AP version but it makes it much more acceptable. I can't stand those layers on the route though, they are more immersion breaking than the class 150, I have actually uninstalled NTP so they don't show up. I was told some time ago there was talk of DTG looking into layers so they are selectable but I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere. I wouldn't mind, for example the class 101 on the St. Ives branch but with none of the others. The route I think is nicely done even if it seems to be more of an artists view than what is actually there.
I tried the sound mod but found it made the track joint and points noise a bit too clunky, so took it off.
