I've been finding that the EMUs have been my favourite trains to drive so far and I'm getting to a reasonable collection of them. The class 323 happens to be one I don't yet have and I am interested in changing that. However, given that both Birmingham Cross City and the new Glossup Line add ons include this train, I'm not sure which is better. Furthermore, Bcc is much longer but Glossup has a lower price point which complicates it further. Thats why I'm asking you guys. Which one is better and is either of them worth getting in your opinions? Thank you.
Birmingham Cross City is seeming to be the more popular in the poll. Other than the superior length, what else about the Cross City line makes it worth getting?
Has a bit more service variety than Glossop, since you have the options of terminating at either Four Oaks or Lichfield Trent Valley in the north, and the south has two separate lines, one going to Redditch and one going to Bromsgrove. I also find the layers from the RHTT to be quite good. The route has West Midlands Railway branding at each of the stations, makes it more realistic. Those are some good traits that make me like Birmingham Cross City. Though of course, Glossop Line has the huge advantage of being significantly cheaper than Birmingham. That's always good.
BCC because if you own other British Routes they provide layers to it for example SEH with TVL you get BYA services over the Lickey Incline. Autumn RHTT gets stuck behind the 323.
For a Depot you have to go with glossop, which is also a great route. There you have the ardwick depot. Bcc is way longer but soho depot is cutted off. You should consider getting both!
Tough call. Glossop looks to be the more polished route and the empty Man Picc is slightly less incongruous than the empty New Street. However BCC gives a much longer run - all stations from Bromsgrove or Redditch to Lichfield TV is around 80 minutes = 25k AP if that floats your boat. Personally I would say get both. The 323 is an excellent train far better (IMHO) than the just launched Class 700 particularly the sounds.
Get both if you can. I think on pure looks, Glossop is the better looking route. It’s very well done. However, after a week, I’m getting a bit bored of it. BCC has more variety and a much longer run. But the lack of traffic in New Street does make the route feel empty. If I could only keep one, I’d keep BCC there is just more to do.
I would say BCC as there is a bit more meat to it on the surface, though I have still held off Glossop.
I refuse to buy a 13 mile "route" (unless it's for a a cycling ride), and a rehashed train. Sorry but people that have bought the trollop line are just encouraging DTG to be even more lazy in the future.
It isn't always about the length. Isle of wight is even shorter and I really enjoy it. You know that the route took a lot of effort and time to make. Just because it's short doesn't mean it's easier. If you think it is easy, go do it. The route is anything but lazy.
Service time is a better gauge of route length, Bakerloo for instance is only 14mi but jam-packed full of stops and a relatively low max speed means it still takes ~45min to do an A-B run.
I personally would go for Birmingham cross city because it has a lot more variety and services and different destinations. Birmingham also has services that are half hour to a full hour or two depending what you're in the mood for. I like. GLOSSOP line as well and it's good for short gameplay, 32 to 34 minute services, but honestly feels very dead as you only see one train for a run which I think that's the biggest take away from the route. It does have class.66 services which are OK, but nothing special. Hopefully in the future, it would benefit to add another train to the route. Maybe make me the timetable a lot more.
Really small thing, but in my opinion, I think the Class 323 looks cooler in the West Midlands Railway livery than the Northern livery.
Glossop is okay and the route is in nicely made apart from a couple of terrain and scenery inaccuracies which have been pointed out, but hey no one expects a 1:1 replica in a £20 computer game. It’s horses for courses and if you want a quick 35 or 40 minute run you can do in one session it’s ideal, as opposed to the 80 minute grind going all stations Bromsgrove to Lichfield TV.
Lazy?! When you see the detail that goes into a route and think about how many people have likely worked on it and the train then I think your charge of them being lazy is at best disingenuous and at worst downright insulting to those who work on such things. You also might want to consider that the route has generally been well received.
Here's my take since I'm not invested that much in ether one. Now don't get me wrong this doesn't mean the routes are not any good. Not at all. In fact I think the 323 is one of the best modelled trains in the game. And I think there's a lot of details that went on both routes. Both are complete runs which you can't say that about many routes in the game including the very popular SEHS. So BCC is the longer of the two. I think is 37 miles long. Could be a drag since it takes an average of 1 hour and 15 minutes to complete. The big issue is you have Birmingham station completely empty. Glossop line takes about 35 minutes, is a short run, I don't like the triangle path at Dinting. That part of the line to me personally is a drag. But with that said, they did a good job with filling Manchester with AI trains. It feels busy and you feel part of a big network. The big issue that I have with both equally is the night lighting. So It depends what you like. They are both good routes in my opinion.
Best take in the thread tbh. It’s all about what OP wants. BCC is nice. And the 323 is great, but anything over an hour in a commuter EMU making stops every mile or so… just ends up feeling super grindy for me. That’s why I end up playing glossop and it’s 35 minute runs way more. But really it’s all up to OP’s preference- there’s a few really good, shorter ECS on BCC though. Lazy take tbh, shows how little you’ve looked into the route beyond “muh 13 miles”
One thing I would agree with, having both routes, is that I do have to be in the mood for BCC as most runs, as said are quite long. However being local I can say they have captured it very well, from the rural areas on the north and south ends of the route then going through the suburbs into the modern city centre that is Birmingham. Just don't expect it to look like that in the dark as you could be in the middle of the serengeti! I do especially like the stretch between Sutton Coldfield and New Street especially the area around Spaghetti Junction. Some services which don't stop a Barnt Green mean you can get some speed up south of Longbridge and of course you have the Lickey Incline too.
Thank you everybody for your help. I ended getting more responses than I expected. I've decided to buy the Birmingham Cross City Line and although I haven't had the chance to do a full run yet, I was impressed at the little preview run I did. The 323 is excellent, definitely worth having one in my collection. I like the unique sound and interestingly, it also seems to be one of the only EMUs in the game that doesn't have a top speed limiter, allowing it to breach the 200kph mark. Once I've had a chance to do a full run on the Cross City route, I'll post my thoughts here.
Whole heartedly disagree. I'm someone who likes being able to complete a full run, but not have the time to do the 90+ minute services of BCC. At least with Glossop, I get to actually use the 323, where BCC is a once in a blue moon route. Most of my favourite routes are the shorter ones, (besides WSR), because they are just more enjoyable (IOW, Ariosa, Glossop etc)
I don't think there's anything wrong with a shorter route as long as the price reflects the fact that it has less content than normal. My mind often leaps to the idea that longer route = better route and better value for money but thats not really true. Who in their right mind would want a 200mile route that had basically nothing to see or do on that route? The most important thing is whether the content is interesting and engaging, not just the size. With that said, the price of the route should reflect what you are actually getting. I personally do not think its appropriate for a 15mile route with 1 train included to cost the same as a 50 mile route with 3 trains included. That's part of why I was considering Glossup. It is a much shorter route but this time, they acknowledged that by lowering the price to suit. Hopefully, they continue that trend with future DLCs.
Indeed. Something like the West Highland Line all the way from Glasgow to Mallaig or Far North Inverness to Wick would be a dream come true, but all you would have are the three or four trains a day in each direction that take 4 or 5 hours to traverse the route. With only the one save slot you would be stuck finishing that run until you could play anything else.
If they included multiple new rolling stock, a full timetable and had no major bugs then it would be. Otherwise, no
I own both and like them both very much. However I feel the Glossop is more interesting. Although shorter it doesn’t become tedious like BCC. If it’s affordable get both.
Depends on the era, up to 1988 the WHL had a decent amount of Freight. They recast the timetable and Speedlink ending cut it down. The Enterprise of Transrails and EWS days saw a bit more again. Far North always been sparse but again Pre Sprinter days had a lot more including a mail train iirc and Invergordon saw a bit of freight also. BR doesn't sell though so back to the zzzzz
Ah yes the freight would add to it definitely. Still long runs so you would need more than one save slot. I have the SIAM Inverness 1970 game tucked away somewhere and I recall Milburn Yard was very busy at that time. There was the daily freight to and from Wick, the Lairg Oil trip, several workings to and from Invergordon plus the through freight to Muir of Ord for the grain terminal. So yes, a period Inverness to Lairg route could be quite a busy little railway.
