Atomic Systems

As the title says, what is, in your opinion, the best freeware route available for TS2014?

I'm asking this as I want to try something fresh, but I'm not too fussed on forking out yet another £24.99

I would ask that suggested routes are quick drive compatible, and preferably don't require Isle of Wight, however if you really feel that strongly about how good the route is, feel free to post it anyway!

Regards,

- Matt

You'll get a long list of answers with that question....

so, in no particular order:

UKTS Freeware Route Pack - North East Rails [70836465 bytes] - UKTS Freeware Route Pack - North East Rails v1.0.4.exe File ID: 31976 Date: 21 Nov 2013 - 3110 Downloads

UKTS Freeware Route Pack - The Mayflower Line [96350671 bytes] - UKTS Freeware Route Pack - The Mayflower Line v2.0.0.exe File ID: 27701 Date: 12 May 2012 - 5704 Downloads

UKTS Freeware Route Pack - Great Central Railway [70690953 bytes] - UKTS Freeware Route Pack - Great Central Railway v3.0.14.exe File ID: 31726 Date: 23 Oct 2013 - 3298 Downloads

That's only scratching the surface, there are many fine routes in the file library and your only real limitation is what era interests you.

The Grand Central Railway has caught my eye a few times, but I have neither the Isle of Wight or Somerset & Dorset sadly.

With regards to this (although they're payware), Somerset & Dorset and Western Lines of Scotland look nice but the only thing that puts me off is that they don't come with any new locos, or at least not to my knowledge. Are they still worth it?

Regards,

- Matt

This one must be the best, surely? *sarcasm*

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... =226253596

Maybe, but look at all the DLC's you need for it.
I can sympathise with the OP, this last two weeks I've spent WELL over £100* on Steam,
and I would wish (at least) some route builders would only take account of free stuff available.



* - Good job I'm single else something dangly would be for the chop

MattH2580 wrote:The Grand Central Railway has caught my eye a few times, but I have neither the Isle of Wight or Somerset & Dorset sadly.

davep wrote:and I would wish (at least) some route builders would only take account of free stuff available.

It's a perennial problem, or at least a problem for those new to the game, but you have to consider that many of those building routes have been with the game quite a while, and honing their skills to bring us the best thay can. Because they're often veteran users they'll have the routes that were once 'default' (S&D, formerly known as Bath-Teplecombe) and the IOW has always been widely used--it was probably the first large add on for the game and was eagerly snapped up.
The poor guys are really in a no-win situation; on one hand they get slammed for using DLC assets but if they didn't they'd get slammed for not using the best assets available.

If the trackwork and signalling from a payware route are used you have very little choice but to get the route but if it's scenery objects that have been used luckily RW Tools (http://www.rstools.info/downloads.html) can be your best friend. Not an ideal situation, granted, but as the download and installation of a free (lets not have the old discussion about how much the internet connection or the electricity used costs please) route is ....well, free it only costs you time to download (let the PC do it overnight---you lose next to nothing then) and install it, and then run it through RW Tools to see what's actually missing. Many scenery objects have been duplicated across DLC routes too, so you may find you don't have ..\Assets\SouthOfEnglandRoute\DetachedHouse.bin but you do have ..\Assets\JustSlightlyMoreNorthThanTheSouthOfEnglandRoute\DetachedHouse.bin which is exactly the same model; maybe with a new frock on but a model that will do the job nicely.

Even with what seems to be a huge list of missing items generated by RW Tools you can often run a route without realising anything is missing, OK if you fly about the route and drop into that housing estate 200 yards from the track you might find a few 'milk bottles' (a milk bottle denotes a missing scenery item) but in many cases you'd be surprised how good a supposedly 'incomplete' route can be.

Well, I think the Western Lines of Scotland is of the most exciting steam-era routes available. Worth every penny, I'd say. It does come with a variety of weathered Black 5s, which seem much harder to drive (to me) than the RS Black 5 as they seem to be "all on or all off". Makes shunting nearly impossible. I wish I could fix that. Anyway, with or without the locos, WLoS is top drawer and is where I go for a gritty urban experience. I'm sooooo glad I got it!

Two wonderful branch lines are at Steam Workshop. GNoSR, though it needs WLoS, Falmouth and Woodhead.

High Wycombe, which also needs Woodhead, and alas Isle of Wight. This is a spectacular branch line for which I bought Woodhead, just to be able to use Wycombe (plus you get an 8F with Woodhead!!).

It's so odd, as a free route may require 2, 3 or even a half dozen payware routes to run, yet any payware route normally requires only itself. gptech's thoughts really nail the issue for route builders and users. Definitely a rock and a hard place. As he suggests, if it's a route you're really interested in, D/L it and try your luck. It may not show at all, or it may run fine, and you may not be aware of the missing outhouse, cows in the field, the odd building here and there, or some absent foliage which you could even fill in yourself. At least freeware is free, and you haven't lost much except time and maybe a little disappointment in the event that it doesn't work.

Good Luck,
tagsdm

I would get the central route but the uk buildings pack from steam is gone

GNoS route from Steam is a lovely route.Try it,its in the Workshop.

I wouldn't like to give an opinion on the best freeware route. I've run so many in the past.
At the moment my UK freeware routes alone on various Assets/Content folders are...(in no particular order)
Shethorpe and Whitley
Candlewick
Coniston Branch
Crouch Valley 3
Falmouth GWR
Four Counties
GNoSR Lines
GCR
North East Rails
Settle Carlisle
Settle to Carlisle 1975
South Devon Banks
The Bournemouth Line
The Lymington Branch
Wales and Borders
WCML London and the Midlands
(DPS) East Coast Mainline-North East
IOW Network
Laneshaw Bridge
Cresston
Cambridgeshire Lines
..and I'll probably add Birmingham 2010 soon
All very good but I'll never get round to playing all the scenarios available
Also a lot of German,Austrian and Italian routes on another Assets/Content folder

If I had to choose the best I would say Hamburg-Bremen from Railsim.de but that is just a personal opinion. They are all good.

deltic1981 wrote:I would get the central route but the uk buildings pack from steam is gone

It was available at Dereks own site, http://www.dereksiddle.com/2.html but this seems to be down for maintenance at the moment. Anybody have an alternative URL?

davep wrote:Maybe, but look at all the DLC's you need for it.
I can sympathise with the OP, this last two weeks I've spent WELL over £100* on Steam,
and I would wish (at least) some route builders would only take account of free stuff available.

* - Good job I'm single else something dangly would be for the chop

One of the reasons I like the Mayflower Line because you don't need anything extra apart from what is on UKTS.

749006 wrote:One of the reasons I like the Mayflower Line because you don't need anything extra apart from what is on UKTS.

Same goes for any of the 'Challenge' routes:

http://www.uktrainsim.com/rbchallenge/one.php
http://www.uktrainsim.com/rbchallenge/two.php

gptech wrote:

749006 wrote:One of the reasons I like the Mayflower Line because you don't need anything extra apart from what is on UKTS.

Same goes for any of the 'Challenge' routes:

http://www.uktrainsim.com/rbchallenge/one.php
http://www.uktrainsim.com/rbchallenge/two.php

Personally though I'd avoid the East Kent Branch Line though (its horrible - i made it so i can say that - but if you look up the south downs lines though that would be an updated one !) - if its still mentioned there of course! Edit - It seems that the East Kent Branch Line disappeared (it was 5th in the second challenge)

gptech wrote:

deltic1981 wrote:I would get the central route but the uk buildings pack from steam is gone

It was available at Dereks own site, http://www.dereksiddle.com/2.html but this seems to be down for maintenance at the moment. Anybody have an alternative URL?

G'day, I was looking at the "Candlewick" route but as stated above the uk buildings pack seems to be no longer available which kind of puts the snafu on that.
Regards
Barrie