Train Simulator: Norfolk Southern C39-8 Loco Add-On DLC

HOTD doesn't work, even after following the instructions in the manual. Get the CSX C30-7 instead, the HOTD on that one works. Refunded this DLC. (Sorry if this isn't a helpful review, but I wanted to warn people somehow. I hope VRC will fix the scripts for this locomotive - because then I'll give this DLC a fair review)

Over all a very good representation of this locomotive. Only thing I don't like is the ditch lights. But besides that its great!

Definitely a nice addition to your east coast railroading collection. The C39-8 is definitely more intricately modeled than other standard DLC, with you being able to open the hood doors, engine starting bay, compressor cabinet, electronics cabinet, and even the bathroom in the nose of the locomotive. The sounds included sound nice, and the interactivity of the controls is a lot of fun. The locomotive also has 3D snow in the winter time, and comes with a clean and weathered version. The biggest issue with this locomotive is the same reason they aren't around IRL today, the cab. The windows feel like your looking through something the size of a modern iPhone, and the window tint makes it hard to see. That, on top of the locomotive being long hood forward, makes it not as fun to run as other locomotives. For $10 on sale, it's definitely worth your time, however $20 would be stretching it a little.

Bought on sale. It is certainly different. If you like NS stuff, you'd honestly be wrong not to have this in your fleet. It takes a bit to get used to, but very rewarding when you figure it out.

Only recommended for AI. The included scenarios seem to be broken as a lot of guess work has to be done to prevent a Game Over message. Very weak brakes and bad scripting. Not really playable and clearly wasn't tested and quality checked before release to the public. Avoid!

Oh my God the negative reviews on this store page are just disappointing. The fact that there are humans that think with their dicks instead of their brains is really frustrating. This locomotive dlc is absolutely astonishing and impressive. I've been a train kid since I was first introduced to them. But seeing so many people complain about the locomotive not working right is just insulting to those who actually use their brains and take time to figure out how things work rather than jumping the gun and just pressing every button in the cab. Before you even think about posting a negative review that has to do with the functionality of the locomotive, make sure you read the fucking manual you morons because no one wants to see you complain all day because your IQ is that of a rock.

Id like to start of by saying, VRC's products are top of the line made for people who want a more in-depth experience in locomotive operation, thus the products they designs are nearly identical to their real world counterparts. Norfolk Southern's fleet of C39-8's were setup to run long hood forward for whatever reason that may be and thats how VRC replicated it, exactaly as they were in revenue service. Don't listen to the reviews saying that its wrong because this (long hood forward) is how the locomotives are setup to operate. Pros: Highly realistic operation down to the miunte details Very interactive, almost all switches are flippable and so many cab views and interactive little details Lifelike start and stop sequences Highly detailed models and sounds Nice scenarios to complement Cons: Unfortunatly as with most VRC content, if you have too many lights on it turns into a lagfest on computers that aren't top of the line Locomotive bell and horn are pretty 'default' and are seen on some of the DLC released by DTM or DTG, but may not bother some Takes quite some effort to use the automatic brakes or dynamic brakes, might be better off throwing chalks down on the wheels while moving at 45Mph down a hill than using dynamic brakes Overall this is a quality locomotive that any Norfolk Southern or US railroad lover should have, could definatly use a touchup in some areas but this is a definate must have!

I am a huge fan of the C39-8, and Dash-8s in general, irl, so I was really looking forward to running this locomotive. . .to be precise, it would've been nice if I'd been able to drive this engine at all, but I could never figure out how to start it, even when following the tutorial. The "Idling" unit doesn't work either, it just shuts down as sooon as you spawn in. I though the whole point of having an "Idling" unit was to avoid having to go through the whole cold start process. Guess I'll save my money and get a ScaleTrains C39-8 in HO scale instead. Also yes, I know the C39-8s were set up to run long hood forward. That was a common practice with Norfolk Southern up until the 1990s, which carried over from the Southern Railway and Norfolk & Western. HOWEVER, you can run them short nose forward, because I have seen footage and photos of them running short nose forward as well, so you can run them either way. Unless you really want to take the time to master the C39-8, skip it, and wait and see if TravelByTrain or DTM will do a C39-8.

I bought this last Friday, and after spending a couple of days with it here's my general impression: 1) I'm not a fan of the horn. 2) The loco is set up for long-hood forward operation which makes it completely backwards from what most players are used to in TS 2018. Technically you drive the locomotive with the cab at the back. That's true to life, but here's my issue: I can't see anything in front of me very well. The windows are tinted and the windshield wiper takes up most of the view. "Well drive it in reverse!" You'd think that would make it better, but no, it's almost worse driving the loco backwards since you have to completely turn the camera around and the window partitions ARE IN THE WAY OF THE TRACK! Sure you can see the track, but only a little bit through a narrow tinted window on a cab door which has a windshield wiper obscurring the view. This cab in real life is horribly designed! 3) I appreciate the fact that developers are introducing start-up sequences in their locomotives, but this one seems a tad too much. In real life you flip some nobs in the back of the cab, go outside, open the engine door, prime the engine, start the engine, then turn the power button to "run" and you're ready to go. The procedure works great for things like TSW where the game is from the first person and you can actually walk around. Its implementation in TS2018 is sloppy, though. Why? Because you don't walk in TS2018; you move to different camera positions. And there are WAY too many camera positions in the cab, some of which seem uneccesary and repetitive. Also sometime the camera flies to the new position, sometimes it jumps to the new position. It needs consistency. When I went to start the engine for the first time I got so disoriented by the sheer number of cameras on this engine, and when I got outside finally I didn't know if I was on the correct side for the engine room door because the camera faces AWAY from the locomotive when you finally get outside not hinting at all that you're supposed to work with a door. Plus there are opening doors on both sides of the engine but only ONE matters: one is the engine room door while the door on the other side opens up to some wiring, and you don't interact with any of the wires at all. It's a pointless view. And if you're on the wrong side of the engine guess what? You have to flip through like a million different camera positions in order to navigate to the side of the engine you need to be on! It's tedious and it takes WAY too much time. Forget about timekeeping scenarios with this loco. 4) The engine by default is set up so that when the engine spawns into the world it's automatically turned off. If you don't want to have to go through the process of starting the locomotive, you have to make a lua file for your scenario and put in a specific line of text which is in the manual. For me that's not much of an issue since I've been around the block and know how to write lua files, but what if I was a new player who had no idea where to even start with a lua file? "Get good!" You can't say that to modern gamers because they'll just get frustrated and put the DLC down and never pick it up again. But get this: there IS an already running variant. It's listed as IDLING. All you have to do is set the power switch on the back of the cab to RUN then set the reverser, release the brakes, and set the throttle and you've moving. Why bother with the whole lua script thing if you already have a running variant? Also if you go through the process of crafting a scenario script once you start the scenario the engine is on BUT you have to wait for it to fully shut down THEN TURN ITSELF BACK ON AGAIN before you can start your trip. WHAT IS THIS???? Overall it is prototypical operationally but the level of detail is not well-suited to the way that TS2018 controls. Save the fancy start-up procedures for TSW in my opinion. 5) The manual mentions something about operating the locomotive in simple and intermediate mode. How am I supposed to know if I'm in either mode because so far I've only been in advanced mode. 6) Not surprisingly the scenarios are ghastly. This is par for the course. I have almost NEVER been satisfied with the included scenarios in routes and loco DLC and I've been playing this franchise since 2012. The dialogue in these scenarios is especially atrocious and doesn't add any semblance of realism to the experience but detracts from it and feels more like a formailty. It may behoove the developers to listen to some real radio chatter and find out how railroad personel actually speak on the radio to make in-game communications at least believeable. 7)There are some controls which make no sense as to why you can interact with them since they do nothing gameplay-wise in TS2018. Why can I dial the buttons on the the cab radio if I never actually speak to anyone in this game? 8) The lag is REAL with this DLC. If you have a high-powered PC you'll be fine, anything less and you'll need to lower your performance settings in order to get a decent frame rate. People complained that TSW was unoptimized when it first came out, well this loco isn't well optimized either (granted you can optimize a program but you probably can't optimize a piece of DLC like this). 9) I bought this DLC not for the loco but for the included freight stock because finally we have RoadRailers! Yay! This'll go great with the rest of your NS fleet (though good luck finding a suitable place to run them - I hear there is only 1 RoadRailer train on NS these days, and it's not over Horseshoe Curve). The cement hopper and the coal hopper are nice additions as well. Overall if you are a hard-core simmer who wants to tackle this beast of an engine then go for it. If you're a more casual simmer looking for something that you can run straight out of the box look elsewhere. The included freight stock is a bonus though, so keep that in mind. I place a "Reccomended" rating here, but only because I know lots of hardcore simmers will embrace this loco and sing its praises for eternity for its high fidelity to the prototype, and I don't normally shy away from realistic locos like this one, but it's just. So. Tedious and time consuming.

Another home run from VRC. The model is very stunning and i enjoy the Long Hood and Short Hood running. Recommend to READ THE MANUAL for people new to VRC products. When it comes to realism, this is top notch (notch 8 lol). It is a shame the real life counter-part was not very well liked by train crews. The included rolling stock is very well done, I love the inclusion of the TripleCrown trailers, what used to be a staple on the NS system. Overall I recommend this, this is a must buy for U.S railroad folks.