Best time for the NWC was the 70s - Class 40s, 47s (on passenger & freight), 25s, 1st gen dmus usually 101s - passing loops at most stations, ballast trains, Mk1 coaches, Summer Saturday excursions - Rhyl, Colwyn Bay & Llandudno- what not to like and all under semaphores. Makes me feel old.................. It's a bit like a 2 track long siding now.
In terms of aesthetics it's nicely executed, but operationally there's not a huge amount of variety. Certainly less so than the equivalent South Wales route, and it's probably one of the less interesting routes out of Crewe in the modern era also.
I think it would have been better set in BR Classic era. Although MSTS/OR is long gone off my PC now, one of my favourites used to be North Wales Coast 2. Massive route including Amlwch and Blaenau Ffestiniog, with a huge selection of diesel traction covering most of the daily WTT services along there. Anyhow back OT, now the novelty of TSW5 has dropped off, need to investigate the sale see what TSC goodies are on offer to round out my collection. After this, presumably it will be the November Autumn Steam sale.
That didn't take long !. I bought TSW3 years ago on discount, but didn't play it very often. I have taken advantage of the free upgrade to TSW 5 and bought Blackpool line at half price from JT. The graphics do look good, but game play is still very limited, scenario build is very clunky and not user friendly. Definitely sticking with TSC.
Yes, I find Blackpool Ormskirk route to be dull as dishwater. The introduction area on the taxi rank at Preston is also the worst graphics i've seen in a modern title. Certainly not as good as it is made out to be! Anyway, another sale on TSC is always welcome, as is TSW5 (which is generally excellent imho).
The main appeal of BPO is the classic traction layers, but the scenery (IRL too) is not that inspiring. The forthcoming WCML over Shap should be better.
Having spent so many hours standing at the Preston taxi rank in the real world, waiting for rail replacement coaches, may be that why it was included in TSW! Perhaps it will be possible to use Preston Taxi rank, so then when the route doesnt work in TSW5, you can use the new TSW5 spawn mode (when it works) to link into Bus Simulator and drive a Rail Replacement bus service instead! Will also take a look to see what bargains are available in TSW world. I have a no longer installed copy of TSW4 (picked up in a sale), so presume I can upgrade for free as well. Will take a look over the weekend!!
Sorry probably my fault. No one responds to my questions on the TSW forums, all to busy talking about their play station settings. The TSC forum has much nicer friendlier people anyway, and I promise I will only talk about TSC things in the future.
Aye, word! Couldn't agree more. I mean I still do like the North Wales route, very well designed techically. Good background and grass textures, feels natural. But it would have been so much nicer if set in the BR blue era with semaphores. Maybe they should do a mini-DLC with a 70s version?
It has been done! But only east of Llandudno. https://www.wotawallysbits.net/nwc.html There was talk of going through to Holyhead but I can't see that happening as one of the developers has died. John
Just a little advanced notice for anyone thinking of purchasing TSC products, as the calendar ticks around to October - you may want to consider Black Friday isnt too far away and was particularly good last year in making those valuable TSC £££ stretch a bit further. DTG via Steam / AP / JT / ATS all benefited from my TSC wallet last year!
Before that is the Halloween sale at the end of October 28th to November 4th I noticed last year that the Christmas sale was better than the sale around Black Friday.
30% off the whole catalogue until October 31 https://www.machine-rail.com/post/2024-machine-rail-s-anniversary-offer
GamersGate Train Sim sale Ends 17th Oct 24 01:00 90 TS & TSW DLC 44-75% discount https://uk.gamesplanet.com/games/offers/trainsim
Yes, since Nick passed away I have been concentrating on getting South Lancs & North Cheshire completed based on the track that Nick had already partly completed, I had forgotten that we did not go all the way to Holyhead on NWC BR Blue - Nick did me a big favour by agreeing to pause Slancs and do NWC BR Blue as I have so many personal memories of NWC during the late 70s/early 80s, it took so much longer to complete than we expected and, to be honest, it was more of a complete rebuild rather than a regression...not much of the original route remains other than some of the Station buildings such as Llandudno Junction. Andy
Rivet are doing an "everything must go"; with 75% off all DLCs available on their store (which isn't a huge number) until October 24th; using the code STORECLOSURE https://forums.rivet-games.com/foru...we-re-closing-the-rivet-store-forum#post20436 Fwiw, for £22 I got myself 7 Routes (+1 Extension), 2 Locos and 2 SPs.
I bought 17 DLC for under 100 Euros. I have been waiting for a good chance to get started with Swiss content. Now I got 90% in one go. =) Sadly my case is still pending on Paypal and I have not received any steam keys yet :/
https://rivet-games.com/products/ The code does work and reduces the price. They are using a 3rd party 'Fastspring.com' to make the sale. Pending feedback from Rivet. Looks like this is legit. I have used them before. They are responsive. Respectfully
I just tried getting the RhB Pack 03 which has the ABe 4/4III Railcar and Coop wagons Normally £14.99 - used the discount code and then PayPal and it went thru at £3.74 Received the Steam code within a minute of completing the transaction. Peter
I just bought two TSW routes with Paypal and it was instantaneous, got a little popup after I completed purchase and just copy and pasted the Steam keys from that.
Any TSC recommendations with the Rivet sale? I'm broadening my horizons on any Swiss, German content but have no clue what's worthy of grabbing. As this is slightly OT feel free to DM me if you'd prefer
I bought 17 items... they seem to be struggling with that. I finally got all the e-mails today, but half of them without a steam code in them. I have asked them to check again.
I like the Swiss routes in real life but they are a bit bland in the game. The real Gotthardbahn is great but its a transit route with very little local freight, all block trains TrainworX who used to make Swiss add-ons has stopped - something to do with the SBB License being withdrawn https://www.facebook.com/TrainworX4Trainsimulator/ So you have a Swiss route with limited Swiss stock The RhB narrow gauge routes are very well done but you basically just drive from A to B
Engadine and Surselva are nice and make a change from the somewhat cliched Albula and Bernina lines. The Ge6/6 loco is also quite nice and you actually have to drive it unlike most of the other traction where the power wheel seems to just act as a speed setter.
Just don't post keys. There is bots crawling the net grabbing those keys. Better just let people DM you.
Steam sounds supreme is having a 30% off sale. Quote: 30% Off Most Products | ALL Except VW 1500 Pack Use discount code: sssautumn2024_30 £5 minimum spend
TSRollingStock are having a 30% sale this weekend. Their products are excellent. UK focus, but the IZA Hfirrs wagon may appeal to those with continental interests. Use this link to get the discount. https://ko-fi.com/tsrollingstock/link/AU24
Epic Halloween Sale at Diesel Workshop – 30% OFF This Halloween, we’re turning up the heat with our 30% OFF sale on all locomotives for Train Simulator Classic! These eerie discounts disappear after October 31st. Get 30% OFF before the Halloween magic fades away! https://www.dieselworkshop.net/loja?currency=GBP
Worth noting, for TBT's complete pack, his site has a 50% off sale, so you can get that pack for $25 USD atm.
https://alanthomsonsim.com/product/goldstartrains-multi-purpose-vehicle-mpv/ This pack is the base requirement for all upcoming MPV packs: DR98008, Fire & Rescue Train & OHLE MPV Train. I should also mention that the base MPV pack is getting a free comprehensive cab update in preparation for DR98008 and further MPV models. Upcoming RHTT cab upgrade (free update):
20% off Expert Line locos today only at Virtual Railroads (https://virtual-railroads.de/gb/) and 35% off everything until 3 November at 3D Zug (https://www.3dzug.de/).
Steam revised their sale schedule a year or two ago so the autumn sale now happens at the end of November (Thanksgiving which of course we do not mark here in the UK). In theory it was to even out the periodicity but in practice means you get two sales less than a month apart with the Xmas/New Year one kicking in around 21st December.
Oh I know Pete, just mentioning as an aside that apart from Black Friday we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving like our transatlantic cousins though obviously Steam sales are a global affair. But by moving the “autumn” sale to when most of us are starting to think about getting the Xmas decs out of the loft, they created a rather unequal balance between the summer sale in July and the next one, then one month later.
Why would a US based company care about a tiny little island like the UK? It seems you put more importance on us than the ROTW does, we're not the Great British Empire of the early 20th century any more mate. If Gabe wants the holiday sales to fall in line with NA holidays, then that's when they'll be.