Upcoming Release Master The West Midlands!

I was slightly paraphrasing other comments, Birmingham is a great city in most parts.

 

to my mind this should be a good little route from a time/length point of view. The lack of other traffic will make it seem like it’s running at far below capacity though. An extension to Bescot would have added potential for freight.

 

Yes the route to Walsall plus the Camp Hill route and Park Lane as mentioned would have opened up things considerably more.

 

Still, it looks like it's on course to be a nicely detailed route judging by the research material info in the roadmap today, and the 323 looks great too. I'm looking forward to playing it.

 

Very limited route for playability, which is a shame as I like the 323 traction. Glad to see some of the West Midlands being represented in game though and hope it's built on, especially with the options available in a Wolverhampton - Walsall extension. I hope the waiting times at stations in game are a lot faster for this route too as the timetable in real life is already quite tight.

 

I'd be happy if they could simply fix the Peninsula Corridor crashes.

Perhaps you could obtain some apples from Mr. Bounderby then?

 

The actual route itself is nice. The lack of variety in rolling stock might be a problem. Hopefully there’ll be additional layers (particularly Gen 8). Sadly there are no Voyagers in TSW which would have helped. At least I should be able to enjoy the route itself though.

 

I’m sure even the Xbox one would cope with nothing but over 100 miles of track

it’s not the length it’s the content that determines more on how it runs on a not so powerful and to a higher extent powerful system

 

my point being you said and i quote "TSW 3 has been released for months" well it hasnt has it.

 

The Mastery bonus ought to be a hobbit hole-- JRR Tolkien was from Brum

 

(OK, it's Warwickshire, but much the same trope)
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It has taken a long time for Birmingham to recover from the destruction wreaked on it decades ago. And before that, there was the Luftwaffe.

 

Last time I went to Birmingham a shark swam over my head. True story.

 

Of course, and it doesn't fit with DTGs max return for min effort, which is the biggest decider for how long routes are.

 

On the slide that had the FPS and memory usage I noticed Soho was there! Does this mean Soho is in the route ?!?! DTG JD DTG Matt

 

They said on the stream that it isn’t.

 

No,they stated that in stream last night. Sad times

 

I mean we had Riesa Dresden released with the promise the extension/branch line would be built. Why can't they offer this promise to us for the future?

 

Yes there is a saying in Birmingham. What the Lufwaffe started, Frank Price and the city council finished!

 

I must admit I'm slowly beginning to warm to Cross City in TSW3. I just think there are so many routes I want in TSW3 that anything that isn't a part of the ECML, WCML, Liverpool to Manchester or something in Wales is going to disappoint me.

Also, and this is completely unrelated, I'm extremely tired of hearing the phrase "hustle and bustle" every time a commuter route comes out. I've never once heard anyone say it in real life and for completely irrational reasons it drives me up the wall. I'm dreading the announcement of Rivet's route because they'll inevitably use it again.

 

There’s also the fact that there are very few routes in game that really have ‘hustle & bustle’.

I’m very excited for BCC, but being realistic about it, we’re probably going to have sterile platforms & limited route traffic.

 

Sadly that's nothing new for TSW. I think the Rush Hour update was a complete failure when it comes to making routes feel more alive. A year later and I still can't really tell the difference between the routes that do and don't have the newer passengers.

 

Yeah I think there’s still an issue with spawn points & times for passengers.

There is also an obvious performance issue that is restricting the spawn quantities.

I know that everyone is interested in realistic passengers, but I’d rather see low quality clones in large quantities, as opposed to a handful of unique models.

Even the trains are mostly empty now, it’s quite jarring.

 

Do you mean "passengers" or "passenger density"?
The new clothes, styles etc are very noticable from the old style ones, but the passenger density is bugged such as everyone gets on at station one, then 99% get OFF at station 2 meaning you drive a near empty train the rest of the way

 

Both. I couldn't tell you which routes do and don't have the new passengers/ passenger density without looking it up first.

 

So I've started watching the stream and I admit it may have been mentioned later, but I'm disappointed there's apparently no AI traffic layers on the route. After seeing St Pancras and Glasgow Central deserted this will be a deal breaker for me. If there's no other traffic aside from the Cross City services I won't be buying it for a while, probably not until there's a sale.

 

Hang on, have they got a cross country license approval? If so, stick Cross Country HST's on the stretch from Bromsgrove to New Street. Surely they can use the HST model and prepare the livery for it?

 

I've seen much more variety on the newer routes, not so much on the old (ie NTP etc)

 

They could even just port over 150s and loco hauled stock as well. Just something to give it some variety.

 

Still feel not including Soho as a useable depot is a poor decision, unless there were external factors at play. However given extensive assistance and access was provided by the TOC, as detailed in the article, seems unlikely someone put a hand up and said, "No you're not going there."

Probably too late to rework now with release less than two weeks, but IMHO the route builder(s) should be told to go back and finish the job for an update patch and whoever signed off on omitting the depot should hang their head in shame.

And again, it shouldn't be too late to layer in a half hourly Cross Country service with unbranded HST's, even if not the correct traction. Increasingly looks like another project rushed to meet a deadline, rather than take a few more weeks to add the polish, then the audience redirected with all the self congratulations and high fives etc. Exactly what we saw with Spirit Of Steam.

 

Definitely agree with making new liveries for existing stock, 150’s & HST’s are an acceptable stand in here. They did this with the 185 for DCZ, so would be nice to see the HST getting reutilised.

I didn’t watch the entire stream admittedly so not sure what I’ve missed out on, but surely using the 323’s as substitutes for other WM/LM services for the sake of density is within the region of realistic enough?
Same can be applied to the HST & 150 as above, but the 150 would be pushing it I suppose.

 

On the topic of layers, all I'm expecting is the obligatory 66 and probably a steam and/or diesel railtour to have a crack at the Lickey Incline. I'm interested whether they'll try and include banking assistance. I think freight trains are usually banked up there, and while steam railtours are usually banked it's not unheard of for them to make it up unassisted if the crew is keen enough. Fittingly for TSW3, a Jubilee (no. 45693 Leander) just about made it up there in 2006, before the line was electrified and Bromsgrove station was rebuilt. Here's some grainy onboard footage from one of the rear carriages if anyone's interested.



More recently, last year a GWR Castle no. 7029 Clun Castle also made it up unassisted. Skip to about 1:30 and listen with headphones because the sound is absolutely glorious. You can keep your Deltics and 47s, nothing on earth beats the sound of a Great Western engine working hard.



Both had an admittedly light load of 6 coaches, although the Castle seemed to make lighter work of it owing to it being a more powerful engine. For the sake of consistency and realism if there are railtours I'd hope DTG would also stick to 6 coach loads.

 

I do recall seeing 150s trundle up the Lickey incline during the days of London Midland so while stretching the realms of realism it wouldn't be too far fetched.

 

I'm not a huge kettle fan but I do enjoy a GWR engine. Always sounds "beefier" than others.

 

How would 150s be appropriate? They haven't run in the Birmingham area in around a decade to my knowledge. I believe the only ones you'd see now are TfW's ones and A. That's quite rare as they only very occasionally stand in for 158s and 153s and B. You'd only see them at New Street anyway.

 

I was on the Castle Class unassisted. It was a wonderful experience!

 

If it was a 150-1 we'd be able to accept that as they were still running in 2018, (poss 2019) when the transition from LM to WMT was happening.

 

The last few 150s were transferred in 2019 to Northern and were used between New Street and Shrewsbury freeing up 170s and 153s to other services and this is going to be set in 2019

 

You're very lucky. I'd have killed to experience that!

 

They were rare, London Midland only had a small handful after the class 172's arrived. At one point class 150's were banned from the Lickey incline.

I personally would not want to see a class 150, a class 170 is the class of DMU you would need alongside the class 323 in 2019.

 

And then you get a choice of LM/WMT and Cross Country liveries (currently some Chiltern and EMT liveries around here at the moment as TOC transfers).

 

They did that with WCL which was the main reason I never bought it. I personally don't want to see unrealistic layers unless they can be turned off. A class 150/2 in Regional Railways running alongside a WMR class 323 is a no for me. A unbranded cross country HST I would like to see though.

 

Why can't we have a voyager? That could then also be used in cathcart circle, great Western express and whatever else there is set in modern times that is relevant.

Ultimately, what ever is required for this route isn't going to happen. Same with Cathcart tbh.

 

They would only make a Voyager for a route where it could have a decent run. They aren't going to make one just for AI traffic. A am sure if a future route is released with a Voyager it might layer in.

For a Voyager to make sense on Cross City you would really have to extend the route down to Cheltenham at least as I imagine that is their first stop towards Bristol.

 

This is a VERY big stretch, but Cross Country's 170s always call at University on the Cardiff- Nottingham services. VERY rarely Voyagers sub in on that route, but it has happened. It's just extremely uncommon.

Other than that, a Voyager would need a proper route to stretch it's legs, being a 125mph express unit.

 

For all I know, BCC might have a DLC add on, though whatever they choose to model needs to appeal to customer's and If they make a 170, then they can model a 172 and a 357 which could possibly work on one of the 3rd rail routes already created like London Commuter maybe?

 

I am sure I read something about a class 196 being referenced or referred to, which is the DMU replacing the class 170's on the Shrewsbury and Hereford services but I can't see it now so maybe I dreampt it up!

But even that as DLC would feel a bit disappointing if we could only drive it to Bromsgrove unless DTG are planning a SEHS type "extension".

I hope there are DLC add-ons planned for it, although they seem to have stopped producing extra DLC for some reason. SOS is still crying out for at least a couple.

 

This is what I don't understand. Someone said it's a 2019 era release, though if 196's haven't started running or due to start running, how does that work?

 

I think it uses the timetable from 2019 as it was the busier pre-pandemic timetable, whether the actual route is set in 2019 visually or 2022 I know not. I think the Cross City is still using a reduced timetable currently as there are quite a few complaining about it.

 

They have said that the route itself is the 2022 December route (so updated signalling etc), but the timetable is the "busy 2019" one

 

Yeah used to be 20 minutes to Redditch and Bromsgrove, now back to the 30 minutes like it used to be before 323's served Bromsgrove and before Alvechurch was overhauled to a 2 platform passing loop.