Cathcart Circle Review Welcome to my Cathcart Circle review. Played on: PlayStation 5 I have scored each of the ten areas of my review out of 10 and then given a final score out of 100 (which I’ve done by adding all the area scores together). I plan to do further reviews like this on all upcoming routes I buy. This should ensure my reviews remain fair and consistent across the board. I hope you can take the time to read my thoughts and I would love to get your opinions of the route too. Do you agree with me? Do you disagree with me? Let me know. Train Sound (8/10) Sound is critical to immersion in TSW 2 and I am happy to say that the sound of the British Rail Class 314 scores 8/10 for accuracy and immersion. Sound for the British Rail Class 314 lost two out of ten points because in my opinion, the sound is not loud enough. It could really do with being dialled up a notch or two both outside and inside the cab. Outside the cab, the train just doesn’t have the presence you would expect in terms of the sound. It’s sound doesn’t dominate the ambient sound arriving and departing stations and when passing other 314’s, you barely notice any change in sound. Inside the cab, even with the window open, the sound of the 314 seems too low, requiring an increase in TV volume. If the British Rail Class 314 sounds can be dialled up a notch or two, it would make a significant difference and my score would no doubt increase. Ambient Sound (9/10) Ambient sound is excellent. The stations feel alive with the background chatter of passengers, singing birds, barking dogs and even people playing football. The Scottish station announcer really is the cherry on the cake. As such, ambient sound scores an impressive 9/10. Ambient sound is let down in my opinion by the track sounds. I’m not sure what’s wrong, but they get on my nerves a little bit. Track sound doesn’t normally make me feel this way, but I can’t put my finger on exactly what is wrong. Train Design and Operation (9/10) There is no doubt that the British Rail Class 314 looks amazing. I think she has been lovingly and faithfully recreated in game and I personally haven’t found anything glaringly, obviously wrong. The train is also very fun to drive and the brakes take a bit of mastering, which makes things more fun to play. A couple of niggles do exist though. These are the destination displays and the livery. In terms of the destination displays, I think they look good when lit, but when unlit, they look like crappy stickers stuck onto the body work. They don’t look like glass panels covering an internal destination blind. This is particularly true of AI 314’s, which don’t seem to turn on the destination lights on at all. In terms of the livery, up close the dots and other parts of the livery look pixelated, which spoils the overall look. A higher resolution texture might have been more appropriate here. Train Variety (8/10) Whilst I am perfectly satisfied with the 314 being the only train on the route, I would love to see the variety of trains increased through the addition of the 320 and possibly the 380 and 318. Variety is the spice of life as they say. Station Building Design (9/10) Every station looks absolutely fantastic. I am very pleased with the look and feel of the stations overall. It’s a shame we can’t exit out of the stations to see some of the surrounding scenery as most of the invisible walls keep us fully constrained within the station. Where we are allowed a bit more freedom, we can almost reach the street to see the street, but are stopped at the last moment. Definitely not a deal breaker, but it would be nice to have a bit more freedom around stations. I also have to question the placement of some of the collectables. For example, newspaper stands out in the open, where they’ll get soaked in the rain and Choo-Choo planters in distant, hard to see corners of stations, were passengers wouldn’t see and enjoy them. Nothing major here of course, but it is worth DTG thinking about it. Environment Design (including non-station buildings) (10/10) There is nothing negative I can say about the scenery, including non-station buildings. The route just looks stunning. Yes, the whole route could benefit from more realistic looking, higher resolution textures (likely possible with the imminent move to next generation consoles), but I have nothing to really complain about here. Lighting (4/10) Lighting is where the route falls down flat on its face with its hand tied behind its back. The lighting during the day is fantastic, but at night, it’s quite frankly abysmal. Night lighting needs a real focus overall in TSW 2, but on Cathcart Circle, it is particularly bad. Stations and distant buildings look lit as if by candlelight (and only one or two candles each at that). Driving in the dark is pretty boring given you can’t see anything. I’ve never liked the night lighting in TSW 2020 or TSW 2 (so I avoid all services in the dark) and I would urge DTG to take a real hard look at how this can be improved. Given how bad the night lighting is, it’s a shame at least 2/6 scenarios are in the dark. Timetable / Scenario Variety (9/10) This is probably one of the best, if not the best, routes for variety. There are several different routings available and the scenarios are fun and well varied. I can see this route holding player’s attention for far longer than other routes in the game. That said, timings, especially from the depot to Glasgow, don’t leave a lot of room to get your train set up and out the gate on time, which is a common problem across several routes and not unique to Cathcart Circle. Collectables (7/10) The collectables score 7/10 for fun, variety and ability to find them. None are located miles away from stations (which otherwise makes collecting them a bore chore) and they are appropriate for the route. I really don’t understand the crashes UFO as the mastery award though. The last time I looked, Glasgow was not Roswell, New Mexico. Bugs and Issues (whether minor or major) 10/10 At the time of writing, I haven’t come across any immediately obvious bugs or issues. This is a huge positive as so many DTG routes have flaws on day one. I might just be lucky, or haven’t encountered anything that would unsettle my OSD at this point. That said, whilst not ‘bugs’ or ‘issues’ per se, the ‘Go Via’ prompts on some services and scenarios into and out of Glasgow are a little bit immersion breaking and seem to be irrelevant (though I’m no expert as to how the dispatcher works). Matt also queried the ‘usefulness’ of this objective and said he’d speak with the author of the timetable to find out why it is there. Passengers are obviously broken, but that is nothing new. There are also some stutters on the route, even on the PS5. Very minor, but noticeable nonetheless. Conclusion (83/100) Overall, Glasgow Cathcart Circle is an excellent effort by DTG and I think it is a must have for any TSW 2 player. There are certainly areas that need improvement and I really would like to see the improvements I’ve highlighted in my review being made. I had high hopes that Cathcart Circle could be the next East Coastway in terms of quality. Has it achieved this? I think if the improvements I’ve highlighted in my review are taken onboard by DTG and implemented sooner, rather than later, Cathcart Circle could be the very best DLC available in terms of quality. DTG has set a high bar here and anything less than we have now would be a very obvious step backwards. Final Note I reserve the right to modify this review following continued play of the route. If modified, I will post the changes as a separate post within the thread.
I would consider 9/10, but your considerations are in point. Wind turbulences with a window open are soo good. Love it! Perfect modeling and scripting. I like BR 423 a tinny little bit more but still - top-notch. It is only one train, but the route is complete to me. Of course, more could be better! The stations are beautiful. HHL was by Skyhook - here - I bet on DTG. Good, simple design. And Glasgow Central... <3 Natural, realistic look. GG Not as bad as CRR but still very bad (after the dark). Weather effects are broken too (clouds), etc, etc HLL or GCC. I got a real dilemma. Scenarios are super-fun. MOW employees! Collec-what? I'm not that optimistic, but nothing is to spoil the fun. True. When I was in school, the grades ranged from 2-5. I'd give 5- for GCC. This means 90% or more. 4+ is not enough in my opinion. Good route. The problems (lights, passengers) are related to the core TSW. Of course, I'd rather not see them. THE VERY NICE SUMMARY, matjamca \o/
I concur except on the "variety" score- because it's nothing but commuter rail. Yes, there are multiple routes which keep it from becoming as tediously samey as, say, Bakerloo, but there is no intercity or express passenger and no real freight. I know, it's the nature of the line; but I couldn't give an all-commuter route high marks for variety.
Train sound too low? I've been on the 314 more times than I care to count and it sounds absolutely fine to me. Really the only negatives I see with the route are poor lighting at night and Central Station being eerily empty but that's TSW2 issues, not the route exclusively. It's also disappointing that the route didn't come with the class 320 and 380 as they're used on a lot of other routes out of Glasgow Central and could have been used to make the station busier.
I’m not a 314 expert, but the sound of the 314 in this video is definitely louder than we have in the game so far. The volume could definitely do with an increase in game.
I would agree with your review pretty much. I heard the footballers too when I was at Neilston. In cab sound is definitely too low for me and whilst the station sounds are ok, I find the crowd noise at some of the smaller stations too loud for their size and number of passengers (lack of) on the platforms. overall though I’m really enjoying this route
I agree with your scores. I love the route. It looks amazing and feels alive. I can't wait for rush hour which should address a lot of the core issues. I'm also on ps5.
I agree with your excellent review. I found some of the ambient sounds weren’t as good as sehs, but non the less glasgow central has a nice hub-ub. As well as that, some of the pis blinds are inaccurate, it says Glasgow central whereas irl it says Cathcart inner circle
It’s a bit annoying though that the Germans get to have un-driveable ai services on routes and we don’t
Yeah, I am with you on this. More variety of trains would have been good - the route should have had a Class 320, 380 or 385 as standard, with six-car formations for peak services. There is, of course, the add-on engineering and rail tour services, but it would have been nice to have a few more of these set at different times. Other than that, I pretty much fully agree with matjamca's review. The audio master level for the simulation is really very poor, and it makes the system sounds ("objective complete") really intrusive if you turn up the volume. The actual audio for the train is very very nice - there's even a squeak from the damper as the train yaws (at least I think that is what the sound is) - but you have to put up the volume very high to hear it (double normal volume).... and then, of course, if you play another route afterwards then you have to put the volume back down. Also, the lighting at stations, and from the front of the Class 314, are both very poor. Hopefully these three issues (volume level, Class 314 lights and station lighting) will get some urgent attention. But generally - I do think that this is a "must have" DLC. However I think that it would have been better to make London/Brighton a standalone DLC, and then put Cathcart Circle in the "Rush Hour" three-pack.
Both of those trains are used on the Cathcart Circle, the class 385 is also used, so none of them would be undrivable.
Funny bug I've discovered just yesterday on this route on one of my first few runs there - how to complete the scenario with just closing the doors for passengers? Well, you need to wait on Glasgow platform for an incoming train. When it will stop, you need to go to the driver's cabin and sit as a driver. Game will ask you if you want to take over this scenario (which is going to be over in just few seconds as passengers are already getting off the train), you confirm - and that's that - you just have to wait for several seconds until passengers will load off the train and WHOLE scenario will be passed, gold medal awarded, as you were driving it since the beginning
I have just completed more that 20 services on CCL route now and I would like to add some remarks to your, very well made, review. First of all - and most important in my opinion - is that this route is non-challanging at all, or very, very low. I'm not an experience TSW2 player: I've just completed about 100 services on ECW and about the same on NTP, but driving on CLL in Class 314 is child play. Class 314 is super-easy to operate, just a little more complicated that Class 377 as you have 2 lewers to operate: one for throttle and one for brakes. Throttle has 4 levels, brakes has 3 regular and fourth is emergency brake - easy peasy. If you've drive any EMU/DMU in past, you will use to handle it in few runs. To configure it to be ready for departure is a 15 seconds task top - you just need to: turn the master key on, set the reverser to Forward, set the lights to Head and Marker lights, turn on AWS and DSD (optionally) and you're good to go! You don't even have to set the destination blind as it is being done automatically. The route, well, the circle one starting and ending in Glasgow is more like a training of start and stop as the stations are about 600-800 yards away from each other - so basically how you (will most likely) run it will be to advance to the top allowed speed limit, and then start to brake - and that's that. If you've enjoyed Bakerloo line though you will find it being like home again here Driving to Newton and Nielson is a little more interesting, becasue there the stations are distanced from each other for about 1-1.5 miles, so you'll be able to enjoy the drive at top speed at least for a half a minute But still, it is almost no challenge as there are not speed limit changes there (after you pass Cathcart station it is always 50-55 mph until the final station, chaning to 40 mph just before Newton). After passing Carhcart, going to Nielson is all the way up the 1.0% hill - so coming back until reaching Cathcart again will be always downhill, which makes it easy to master the stop on the platform in best place after just few attempts. Going to Newton is just a little different as there as some minor changes in the slope of the terrain, but still nothing that would challange you much in operating the 314. Also - do not expect to be stopped at red lights much, they are appearing on Cathcart station and Pollokshields West mostly, but immediately changes to green, when you lock the doors after passengers load. The number of combination of the routes there is very nice though, as the services are about 30 minutes long, you may drive firstly Glasgow-Newton and back, then jump to Glasgow - Nielson, then do the circle run - clockwise or counter-clockwise, or mix it up to your preference. Class 314 has AWS, DSD, DRA and door interlocks with brakes safety systems: DRA - used it just few times to check if it works - it is, although there are not many moments requiring actually to use it (you may check post down below from solicitr explaining the reasons for using DRA) DSD - well, I'm not sure if it ever gets activated as the distances between stations on the route are so short it would be really hard for the driver to lost it's focus AWS - works fine, especially when leaving/arriving Glasgow is goes ringing so often you can get the impression you are back in school again doors interlocks with brakes - this was something new to me: this safety system prevents to make the train moving if doors stays opened, brakes keep applied in level 1 until the doors will be fully closed, then pressure from brakes is being released and you may start moving. Quite convinient system to have, as you don't have to remember to keep the brake at level 1 when being on a stop on the platform, then release it to level 0, when want to star moving again after passengers load. Thanks to solicitr for explaining how it works as initially I thought it's DRA that prevent the train from moving with doors staying opened. In regards to environmental design, again from the point of cab view - for me the most interesting is the Glasgow-Glasgow circle route, as it is most various. Routes to Newton and Nielson when you'll be driving it from the cab - you'll be mostly looking at endless valley of trees on both sides, and when look on the side window - lines on houses with gardens, behind the trees of course Nielson route has some variety though becasue you are passing one bridge and some crop fields, so I like it more than Newton. If you prefer to drive outside of the cab then you might see more interesting things on those routes. In terms of density of the trains, well, do not expect anything different that you've already seen. Between 6-9 a.m. there are more trains operating, you'll be passing one every 5-6 minutes (that makes about 5-6 AI trains on a single 30 minutes run). From 9 to the noon the density is getting cut by half and now you may pass just 2-3 trains in your 30 minutes run. Not sure about the rest of the day but I would expect that between 4 to 6 p.m. density will be same as for 6 to 9 a.m. and for the rest of the day and night - just as between 9 to noon. If you want to experience a feeling that you are driving busy commuter line, having another AI trains passing you by about every 3 minutes - run the 'Around Town' scenario. The most depressing view on whole route represents the Glasgow station - not by it's design, it's brilliant, but by the emptiness. Whenever I'm arriving at Glasgow there is no movement on those tracks, no other trains leaving/arriving - well, maybe one occasionally, but that's all! You may have the impression that you are driving train in one of those zombie movies, or that this beautiful Glasgow station was build so large just to handle some local commuting service. And it has 25-20-15 mph speed limits to/from there for about 1 mile, so you have plenty of time to look at those empty tracks. So to sum up to whom I would reccomend to go on with this route? anyone who's looking for easy, relaxing drive: route and Class 314 stands very low challenge to master, even for the beginners I think, but if you are looking for a relax or alternate from a more challanging routes - that's the one anyone who likes Bakerloo line: this route feels just like it, although overground all the time PS4 users: just becasue it is running very smoothly, having about 30-40 FPS all the time, with occasional miliseconds freeze, but that occurs on every route on PS4 I guess. anyone who likes driving commuter service: beside the circle Glasgow-Glasgow route, which is more 'stop-and-go' kind of drive, the other two are quite nice and enjoyable, maybe just a little too short.
Well, that isn't what the DRA is for. It has nothing to do with door interlocks. The Driver Reminder Appliance is used when (a) the train is stopped at a red signal (or after passing a single-yellow), (b) the train is stopped at buffers, or (c) if the driver leaves the cab for any reason. For that matter, the earliest implementation had no interlocks at all, with the brakes, throttle or anything else: it served purely as a reminder like the name says, a red light in the driver's sightline telling him not to move. Needless to say, there are few if any occasions on GCC where one would ever use it. It becomes much more of thing on, say, Brighton-Victoria, where there can be several stop aspects on a run.
Following your explanation, if I understand it correctly, it's not DRA that prevents the train from movement with opened doors, but door interlocks with the brakes? (on assumption that DRA is Isolated)
Correct. And it doesn't matter if the DRA is isolated or not; it's an entirely separate system. (On old slam-door stock, there's no brake interlock with the doors either)
Thanks for clarifying that, I've learned something new today, just need to correct DRA part description in my above long post about CCL now
So I have completed another ~20 scenarios and have a little update about lightning in the night runs: If you run in April with clear sky (or any month with full moon I guess) - you'll see everything as the moon light is pretty strong and illuminate nicely all surroundings. On February, when most of the services from Journey mode are being run, it's like Mat_Jam_Ca said in his review. Even with clear sky, moon light is missing (services are taking place on 1st of FEB, so I guess it might be new moon), route is pitch black, even if you play in completely dark room without any source of light that could reflect in your TV screen. Nevertheless, I'm still enjoying it (with clear sky and full moon). From Journey mode particullary charming is one of the 'Night shift' service in February, when you start Glasgow-Glasgow service about 6:30 in the morning, there is a very light snowing, some snow laying around. You start in pitch black night just before the sunrise, but on the way the sun starts raising and when you finish the service it is already morning. With new skybox I really enjoy this service, watching the new day to start and city of Glasgow waking up while I'm already there, taking passengers to their work/school or other early morning business
Oh, is it something inapropriate? I didn't meant to have my "published posts" counter higher by this. I'm running this route right now since some time, so I thought this is a good place to share my feelings about this route, maybe someone who is not having it yet find it useful. I could open new subject about it, but thought "recycling" this will be more efficient than just create another about almost the same subject.
