do not be put off by those people who seem to want perfection because it often is not available.
Quite true, however it has to be said that if I am spending my hard earned on a payware product I do expect a degree of attention to detail, like you get in freeware routes these days, not a big ask is it?
Or indeed for other commercial routes at a similar price.
I don't think anybody is seeking perfection, however when you pay a premium price for a commercial route, its not entirely unreasonable to expect a premium product.
As for all the signalling being correct, its mostly alright but as discussed in this thread and others, there are a couple of locations with problems (3 aspect signals too closely spaced for the line speed and incorrect signalling on the Forth bridge both lead to unavoidable SPADs).
I'm glad some are entirely satisfied with the route, but given the length of time the route was in production, and the quality of other commercial routes, some of us expected a little more.
smarty2 wrote:....Yes I know its Scotland but they do have electricity! (even if it is water powered)
Isn't all electricity water powered?.....I think they've worked out it's the best thing they can get hold of to produce the steam to drive the turbines.
Doesn't that mean then that all those clean electric trains are really steam trains?
PENDOSTEAMO
For disclosure, I am affiliated with a third party developer however, I do not know anything about any future releases unless I'm working on them and even then, I'd be breaking years worth of built up trust to say anything about it
pjt1974 wrote:Doesn't that mean then that all those clean electric trains are really steam trains?
PENDOSTEAMO
Yep, even if any were powered by hydro-electric means such as the power generated by Dinorwig (http://www.fhc.co.uk/dinorwig.htm) as that uses steam generated electricity (off peak rates though, so it's sort of green ) to power the pumps to fill up Marchlyn Mawr ready for the next generating session.
If you ever visit the area, in my opinion a trip on the Llanberis Lake Railway and then a tour round Dinorwig beats going up Snowden.
Well as mentioned I held off from this, but today I finally folded and bit the bullet. Previously 2 things where holding me back.
1) Only modern day scenarios (Not keen on modern stuff, give me BR Blue or Steam any day. Yes I know I can make my own scenarios, but when you get a new route you just want to drive)
2) Mixed reviews in this very thread.
What swung it was the promise of the route itself. Iconic Forth bridge, Mainline action and lets face it something new. Despite the misgivings I am glad I did. Its excellent, no really its rather good. Ill tell you why.
My favorite pastime in RWs is pelting along a mainline, preferably in something that takes coal or at least diesel. I like the feeling of going somewhere, I like looking out the window and watching the landscape fly by. I find it relaxing, and fun.
I already owned WCMLN, Bristol - Exeter, Edinburgh to Glasgow and ECML part 1 from CR. I love them all, and perhaps my favorite is WCML. So as you can imagine I was interested when I learnt about this route.
The area it covers is great, there is some totally unique scenery here not found in other routes, and it covers a fair distance. So starting out from Edinburgh I automatically compare it to Edinburgh in the recently updated E-G route. SECMLs version is a lot nicer. E-G is good, but here there is a lot more to see. As a consequence the FPS take a hit. On my system they drop to 14 (Thats via fraps, not the useless in-game FPS Counter). In the scenario I was playing (HST To Dundee) there seemed to be loads of AI and loose consists, so perhaps that's the reason for such low FSP. TBH I get the same driving out of Glasgow in WCML, I can live with it, the line speed is slow, so 14fps not a deal breaker.
Heading out we turn to the north and head to the Forth Rail Bridge. This has to be the entire point of the route (For me at least) a chance to drive across it. It doesn't disapoint. The bridge is amazing, a fantastic job and now Ive left Edinburgh and the AI hordes, my FPS are at the mid to high 20s.
As we continue I am waiting for the green flag to drop as so often does on the main lines. What I mean is the speed restriction to rise, slam the power lever into full and let her rip. Surprisingly it never comes. The line twists and turns, up along the coast burrowing through the centre of Scottish towns. As mentioned before in this thread, its like driving a race track. Actually its driving heaven, I notice im running a bit late, but cant just thrash the time back. I have to eek out the seconds in short straights, braking for the corners, and all the time hoping for a nice run to claw back the time. Good fun!
As I continue there is plenty to see. Quite a bit has been said about default assets and a repition of scenery. Whilst the same scenic items have be reused, each town feels unique. Yes its the same church spire, but really quite a lot of churches look the same. Besides im keeping an eye on the road ahead. There is some nice trackside signage that keeps me occupied/informed and certainly the heather and thistles haven't been seen before. To me this feels like the Port Road route only with huge bridges and it goes on for miles!
We cut back inland now, speeds rise a bit, but still below 100, Im keeping a eye on the clock, things are tight. I cant really relax for 1 moment.
Finally we approach Dundee. Across the Tay and down the incline of the bridge straight into the station. Made some time up, but have to do better next try.
It was a great run along a great route. I wasnt bored for a second.
The route is great, it would be even better with some 80s scenarios. Given the inclines and bends a heavy freight would be cool, as would any time tabled passenger run.
If I had to pick some negatives, I would firstly mention the Just Trains Bill Boards and buses. Basically every form of advertising mentions Just Trains. Its an immersion killer and to me pointless. Yes I know about just trains already, you see I just bought this route from them. Being bombarded is stupid and undoes some of the careful work that's been poured into this route.
The second is the water. This of course is no fault of the route, but crossing the Forth bridge (and others) the water looks more like the Med than a British river. Same goes for the Sea along the coast.
Finally as mentioned this route is crying out for scenarios set earlier. I understand the scenery may not match 100%, but there is loads of atmosphere which could be added to by using older stock. I think running a kettle down this route would be amazing (no lame railtours please) and if you squinted a bit I think parts could pass for the 1960s or earlier.
So all in all its a great route, get it. With the caveat that you need a half decent PC to run it (around Edinburgh). Whats more, the entire ECML is being filled in as far as RWs is concerned. Whilst I know that the individual routes cant be joined up, a series of scenarios allowing you to run from Dundee all the way to Peterborough would be amazing.
and doesn't that just put things into perspective?...minor inaccuracies aside, 'work arounds' because of how RW deals with things, they all don't matter if you get pleasure out of running the route. If you can shut down your PC at the end of the night with a smile on your face what is there to moan about? (other than having to shut down the PC and not carry on playing of course )
The route gave an extremely good atmosphere under dusk lighting and I was enjoying it until a freak AI collision which no one else seemed to have experienced in the 185 minute scenario. The Class 166/170 timings are extremely generous so need to give the HST ones a try if it's as tight as SquidvT describes!
I'm having issue with the Edin to Dundee Scenario, it seems an AI train (SR8) SPAD'd just before Cupar and smashed into my train while i'm waiting for departure.
He did say in the email he was pulling the 170 scenarios and uploading them again after he had tweaked out some issues.
Andy
Hold tight feel the driver's bite, hear the whistle moan
Engine rockin' to the left and right, vibratin' in my bones
When a locomotive steal your soul, you got a Casey Jones
- Ridin' With The Driver
Mully did tell me there would be a small patch fixing any small issues then maybe a larger patch later on to fix any more pressing issues.
For disclosure, I am affiliated with a third party developer however, I do not know anything about any future releases unless I'm working on them and even then, I'd be breaking years worth of built up trust to say anything about it
(even if it is water powered)
)
