Very nice surprise to see this released a day earlier than what DT thought it might be out for, so purchased right away and yay for reward points.
First, at £12.25 this is arguably a steal of a asking price for the work put in, I took a additional £2 off with reward points so got it for £10.25 which is much appreciated and one of the many reasons why I enjoy purchasing from JT.
The package includes 10 named locomotives of the class which is very nice to see and also includes Mansuell Brake, Composite, Third brake and finally Third coach in BR southern green liveries. I personally believe this is great value for money and your getting a complete pack of both the locomotive and accurate passenger stock to be pulled behind the rebuilt light pacific.
Model wise the Rebuilt light pacific is the best digital traction has done thus far and at exceedingly high detail, the entire locomotive is rendered extremely well and takes full advantage of TS2012s shadow, lighting and texturing system. Weather it is accurate to drawings others will have to confirm as I do not have those details but from a look around the locomotive everything seems to be there and modelled in high detail. Livery is top class aswell, its not to dark, its not to light, those who have seen Sir Archibald Sinclair in action might note that the green is a different shade on the real locomotive and not as dark as represented here, but for arguements sake getting a completely accurate real to life colour has always been differcult in digital format, so DT has done a excellent job.
Cab is well represented aswell, however to note it is a modern day era cab with AWS box, the camera view is good and your not right on the controls either and can look around 360 without much in the way to spoil view.
Effects of the locomotive, e.g. lights and smoke are equally good, the cab has multiple togglable light sources which can be found out how to toggle via the manual, it also has full operational on the fly disc codes which are controlled by ctrl+shift+ 1 through 6 keys, lights only toggle on when the disc are present, as noted in the manual. Chuff smoke is well done, and not to aggressive on the particles which is what the light pacific had in the past. Cyclinder cocks open provide a large exshaust of steam infront of the locomotive just like the real thing and the boiler valves release steam regularly and interact with boiler difference in boiler pressure.
Sound wise the rebuilt light pacific is pretty close to the real thing. Chuff beat is the soft yet constant beat which is associated with the rebuilts, the rebuilts do not have a excessively loud chuff beat compared to say a LMS or GWR locomotive, but from what digital traction have recorded it is accurate to what they should be like. One nice thing to note is as the rebuilt light pacific gets up in speed the regular hiss-hiss-hiss-hiss from steam release from the area around the cyclinders becomes present and the chuff beat seems to hold together well.
Whistle is as the light pacific in prior DT release, again this is actually accurate as the locomotives whistles were not replaced in the rebuilding of the locomotives to the new design, it also allows for long drags on the whistle and there is no noticable abrupt cut off or loop of the whistle so its pleasing to hear.
There is a few other sounds which are similar to the light pacific release but its honestly to be expected the two locomotive designs prior and after rebuild were still very similar so in general they would arguably sound quite similar, it doesn't detract or take away from the rebuilt light pacific and to be honest I think the locomotive is well represented in the sound department so it compliments the excellent modelling effort.
Driving her is a pleasure, good responsiveness, braking is pretty good and strong. It has a fair bit of power aswell yet doesn't have the hellcat feel which the light pacific had in prior release, so its not powering up a 1in50 with no sweat on its brow. She accelerates well in a constant manner, not abrupt or to overzealous either and responds well to regulator and reverser levels from what I've driven thus far and also seems to be a fairly decent steamer which I think from what I have read about the rebuilts is pretty close in accuracy.
Overall this package is excellent both for the quality of finish aswell as pricing, its a complete package providing both locomotive and correct passenger stock aswell as on the fly disc code changing and multi-optional cab lighting and a good selection of names for the class it represents. For a complete pack, that being graphics, sound, attention to detail and functionality, DTs rebuilt light pacific is probably one of the best steamers which can be bought for TS2012, add to the fact it utilises the new features brought in by TS2012 without it looking bad or over zealous to.
Detail and model: 10/10
Sound: 9/10
Rolling stock and naming: 10/10
scenarios: 7/10 (I would have liked to see more and maybe JT doing a few for there Exeter route)
So well done Digital Traction, if this is the trend to which you will be following with future releases then I will be putting money down for future purchases, I've waited awhile for this release and certainly don't feel let down.
Ofcourse, this short review wouldn't be anything without atleast a ingame shot(and yes, that is Bath Templecombe route, just a trackswap for woodhead track, hence the different track):
