Hi folks, Whilst we get closer to the release of the upcoming Santa Fe Gameplay pack for Cajon Pass, enjoy a new selection of images from the High Iron Simulation team!
I feel like the SD40’s are way too clean. Needs some weathering, or at least a few variants. By the 90’s they had already been around for 20+ years and were pretty beat up, especially out in the desert
Agreed, but actually I'd say these screenshots look pretty darn good. I'll likely pop for this pack, especially since it's the only American dlc on the horizon. Bring it on.
Garry and his team are clearly capable of MORE (I've played hundreds of hours of American scenarios from him in old TS), we are waiting for at least a route or rolling stock from HIS
Might be a licensor thing; some (most?) want their trains pristine. Hear, hear! Have HIS said what kind of max train length they're working with? Also, I'm sure "work in progress" applies, but it looks like there's some disappearing freight cars.
Looks pretty good tbh. I haven’t been able to follow much, are HIS doing any sound or physics enhancements for this?
Could be that, or may be there are some empty = no trailer, on some of the freight cars. Due to the distance view of the loaded ones is the same. So it will be strange.
Zooming in, you're absolutely right. The flatbed cars are there, just empty. Note to make eye doctor appt.
It's still rather odd, though. Don't see empty TOFLs on long desert runs too often. I'd hold off on the ophthalmologist.
I mean, it wasn't uncommon to see only 1 trailer loaded on a 89ft flatcar.... Here you can see at least 4 spaces. However, I feel like this pack still wont really capture the 90's ATSF all that well, really needs more variety in rolling stock, like appropriate 48ft well cars and containers, and something to stand in for Southern Pacific on the Palmdale Cutoff. But at least we finally see the sub in UP SD40-2's
I really hope the formations in the timetable will allow livery substitution. That would bring some more color into the formations. Like even if they don't include weathered liveries, the community could make them. Same for the freight cars. Creators Club liveries would add some more variety for the consists.
I do agree the livieries could do with some more weathering but it's probably a licensing agreement. It's been a while since the US Freight scene got any new content so I'll keep an eye on it
Awesome sauce!! I'm deffo grabbing this on day 1..... I've done over 3000 miles on Cajon Pass so far, It's good for a nice run and presents its own challenges.
SP C44-9Ws, B39-8s, GP60s, GP40-2s, SD45Rs, or SD40Rs would be cool to see on the Palmdale Cutoff, as well as a few older U-Boats or Dash-7s. I would have loved to see a Santa Fe B40-8, B40-8W, C44-9W, SD45-2(U)/SD45-2B, SD45U, GP39-2, GP60/GP60M/GP60B, GP50, SDFP45/SDF45, and/or SD75M for this addon. I do like the Santa Fe. I want more Santa Fe power and rolling stock in game. I would love to buy this pack, along with Cajon Pass. Also, could we get ATSF/BNSF Patched SD40-2s and C40-8Ws/C41-8Ws in the future? Also, more Santa Fe routes are a must. I'd love the Seligman Sub: Needles, CA-Winslow, AZ (or a part of it), Raton Pass, and maybe Tehachapi Pass with SP and ATSF power.
Oh mate I hear ya!! I'd do anything for some more older US motive power like what you mentioned. And Tehachapi Pass would be my dream US route addition. Its epic and would be such an awesome DLC. Pleeeeaaase DTG just consider it? lol
The C40 (on PS at least) on SPG had a sound bug when using the dynamic brake, the sound cutting in and out as you wobbled side to side. Being a loco DLC it never got any fixes so it persists to this day. Hopefully that will have been sorted for this pack. I hate it when bugs just get copied across and it happens all too often in TSW. Looking forward to the pack though, I’ve been itching for new gameplay for Cajon Pass. It was a route I absolutely battered when it first came out.
One can never have enough freight cars ... Uniform trains consisting of a single type of car are only in publicity photographs. Soon we'll have more different locomotives than freight cars. And what about caboose? Proper caboose with markers? Since those screenshots only show the head end of the train?
The Caboose was phased out in the late 80's for the FRED devices used in now a days, so they wouldn't fit in a 90's era ATSF timetable. Note the lack of a caboose on this train.
Not true. Most freight trains will have a variety of cars, but trains consisting entirely of tankers or coal cars, for example, aren't terribly rare. As Killer-Of-Night said, cabooses (cabeese?) aren't used any more, though I've occasionally seen a tiny freight (two to five cars pulled by a switcher) go by on a nearby line with a graffiti-covered caboose at the end. After playing Clinchfield and experiencing the extra steps required to keep the caboose at the end of a train through all the breaking and reconfiguring, I can understand why the freight lines wanted to get rid of it.
Shame though, in a way. There's a whole lore and an accompanying fan base built around the caboose. I'm old enough to remember when they were a common sight on the American railroad. You might still see the odd one for hazmat trains or when backing up a long freight. Some Class One's used to have a few lying around. Not sure if they still do. Many museums, including the IRM, have extensive collections of cabooses.
Yes. They're called "unit trains," meaning they carry one payload from one origin to a recipient without breakdown and makeup- just 120 coal hoppers from the minehead down to the coal port at Newport News, for example. Having said that, you will still see a variety of liveries, not an unbroken line of CSX or Union Pacific colors.
I had asked something on High Iron Simulations Facebook page. I remember they told me that an American route was coming, I think after the Santa Fe DLC.I'd love to see what the route will be like but I know it will be amazing.
A bit subjective, we don't know how HIS will deal with the new route building tools, not to mention Gary has split opinions on his and HIS offerings, some like them, other hate them. So whether it will good or bad is unknown, and most likely subjective.
It's funny how a small rail car managed to develop such character and personality, isn't it? Yeah, I'm old enough, too. I had a laugh the first time I started a service with a CSX loco and every freight car was also CSX. And everything in pristine condition. I assumed that was the licensing gods speaking.
Yes, funny isn't it. I have heavy freight trains go by at a nearby grade crossing a couple times a day and sometimes the locos are so dirty it's hard to tell which road they belong to. The cars too with all the dirt, rust and graffiti. I'd rather have that in the Sim than the squeaky clean version.
The problem with those (from playing Run 8 and TSC) is that they're far too "slow" and "empty" for TSW fans. Tehechapi is even SLOWER than Cajon Pass (not as steep but the turns are much sharper), some curves are 15 mph. Cajon Pass is regularly attacked for being so "slow" because of the gradient, and it's just "more empty desert." Granted it's not as "empty" as the less detailed landscapes of TSC or Run 8, but those also have miles of track and sidings to use...which TSW does not. They're just different audiences and playstyles. Cajon was a huge argument when it came out and we haven't really seen freight in the US since then. (A couple short, limited layers on passenger routes is not the same thing) Doing more of essentially the same thing wouldn't do much for DTG since they already make money on the TSC routes for US freight. That's why HIS is doing this, not DTG. Now if you're asking for an HIS route.... this is putting their "toe into the water" to test it out. I'd guess they'd do a new loco after this if it goes well, THEN maybe a route. It's just a HUGE step up to a whole route. I'd love for them to do one, but... that's a big "if" since this pack would have to do well and THEN a good selling loco probably to encourage them to invest time and money into such a project. Having said that, HIS could "break the mold" so to speak and do something different if they did a route. Something with actual shunting for example for freight, not just A-B, and more animated loading, etc. Then again, they could just do a "scenario pack" for Cajon Pass that would enable much of that for feasibility. You honestly don't see a lot of those in TSW compared to all over the place in TSC. You see routes and locos with a couple "added scenarios" but not whole scenario packs with detailed movements and extra assets. They're more of an afterthought attached to another DLC and not the 6-12 scenarios in a pack you'd see in a TSC release.
Often the license holder has a say in how the trains are represented. And Santa Fe probably told them to keep the trains nice and clean
