Just Trains - Blackpool - Preston - Ormskirk Official Thread

Based on past releases I would reckon very little chance of DTG releasing any more 1st Gen DMUs. Its modern or steam only. The 101 is whilst not a regular at Blackpool certainly visited plenty of times. The 142 is the core unit anyhow so wouldn't the 101 appear less?

 

I have seen plenty of 101s in that area through the 80s, apart from the 40 the roster is pretty accurate.

 

I am just glad we are getting another 80's route and one that I am sure will be built with passion and detail. It will be interesting to drive, due to the variety you will not always know what is going to be heading the next train, I was hoping we would be in a similar position with other routes like SOS.

I am glad we are getting a new train to drive on it too, I wouldn't have expected more than one. I never saw the Pacers (only Sprinters) in their original form so it will be interesting to drive it.

If the route sells well then there is more incentive to have DLC created for it.

 

This is the key - Make it feel vibrant. One of the biggest things we want is for people to stand at say Salwick, trainspotting/photographing and look at the map, see a train coming, and think "I wonder what's pulling that", rather than "Oh that's another 47, that's another 47, that's another 47" etc. Obviously that requires people to own the layers to get that variety, but we wanted to also make use of what people had invested (including ourselves!!) in over the years, within the realms of feasible possibility. The 40s are the stretch (though personally as a stretch of less than 24 months, I don't see it as that in all honesty), you won't have anything daft like the RF 20 turning up on an ADEX from Glasgow!

 

It's a day 1 for me but slightly annoyed I have to buy TS4 to get it to work. Hopefully a sale for that between now and Blackpool release date. This one needs the support to show it can sell that era as the last releases for BR days were years ago and a lot more have purchased since. This thread alone is quite a hot one.

 

That's what roped me in to TSW at the start. Not all of us want to drive for 3 hours after a day's work. Its nice to fire up the PC grab a beverage and chill watching the trains go by. NTP should have been just that at Man Vic but instead it's like a scene from 28 days later.

Good to see the JT team have an idea of what many of us will appreciate.

 

What year is it actually set in? If memory serves I'm sure all the 40s had gone by the end of 1986 and all the Peaks by 1998.

 

Unfortunately you can't really compare one game with another in terms of development complexity. You could essentially create a new map in the origional Doom in Notepad. By the time Doom Enternal came along, you needed much more complex tools and knowledge. It's just the evolution of Games Development I'm afraid, not a deficiency on the part of TSW or DGT.

 

The scenery is built in 1986 - we've done it pretty much spot on wherever possible for this.

The timetable uses the 1986 WTT, with extras from that year plus some from the years prior, it's probably looking forward from 1986 by 3 years in terms of feasibility with the 31 the addition coming from the couple of years post 1986. I've previously posted in this thread ref the 40, I think on page one so I'd refer to that for the reasoning. The Peak is on the same lines, though they weren't an everyday site they did turn up in the 80s on a semi regular basis, 1986 included.

 

Well as you say if routes like this aren't supported we won't see many more of them. DTG have stated BR blue doesn't sell, I find that statement a little hard to believe in totallity as the BR period is oft mentioned on these forums., us enthusiasts of the period need to prove them wrong if we want to see more of it. TSC hasn't garnered many routes from the period and I can't see any appearing in Simrail.

 

Spot on Mark. Please disregard the nit pickers. I for one fully appreciate what you have done to please classic traction fans. The 31, 40 and 45 are probably still amongst the best locos in the game. The Class 31 has needed layering elsewhere for sometime and the Class 40 has been crying out for more use, largely ignored aside from when it puts in an appearance on NTP.

 

Without sitting here and screaming BUY OUR ROUTE and doing some cringeworthy begging what I can say for certain is the BR era is what we have our eye on for future content too, so if it sells then it will be investing in the future. We're quietly confident that there is a market out there for BR stuff, but it has to try and appeal to multiple demographics (hence the 142) and attract the current/2010s generation, who then may take further delves in the future into our content.

 

As an American with an interest in the UK railway I haven't seen much of interest in the last few months. Routes like BCC and Glossop , even though I eventually added them to my collection, are quickly gathering dust in the closet.
This upcoming JT route was going to be a pass or maybe a sale purchase until I saw the rolling stock. With all the Diesel traction plus the '80's setting, the route becomes much more attractive. Day one purchase for me.

 

One of the reasons NTP is one of my favourite routes as the loco hauled services and freights can produce any of the locos (40s/45s/47s) at any time and with the game spawning in liveries I've downloaded it's fantastic and I can't wait to see it replicated on this route as well

 

Fantastic to hear.

Lancaster to Barrow or North Wales Coast next!!

 

The Class 40s were all withdrawn as of January 1985.

 

I am sure you are right, and I think the route will sell itself. It has been much anticipated since it was announced JT were building a route.

 

Would you consider doing something from the Network South East era?
I'll admit I'm more of a modern day fan myself but I just love the Nse colour scheme.

Blackpool - Preston - Ormskirk is looking great btw, really looking forward to playing it.

 

There's nothing that stops us doing that era or area, it's not something we've looked at but sure, we'd consider it, it all bares on building a business plan around something.

 

Apart from D200 (40122).

 

Fantastic to hear that the plan is to stick to the BR era, Mark. There are (and always will be) lots of modern routes out there from other developers, and it’s natural that the younger age group tend to be attracted first by trains they’ve experienced themselves in real life. But the BR era has trains which are so much more interesting and challenging to drive, I really hope that some of those young people will develop an interest in them. Even if many don’t, there are plenty of us who are old enough to remember these locos and ‘modernisation plan DMUs’ in real life who will always appreciate routes from the BR era.

Also, please don’t shy away from a bit of artistic licence to get a good variety of stock into the routes. It’s always better to have that than to have an empty route, or a route where every train is the same. If the strictly correct stock becomes available later, it can always be substituted.

As for sales - don’t worry, I intend to buy this route several times…

 

Tom and Mark, would be interested in how you've found working with the Unreal Editor and how long it took you to become up to speed with it? I'm currently having a play around with 4.26, creating a world for practice - good fun, but a lot of new stuff going on for me, such as setting up materials etc. Good when it all works, but lots of stumbling blocks which needed a bit of googleing to solve.

Looking forward to more progress shots.

 

It's a shame I can't hit the like button more than once. Screenshots look utterly fantastic, there's signs of grunge, clutter, decay and dereliction around some of these stations. With this atmosphere we could recreate a railscene cab ride with dodgy VHS effects (without Jeremy English's wibble - may he RIP). Cannot wait, well done guys!

 

They do look fantastic, a fantastic level of detail.

I was only sorting out my collection of Railscene cabrides yesterday, I hadn't realised he had passed away, a voice I can clearly remember from my childhood, very sad to hear.

 

D200 and the 97s went on past this date. D200 certainly got everywhere up until its withdrawal in 1988.

 

He passed in 2021 aged 74 - I think it was OldVern who told me.

 

Ah thanks, I might watch one of his videos tonight, it has made me feel nostalgic!

 

True, but it wasn't in revenue service.

 

Personally I think a bit of "modellers licence" is fine, the class 40 is a great model and we are only talking a year or so. We aren't talking WCL levels of fantasy.

 

Yes I can’t remember who told me he died. Some of his “wibble” was legendary though and amazed some of the train crew or Traction Inspectors didn’t tell him to settle down (or kick him out!).

There is also the unedited “Fbomb” on the Paddington to Bristol TM cab ride, where they are waiting outside Reading. Driver returns to the cab after speaking to the signaller and says, “Waiting platform, I could have built a naughty-word platform.”

 

Haha yes I remember it and a couple of funny jokes about Bristol signalling area. "What does Bristol signalling area have in common with a game of snooker, you have to get a red before you get a colour!" I wonder if that same kind of humour is on todays rather sanitised railways? I imagine many of these colleagues had worked together since the days of steam.

He (Jeremy English) did get quite exciteable I remember. Some of the traction inspectors and others who travelled with him on the trains were very interesting to listen to.

 

It worked plenty of timetabled trains passenger and freight, mainly an S and C turn passenger wise but certainly not all Specials.

 

Couldn't agree with this more. JT should not be punished for taking time and care on their route, with accusations like this. They are not in charge of the life cycle of the game, and isn't not rushing things what we asked for. The route looks stunning from these initial photos, and despite not liking the pacers IRL I can't wait for them in game

 

Yeah exactly


I'm fine with the upgrade as JT is clearing showing as much care and passion as TSG (which is arguesbly the highest complement you can get). Which shows massive upgrades from things like Metropoliton and Western main lines from TSC. So I don't mind the game upgrade. Honestly I'd be happy to grab it for even another 10 quid. (Please don't raise the price by 10 quid though its just a massive complement haha)

So yeah those complaints are arguably people who don't understand JT's pure passion.

 

I own some of the stuff, that layers in ... but not all. So I might just pick up the rest in a sale.

 

This week has been the best week in TSW for a long time. This is really good news and cannot wait to see what BR stuff you have in mind next, Skeggie may be a good contrast to Blackpool!

 

Cumbrian Coast Line yes please

 

I loved the stuff he'd talk about, one of my favourites was the Manchester Victoria-Barrow cabride on a 31. He was like a kid in a sweetshop

 

I must get mine down from the loft at some point and I can still hear the voice in the back of my head too, a shame he has passed.

 

This is a random question but is there any chance it might be part of a DLC bundle of any kind.

I understand if not or if no one knows but a BR bundle would be nice for those like me with no addons of br but again i don't really care and this isn't a suggestion either just a question

 

Looking forward to this route, it would be nice if we had better passenger models though - Blackpool was full of stag and hen parties in the 1980's, would be fun to see them on the route.

Pa*ers are so horrible even CNN wrote an article about them:

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/pacer-trains-uk/index.html

 

Now hang on…if this is going to become a thread of suggestions for JT’s next route, I’ve got about a million…but I’ve held off as this thread’s about Blackpool-Preston-Ormskirk. I’ve tried to stay disciplined, but it’s been killing me. Perhaps we need a separate thread?

 

I'd presumed JT would make there own Forum like rivet if that happened

 

Afraid I can't answer that, as the stock outside of our route isn't ours to bundle, it'd have to be a deeper conversation between people far more qualified than myself at JT, and DTG!

 

You're welcome to start a thread with suggestions, though we've already got basic plans in place for the next project, however we can always gauge what the community wants in future......

 

Maybe so but on this occasion, at least it's more prototypical than a class 40 leaving Penzance lol..

 

Will the Pacer Sub onto TVL?

 

Not at release (and not under our control), but we'd certainly not be averse to that happening, you'd have to ask DTG I think on that one.

 

Oh alright thank you anyway.

 

Personally I prefer it now over TS Classic to build on, i still do dabble on TSC however but not as much as i used to do..
It does take time to get to speed / understand it all which is a given. However once you know them core basic tools to get going everything else comes after.

I mean we are still learning now as we go along everyday. There are aspects that some people know better than others in our team which is great as we all help each other along the way. But it is a very satisfying and powerful tool to get to know, great things can be achieved once you get your head into it.

I aim along with mark in our spare time to host a load of tutorial videos over on our Train Sim TV Youtube channel too to show some basic tips

Cheers, Tom