My review of Milepost Simulations "CP Canadian Mountain Passes"

[thecanadianrail]

So I decided to write a personal review of the route that was just released featuring CP's Kicking Horse Pass and Rogers Pass. I felt like I could give a good review for others to read since I personally have driven over the route a few times myself in real life.

The route uses many RSC assets from other routes for many of its objects but does have a number of custom structures and objects that were created specifically for this route. Milepost really captured the feel of the area with the route for me from what I can remember and what I have photographed from my times in the area, although due to the limits of railworks it cant be the exact same as it is in real life. There are many good features about the route and there is also a few negative things about it too. Good things I can find are things like how the track placement in most areas is very accurate, thick forests which give a good depth of how lush the area is with growth, and prototypical rolling stock among other things. Some negative things I found are (some are RSC's fault) the roads used in the route are of the really shotty default cajon pass roads which are scaled completely wrong, missing reporting marks on most rolling stock, and the water in the rivers and lakes are the wrong color for the region; the water in the area is mostly glacier fed and has a very light blue color to it. (look at pictures of the river around Lake Louise) But if you can look past the few negative things about this route (which isn't really too many) The rolling stock for this route also have the new braking physics which greatly increases the realism of handling a heavy freight train although the delay from applying brakes to the pressure in your brake cylinder seems a few seconds too long in some cases. I think you will find yourself with something that gives you a true feel for mountain railroading at its finest.

What it includes that's worth speaking of:

-2 mountain passes in 1 route; rogers pass and kicking horse pass
-many prototypical buildings and other structures from the area
-prototypical rolling stock for the route
-ES44AC
-Cylindrical grain hopper (prototypical up to last year, now all read only CP not CPWX as they have been patched after the grain board was disbanded)
-3 bay potash hopper (has CanPotash logo which is a neat knockoff of the real one which reads CanPotex)
-50ft highcube (missing reporting marks and logo)
-60ft boxcar (this one is missing the marks and logo too, but this car sucks I wish rsc would stop using it)
-89ft autorack (has CP reporting marks)
-default tank car (boring)
-Intermodal car (missing reporting marks)
-coal hopper (missing reporting marks)
-4 chute covered hopper (missing reporting marks)

Pros:

-new rolling stock
-good scenery
-custom structures
-proper names for sidings
-realistic quick drive consists which are correct for this section of CP's routes
-its Canadian

Cons:

-Missing reporting marks on rolling stock
-water has the wrong shade of blue for the area
-braking still needs some tweaking here and there since its something new and still has a few bugs
-spur for the sawmill at golden is missing
-couplers are a tad stretchy and makes the end of the train bounce back and forth a little

Overall I would give this route a 9.2 out of ten

How it stacks up to some other routes in my opinion:

Stevens Pass 9.6
Mountain Passes 9.2
Sherman Hill 8.8
Marias Pass 8.3
Surfliner 8.0

I would recommend this route to anyone who is interested in mountain freight operatons or someone who likes to look at scenery, its a great route. Also if you don't like what I have said in my review and would like to comment please do but nothing ignorant, remember this is just my opinion, yours may differ.

[bpetit]

They made a pretty good attempt at the braking system I think.

[NSrailfan6130]

Pros: Its Canadian

That's good stuff, and so true

[thecanadianrail]

They made a pretty good attempt at the braking system I think.

yes its way better than what was originally used in every other addon, but since it is relatively new to us and rsc there is still some room for fine tuning which im sure they will do in future releases.

[Bananarama]

Nice review, which helped me decide to spend more money.

[Darpor]

Thanks for the review. I'm still undecided but you are swaying me.

[buzz456]

Just make sure you are good with a very long slow mountain end to end route because that's what you get.

[thecanadianrail]

Just make sure you are good with a very long slow mountain end to end route because that's what you get.

Not entirely, if you leave Golden going west/north the track speed for freight is 50mph for quite a few miles. Although other than that speeds will be around 20-30mph for freight for the rest of the route.

[Chacal]

Not much of a switching route then?

[NSrailfan6130]

So there's not really a big yard in the route, mostly mainline action?

[SuperTux]

I switched braking difficulty to 4, might as well learn to do it at the highest setting and is it or does it really change the way these trains feel? I think it might be the first time I have had to really think ahead to take account of braking as it feels really heavy :)

[OldProf]

Not much of a switching route then?

The route features only two yards, at Revelstoke and Golden. The Revelstoke facilities include a large wye and some 20 yard tracks. Golden offers fewer and longer sidings and the route's only fuel points and identified locomotive sidings, leaving engineers with low fuel levels completely out of luck at Revelstoke, which does not strike me as realistic. Unfortunately, all sidings have a single, end-to-end track marker. I haven't examined the signaling situation in either yard. Beyond these two yards, industrial sidings along the way are literally few and far between. One of the supplied scenarios features switching at Golden and, for once, is timetabled to allow some driving flexibility. I've only found one interactive site: a "Woodchip Pickup" located in Revelstoke East that I haven't tested yet.

So, overall, this route is designed for long freight hauls, as indicated clearly by the majority of its supplied scenarios and the lack of an engine suitable for switching.

I just took a look at RSC's roster of Canadian DLC, which includes 1) SD70 Vol. 2: SD70M in CN livery; 2) CN SD40-2 WideNose; and 3) EMD GP9: CN livery; but lacks CP equipment.

I wouldn't be surprised to see some CP DLC engines appear soon, but perhaps a re-painter could offer proper motive power and additional freight cars as Marketplace items?

[JohnTrainHead]

Just make sure you are good with a very long slow mountain end to end route because that's what you get.

Not entirely, if you leave Golden going west/north the track speed for freight is 50mph for quite a few miles. Although other than that speeds will be around 20-30mph for freight for the rest of the route.

There are 50 mph speed limits between Eldon and Lake Louise, too.

[Chacal]

I'll wait for the summer sale; long end-to-end drives are not my thing. I already have Donner Pass for that.