Great post! I think Train Sim World 3 has the power of immersion. I tried a TSC route yesterday GEML Ipswich. I just felt like a big hole was missing.... didn't enjoy it one bit where 10 years ago yes..... I was on Sherman Hill, Clinchfield and Sand Patch recently too and the sounds oh the sounds!! And being able to walk around it is pure joy! I listened to Matt this morning talk about how they get sounds and sometimes it can be very strict. I totally understand the processes as I am a real life driver. In my company people got fired for the smallest breach. So I would say they all go through inductions to get near track etc and would have a good clue about things. I think DTG staff appreciate the minor details more than we do, although we do! I can imagine the older Geeps and General Electric U boats etc coming. One route comes to mind, the Springfield route, although it can be just a wish for a few years. Those old GP9 locomotives and Alco switchers... the sounds.... But I can't turn on TSC again. So glad Matt put the effort into Clinchfield, the preservation team seems to have revamped the route. I for one do hope the train despatch system is improved someday but no pressure here. I want more single line routes like to Byron from Chicago, enabling freight buffs to enjoy that grainbelt midwest run on the prairies (but at same time giving those passenger buffs some passenger trains(--yes I know DTG doesn't have a Metra license).... You can haul quite a long train with just 2 locomotives when there is no heavy grade. The track out to Byron gets a few railfans on youtube filming and uploading videos. Marias Pass... if done please add 25 miles to the East for flat running and Donner Pass too if done. Stevens Pass is a favourite because it is primarily single track. I drove trains between Perth and Kalgoorlie and apart from a double track (dual gauge too!! 1067mm and 1435mm) to Avon (Northam) it is all single track automatic signaling block system. The challenge of reducing your speed for the loop then entering the loop reducing more to stop at red signals. Good habits are essential. I am also enjoying the Bakerloo line as well as it looks amazing!! I think a drive in the Tokyo Subway Museum simulator (even kids get to have a drive!) helped me get hooked..... Thank you DTG and Matt and team for the passion you put into developing DLC and TSW as a whole. I love it!
I do think moments like this is where TSW shines even though it can be frustrating. I don't use TSC as much as I used to but it can still have great moments. Clanking along a north eastern branch line in a Victorian tank engine with similar age coaches or hauling a heavy coal train into Shildon yard with a noisy NER goods engine is still not something which can be done in TSW and I am not sure we will see much of that sort of what might be described as less popular or more unique content will ever come to TSW.
I love Somerset and Dorset in TSC but I think for me its like going back to Amiga pixel graphics from TSW3..... I think things are gaining momentum quickly now for bringing DLC and routes into TSW3. To have two steam routes already is excellent. I'm excited for new releases coming soon! The German routes are brilliant too! And Rivet's Swiss route Luzern Sursee. Hope we get something out of Zurich to San Galen or similar to Luzern Sursee....
Yes there are some excellent routes. But the two steam routes so far have very empty timetables and many services missing so for me whilst the experience of being on the footplate can feel very alive, TSC still offers much more variety in this regard, as is to be expected. I am too looking forward to the future but hope that some of the older routes like Clinchfield and NTP etc. are revisited in the future.
Preservation crew is doing them up in stages... or going through one or two each month. That is why Sand Patch feels much better than when it was first released. I see people walking on the street now.... I am not sure about 3rd party routes though.
There have always been people walking on the streets on SPG. Also, the ‘Preservation Crew’ has long since disbanded and their illustrious leader no longer works for DTG.
Once again, the " Preservation Crew " is no more. Adam is no longer with DTG and any unfinished work is now handled by a Special Projects team. And there have been no significant changes to SPG. There were always people walking about. ( Ah, posted simultaneously JetWash. I've corrected this poster on this error before, guess he doesn't read responses ).
TSC is good for the routes and trains we know will never appear in TSW but… as I’ve remarked before it doesn’t matter what I play, TSC, Run 8 even the old MSTS stuff in Open Rails. I’m increasingly drawn back to TSW. Even titles like Snowrunner and the truck sims have largely gone on the back burner for now. I keep meaning to replay the Witcher take away the awful taste left by the current S3 on Netflix (they largely tore up the excellent storyline in the books) but TSW still prevails.
The chances of anything being done to those older routes are pretty remote, particularly in light of MP's statement about GWE the other day. Apart from updates to SFJ and OSD, which are looking more and more like vaporware themselves, I wouldn't get my hopes up. Still, you never know. Stranger things, as they say....
I must have completely missed the update to Clinchfield. What changes/ improvements were made? Can you be specific? When did the Preservation Crew do this, because they were disbanded some time ago?
Because it takes you in turn through the various "turns"- that is, the daily or so task of running empty hoppers out the branch lines that serve the mines, exchanging them for loaded cars, then bringing those to a storage area where in turn they will be assembled into mainline trains. Each turn is broken into multiple services, because a long one like Moss can take some 8 hours,. Really fun and really challenging (especially since back in those days, one always had to account for the caboose when breaking down and assembling consists). Remember, nothing on Clinchfield is level, much of those spurs is quite steep, and that old traction, esp the F7, does not perform like an ET44!
I remember being bummed as a kid when cabooses stopped appearing on freight trains. 50 years later, I had to deal with them on Clinchfield and understood why.
