The Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit is a (currently) 45-mile line in Sonoma and Marin counties in the San Francisco Bay area, with extensions planned to 70 miles. Seems like it might make a good addition; links with the ferry service going to San Francisco, following along US 101 with bike and foot paths alongside. They also run some freight, which I think is contracted out to Northwestern Pacific. If I read the information I just perused right, they have some right-of-way that's freight only. And they run some trains for special events, etc., for additional service possibilities. Standard gauge line. The passenger trains use Nippon-Sharyo DPUs.
From what I can gather, freight is operated by SMART themselves (Contracted to another group), using locomotives of the former NWP on their line. NWP's final run was in 2022. However, the only locomotive that DTG would be able to use is NWP 1501, a MP15DC that DTG already has the model for from Caltrain. But given how DTG's timetable doesn't like switching services along lines, DTG would probably just not include any freight and let the players do their own thru Freeroam.
Yeah; I was thinking it might make it more attractive that they could reuse at least one locomotive asset, though I have seen their comments that they feel buyers don't like it when add-ons don't come with enough "new stuff." Looking at it, some of the former NWP lines outside of the Bay Area could be pretty neat options as well.
The "New Stuff" for this route would be the NS DMU's since DTG only usually include 1 new loco per DLC. Not to mention freight isn't high on DTG's priority due to lack of access to equipment and such.
Indeed. The Mp15 would be nice added value but considering it's sold separately from the Caltrain pack, I doubt it'd be included. On the other hand it could make the MP15 pack a better deal if it layered with the SMART add-on, got the NWP livery, etc.
Of note, if they model the Nippon DMU's for this, DTG could also potentially do a Toronto UP Express route in the future (if they get licensing sorted out). DTG would be able to get a little more bang for their buck out of modeling them, instead of just a one-and-done deal.
Map with the some of the freight routes SMART runs, with the AMTRAK Capitol Corridor on the right. They schedule up above with some of the 'planned' stations in the north may need updated soon; they're expecting to start service to Windsor in 2025 and just got funding to go to Healdsburg. Due to the length, the multiple service types, the Bay Area scenery and potentially a tie in with the AMTRAK service, I think this would make a great DLC.
Some railfan video I found on Youtube of SMART's freight stuff. I've seen that ex-UP loco in a couple of vids as well as one of the Northwestern Pacific liveries.
One of the things I like best about my favorite routes (Peninsular Corridor, Blackpool/WCML, San Bernadino) is that there's a lot of different things to do and I feel like this would have that. And yeah, I like DMUs, and it'd be nice to have a North American one.
