I was wandering, which shunter should I buy? I'm torn between the BR363 or the BR 204. Which one do you guys enjoy more?
Take the BR204 for Main-Spessart Bahn, because you can use the 'Harbor-Area' at Aschaffenburg with (in my opinion) better services.
204 is pretty mediocre all around, services, sounds and layering are all meh. The 363 on the other hand is a solidly designed loco, the services and layering leave something to be desired, but it’s a much better loco overall.
Certainly the 363 comes with a lot more services, and a greater variety of them. There is also more interaction with other traffic, which is constantly running through the switchyards. There is none on the Aschaffenburg harbor loop.
I really regret having bought the 204 back then. It was ok in TSW2020 but in TSW2 it got worse unfortunately. While the cab is really cool and the 3D model good, the sounds are heavily messed up, the looping bug is all over the place and the locomotive brakes sound very broken due to permanent cut-outs, PZB is not working correctly anymore (it did in 2020) and to be honest the services to Aschaffenburg Harbour are not very diversified either. You get some shunting tasks in the harbour area which are okay - not always reasonable but something different at least. I always found the trip from Aschaffenburg Hbf to the harbour dull because of the low speed limit. But die to the sound loops bug you spent most of the time doing funny stuff hoping for a workaround anyway - such as putting tue reverser in neutral and go full throttle, play with the camera settings or the windows or looking for the TV remote in desperate hope for the mute button. There is one scenario where you can drive from Lohr to Aschaffenburg which is quite good (since the 204 was originally built as a mainline loco, not a shunter) but imo that's not worth it... there are hardly any other connections to the mainline timetable, no 185s taking over the delivered freight wagons or something like that. (I don't know if the 363 services do better in this case? Would be interesting to know!) And since realising a xbox sale turns out to be advanced rocket science I really advise you not to spend 13,99€ for it. The 363 can probably only do better - U haven't bought it since I hoped it got used anywhere else than RSN as well which is not the case. If something like a sale would exist for us xbox users as well I probably would have a go for it but as we all know such massive projects with an enormous amount of complications, traps and hazards are probably better left in the dark.
Well, a dual-purpose loco, like a small GP7. The central cab and dual control desks are definitely shunter features.
Of course you're right here. The DR wanted a multi-purpose engine back then and since most of the non electrified east german mainlines were considerably slower than today it did the job quite well. Sometimes I even spot some of them owned by private companies pulling freight trains over my local line here in the South. Back to another topic - can the 363 be seen quite often on RSN (the TSW Version, not the real one of course)?
Yes. all the yards where it works are right along the main line, so one passes them going about their business. In fact, one can do a freight service, drop off the wagons, and then do the shunting service for those same wagons- or just stand there and watch it all. (much like the Class 07 services in NTP)
I have both locos and I think that BR 363 has better future because it is a Dovetail production and will be added to more present and upcoming routes in the future.
