TSW Canadian National Oakville Subdivision route

[PNWR1854]

The thing is though, the 567 sounds are not the improved ones used on the FP7 a few years ago..... They are the ones from back in the RSC days from the GP9. They have no bass and they really should be louder.

[GP15Dash1]

Absolutely agree on the sounds. The horn has got to go, and the engine sounds are...uninspiring.

"Free Roam" isn't. There's no means of controlling remotely operated switches, so it's not possible to simply continue a job beyond the short chunks they're broken up into. I want to make the run from Oakville to Burlington, service the tank facility, and return to the Oakville yard with outbounds all in one go. Or the local from Hamilton Yard into the industrial area. Yes, I can wander the industrial area in the explorer scenario, but I can't then move those cars to Hamilton Yard where the local seems to originate.

On the other hand, I love the visuals. The locomotives look terrific, the route itself is gorgeous, and it's great to see so many cars in the various yards. I also like that it pulls in cars from other North American routes. I've seen quite a few coal gondolas, coil steel cars, and even some empty well cars from HH, plus a gravel car from the Peninsula. There was a tank with a "1267" placard on one of the tanks when I did the Hamilton Explorer scenario, in addition to all the ethanol "1170" tanks.

Rate me "MOSTLY Happy" with Oakville.

[dr1980]

Visually it’s stunning. The locomotives are very well detailed with some nice touches I wasn’t expecting such as bilingual labels in the cab, a ditch light switch on the GP38 that was clearly a retrofit etc. There’s a mini tradition in our local CN yard around Christmas time where crews will turn on a red and green class light on the yard switchers, you can bet with the detailed class light controls I’ll be doing that too

The route is also very well done. I did one run Oakville to Aldershot in winter so today I’ll do one in spring to get a better sense of it when it’s not all snow covered. Having rode this line many times though it looks to have captured the feel quite well.

Two route nitpicks:

1) there are no whistle posts. All crossing on the Oakville sub are silent, but there should still be silent whistle post signs when approaching the crossings. I’m not sure if the crossings in the Hamilton industrial area are silent or not, but there should be signage one way or another.

2) I’d love to see greater variety of crossing infrastructure in the industrial area. If you have a look on google street view, many of the crossings do not have anywhere need the level of gates, lights that are I clouded in the route. They’re also much more rusty and run down looking as you would expect on an industrial branch.

I won’t say much about the sounds other than to agree with everything else that has been said here and to say they are certainly a let down after the great Baby Bullet sounds. It seems like they must have had access to the locomotives given how detailed they are, could they have not brought some sound recording equipment with them? Older CN GP’s often still have brass bells which sound distinct and absolutely wonderful, it would be great to have them in the game.

After running the mainline I think it’s inevitable that we’ll get a future GO Transit DLC. The stations are far too nice looking not to be served, but equally as important the line is just way too desolate without the GO Trains shuttling back and forth. In this section, GO’s Lakeshore West service is every 30 minutes in each direction off-peak, and roughly every 10-20 minutes at peak so they certainly play a key role as traffic on this line too. VIA is there too, but less often. Speaking of GO, I’ll just be over here dreaming of a future route extension into Downtown Toronto to complete the Lakeshore West line...

On the whole i think this is a good route with the potential to be a great route.

[Schnauzahpowahz]

There are audible crossings in the harbor area, Hamilton

I love it back there, some of the single trackage, running between neighborhoods and industries rolling over level crossings one by one.

Just a bit sad we cant get aaaallllllll the way back there

Not to mention the ethanol loading docks are amazingly grimey and just *feel* good being around them

[dr1980]

Has anyone successfully completed the scenario where you build a train of autoracks in Oakville then transport them to Hamilton? I built the train, but when I went to set off for Hamilton I could not get about 7mph. It felt like there were brakes dragging somewhere in the consist. I did walk the train and confirm that all handbrakes are released and I also did a full set and release of the train brake.

I would think that two GP9’s should be able to pull that train faster than 7mph.

[Schnauzahpowahz]

Did you have the brakes cut in to freight? The knob between the auto and indy brake levers?

Maybe also check the banking comms on

[dr1980]

I believe i did have the brakes cut in to freight, but perhaps I missed something when switching engines. What’s the banking comms?

[Schnauzahpowahz]

From what i gather (in theory) it acts as a remote to utilize the other engines from the lead.
But to be honest i dont fully understand it, i just turn it on to be safe

even without it set, one of these locos shoudlve been able to pull the string of cars fairly well

[dr1980]

Thanks, I reloaded my save in that scenario tonight and everything seems to be moving fine, mark that up as a weird glitch I guess!

[jtousign]

I have completed the six scenarios so far and I must say that I love that route, the engines and the rolling stock. It is a short route of course but a big potential in the near future I hope.

[mjlevy1118]

I'm tempted to keep my two cents to myself as I am not a freight enthusiast and didn't purchase this route, so I obviously have little right to complain about the sounds in this DLC. But the many complaints from longtime fans about the crappy horns in this release are disturbing. Any game's audioscape plays a huge role in establishing a complete, virtual world, so it's really disappointing that the developers chose to recycle a very old, very dated, very inadequate horn sample. I think any railfan would agree that the horn or whistle is the "soul" or "voice" of the locomotive, and I'm frankly flabberghasted that the TSW developers could get this very basic element of railfanning so wrong. It's almost like they don't understand trains themselves, or don't seem to understand the appeal of what drives people to like trains, like for starters, hearing a thunderously powerful whistle that commands your attention.

It makes me nervous that the inevitable first release of a steam engine - whatever the first model ends up being - will end up coming with a stupid on/off whistle sample, further undercutting one of the most well-known and beloved elements that everyone associates with trains. Only time will tell.

[jtousign]

Very well said mjlevy1118. The horn on the CN engines in Train Sim World is a little better than usual although not loud enough There is only one provider who has understood that fact: Searchlight Simulation, from far the best horn sound, bell and rolling stock ever released!

[OpenRailer90]

The thing is though, the 567 sounds are not the improved ones used on the FP7 a few years ago..... They are the ones from back in the RSC days from the GP9. They have no bass and they really should be louder.

because the F7 ones have exhaust rumble files laid over the original GP9 567 audio, making it sound better. Plus separate interior files instead of just muffling the exterior audio

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

The Czech guy with his expert hacking skills had removed the invisible walls and is exploring the world beyond the barrier, which composes of half the industrial trackage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0tDsjKogIA

Now, if and when the promised editor finally arrives, would one be able to open these areas and finish them properly?

[BigBoyMoon]

My takes:
Physics: Meh, the GP9 doesn't slip like, ever, even on wet rail with rain coming down. Same goes for the 38, needs better tractive effort scripting and transition, it doesn't last as long as they've simulated it to be, and there's a bunch of relays you would hear clicking that you currently do not. They feel overly power, but it could just be all the cars magically being empty. They also load agonizingly slow compared to the Geeps I've ran
Sounds: GP9, same old recycled 567 that's somehow drier than it was 10 years ago. None of the relays clicking when changing direction, no spitters, etc. GP38, same recycled stuff that came with HH. Horns: garbage from 20 years ago, seriously?! They have the GP38 modeled with an ebell but have a mechanical bell sound? Someone dun goofed.
The route itself: pretty decent I guess, not from the area. It's really pretty, seems to be some stuff recycled from G-trax in various locations. A lot of it is locked out so you can't access it which makes NO sense, I wanna switch cars not run nothing but transfers. They have every station modeled so expect GO Transit eventually.
Models: GP9RM, very well done, having worked with a couple it looks the part. GP38, it's a non DB GP38; not much to say about that. Someone noted that the GP9RM didn't have GMD steps modeled whereas the GP38 did, so there could be a discrepancy there
Minor nitpicks: Banking comm to set up analog GP9s? Uhhh, what? Furthermore why is it on the DISP tone button? Makes no sense. The stock is recycled for the most part from other routes, I wish it had more variety. The approach signals are *orange* for whatever reason. The runs feel....exceedingly short. I was hoping for a run that took longer than 25 minutes, but I guess they gotta appeal to the console market somehow.
I'd say its worth it if you got the route on sale, but not worth $30. The rest are the usual TS nitpicks everyone knows about or has already been mentioned.
Sidenote: I hope the GP9RM comes in to TS2020, I'd love to see some community reskins