Train Simulator: The Alaska Railroad: Anchorage - Seward Route Add-On DLC

Before going into review a few things need to be addressed -Headlight flare & ditchlights on the SD70MAC needs to be fixed -Over speed at 49mph while in a 49mph zone needs to be addressed too Over all the route is pretty good and amazing, yes is it quiet slow but its worth it. The scenary is great and the qaulity is at its highest but I am bothered with the old Trainz SD40-2 horn on the SD70MAC. Lucky for mods that's a easy fix. I'd say its worth it at full price. Highly recommend!

Cool route, though I wish they went a bit farther east. Reskined rolling stock for the most part, a few scratch built cars used only on Alaska. Not enough scenarios-9 career scenarios is two sets. Extremly well modeled though

I'm a big fan of heavy duty moutain railroading but too bad I really cannot recommend this route until the graphics issues with the water are corrected. In some areas there is so much 'z' flicker it looks like something from the 1980's. Also the breaks on the MAC are real crap and really need to be patched, the dynamic breaking does not work correctly either...

This route is amazing! The scenery is stunning and and I love it! Great mountain and town scenery throughout!

I know a lot of negative reviewers are saying that a vast majority of the route isn't matching to the scenery in real life. I'll say I've never been to Alaska, but if you do actually compare this to a lot of other TS routes, this is honestly one of the best and most breathtaking experience I've ever had in Train Simulator. I would love to see an extension - but understandably getting a route from Anchorage to Fairbanks would be an overkill distance to cover letalone for a PC to handle. Either way my most enjoyable moment so far is setting the game to max graphics, and driving mid point from Whitter to Anchorage during the sunset, and seeing the ultimate colors of the sun with its reflections off the water. One thing I'd wish to point out that just baffles me. Both the GP38-2 and SD70MAC engines sound decent. They did fine with the horn and bell on the GP38-2. But the SD70MAC, [b] what the heck is that!? [/b] Instead of using a K5LA horn, they put in that default stock sound horn that you'd hear in Trainz when you don't modify a horn. I know the 16N-710G3B sound enhancement pack by SS is supposed to fix that, but that's 3 years ago and it's no longer on sale. Also the bell sound on the SD70MAC is an e-bell... it's not wrong, but you'll see on the side of the locomotive that it shows a pneumatic bell. The least the could do is slap on a pneumatic bell sound and call it a day, or re-texture the bell so it's the e-bell instead. Little things like that bother me too. Either way, if you're still contemplating, [b] GET THIS. [/b] It's an absolutely beautiful route and you won't regret any of it whatsoever!

I'm not sure how this is rated as mostly positive in the store. The DLC is a huge let down overall. Par for the course from dovefail. Pros: - Scenery. The route itself looks pretty good. There are minimal graphic glitches (in some locations the water pops below ground spastically). PC performance is average. - Trains included with the route are based on the prototype. ARR has GP38s and SD70MACs. They are represented in the activities. - There is dispatch audio when the dispatcher is speaking to the player. It's prerecorded and applies only to scripted scenarios but I still think it's a nice touch. They could definitely use this concept across many other routes. Cons: - Sounds. Recycled garbage from many years ago. The Geep sounds like the BN GP38-2 from Chicago-Aurora Racetrack DLC. The SD70MAC has the original SD70 sounds from 2012. - Scenarios are limited. Two sessions broken out into four and three part series. Typical control freak stop-on-a-dime-as-marked or fail the whole scenario. Leaves a lot to be desired for those who understand US, and specifically ARR, operations. - Route is freight only. Not a single passenger car or schedule is even mentioned. The ARR operates an extensive passenger schedule. Real opportunity missed by the devs. - Signals are the original Kuju models introduced to Rail Simulator in 2007. The aspects are generally incorrect. The models are dated, look subpar and have errors which haven't been fixed in 14 years of development/updates. This route needs severe amounts of attention and should not have been released in its current state (again, typical from dovefail). If you enjoy Alaska Railroad operations or want to expand North American content, I highly suggest waiting for a sale greater than 60% discounted. The route is not worth more than about $15 as it stands today.

Well I have just run into an opposing freight train (GP38 & some tank cars) as I headed to Achorage in a QD senario. There was I thinking that this isn't to bad :-). Number of things jump out at me that I feel could need fixing in an update. 1- The road coming out of Seward looks over scale as it has large painted lines on it. 2-The SD70mac has bad light flickering on the number boards when lens flare is active, Poor in cab implementation of switches and a rubbish sounding horn. 3-There is little or very low sound as you go over bridges and switches. 4-No passenger trains, which I thought was one of the main stay of the route. 5-There is a lot of water flickering all over the place. 6- Scenery in areas looks sparse or is missing. 7-Freight all looks default. I feel they could have had some Alaska railroad specific type of loads on the cars. All the above aside. I thing this route overall is not to bad.

Note: It is very obvious that passenger equipment was intended to be included, but was not. You can see this in the first scenario with the GP38. The departure time from Anchorage is 6:45, the exact departure time of the Coastal Classic passenger train, which operates between Anchorage and Seward. Second, when entering the Rainbow passing siding, it literally calls the player train "COASTAL CLASSIC SOUTH," when the train is actually just a pair of geeps. Pros: Very Scenic Route Good Mix of Rolling Stock Good Scenarios Cons: No Passenger Stock, despite the obvious attemp. Hopefully we will see some in the future. Horrible sounds. And I mean really really really bad. Just get some off of RWA and edit the Proxys.

The ARR is a route of missed chances. Firstly it's hardly usable in Quick Drive because there are no radio messages which are necessary to inform you about the track ahead (as there are no track signs). So you find oncoming trains which suddenly enter your track from sidings or just block your track for no reason. Secondly the career scenario's lack every sense of adventure and the line speed is 25–35 mph, which forces you to constantly switch between notch 0 and notch 1. The biggest challenge is trying not to fall asleep ... Thirdly the loco's are hardly equipped with working switches and side windows, which was acceptable in the early years of TS, but not anymore in 2017. In other words: a boring disappointment!

As someone who grew up in Anchorage, Alaska and still lives there, this route was my dream. Heck, I even worked the Coastal Classic route as a tour guide 2 summers in a row. I was estatic for this route when I saw it came out but... I can't reccomend it for MANY glaring issues. The route itself has glaring flaws all over the place. I never expected things to be 100% but come the fuck on... They left out half the city, have factories right in the middle of residential neighborhoods and have the geography all screwed up. Sure they have things vaguely in the right place but seriously... What is a beautiful marsh in real life is now brown low texture hills that just looks cheap. The famous mud flats that extend for nearly half a mile in some places are brown low texture hills which apparantly are now construction zones judging by the heavy equipment everywhere. Its like they used a sat photo from 2003 as their refrence but it was greyscale so they just flipped a coin on if it should be water or brown low quality textures. On top of all that there are so many graphics glitches that it feels more like a route from 2011 than 2017... just.... WHY! They real crime is that they turned one of the most beautiful and stunning routes in all of America, a route that I know like the back of my hand, a route that I've seen make some people cry because of its stunning glory into something "meh".... it really hurts to see the mess that is this route... Its not the little things, its the glaring flaws... the flaws that show that as much effort was probably put into this (at least I hope so) leaves me feeling like it was slapped together in a few weeks... Edit: TL;DR Pros: -One of the most beautiful routes in America. -The tracks are in the right place -Whittier, Portage and Seward are fairly accurate -After playing it for a bit, its a nice route, just wait for a sale Cons: -Some of the geography is wrong. Not all of it, but when its wrong, its REALLY wrong. -MANY graphical issues. -One of the senarios is named "Coastal Classic" which is a famous passenger route but in the game it's just a freight route. -NO FREEKING PASSANGER CARS! Probably to milk you into buying them later however you can get ARR coaches off of the Railworks America webiside for free. Link: http://railworksamerica.com/index.php/download-library/rolling-stock-repaints?view=document&id=1509:arr-lwt-passenger-cars&catid=19:rolling-stock-repaints All in all its a beautiful route that needs a lot of work and deserves better. Get it at least 50% off or more on sale. Asside that its a must have route thats far to cheaply made to be worth the current price. One of the greatest and most beautiful routes in America. If you're ever in Alaska, its worth every penny to take the route yourself and you'll see why this route is such a shame.