Train Simulator: Donner Pass: Southern Pacific Route Add-On DLC

While most of the add-ons for TS are good, I’m not pleased with this one. The physics feel wrong (15% brake to slow down a 70 car freight train going down 2% grade? I don’t think so). And it’s nearly impossible to gain points or earn medals unless you operate with razor precision because delays are penalized by the second, and even then I don’t believe so because some sections you can’t even maintain the speed limit. Even a 1 min delay can’t be recovered from, so every checkpoint on the route you will look hundreds if not thousands of points.

I almost didn't buy this route because I have Marias Pass already, but I saw it on a Twitch broadcast this week, and after watching a scenario on it, decided to buy it especially since it is on sale for 40% off. Am I glad I did, the scenery is spectacular and there are loads of free scenarios for it at the workshop. I also got the SP SD70 and SP Sd45 on sale at the same time, which adds alot to this route as far as the scenarios you can run. I give it an B+. The only negative is the career Scenarios. Don't expect to get any positive points when you run some of them like "Getting Involved". There is no way you can run the scenario on time and score points, because the time alloted isn't long enough and the train won't go fast enough anyway. /

The is a very nice route from my experiences. There is plenty of challenging hills to negotiate with your train and you will need to plan ahead and use the brakes and power to keep control of your train. You do get 5 locomotives and a good amount of freight stock to use. The standard scenarios are good but I wouldn't bother with the career mode ones because the timings are impossible to meet on some of them and its not worth the hassle for a few breadcrumbs (points). It appears that DTG has forgotten to add the C44-9W into the included scenarios as a playable train although it is available to use in the free roam scenarios. Compared to the newer content, it is an old add-on and therefore the functionality of the cabs and the sounds may not match the newer post-2016 content but for the asking price of £14.99. It is a nice route and you do get 5 usable trains compared to some standalone add-ons where you only get one train for the same price. If you are interested in American trains like I am or want to try something different. Then why not give this add-on a try? You will have to make a scenario for the GE C44-9W though before you can use it in a scenario. Or atleast this is how it is for users in the UK. Had the career mode scenarios been properly optimised and if the included trains had been updated to have more functionality in the cabs such as opening windows and higher resolution textures. I would have given this route add-on a much higher score. But as the add-on is the way it is as shipped. The final score is fair and justified. Overall Rating: 6/10.

To be honest, this route is very hard for me to reccomend. Pros: -Lots of engines. The variety of SP engines is wonderful, you can do a lot with what you're given, and if you need more, more is provided as additional DLC. -The route is highly detailed. It does look and feel like the sierra nevadas. -Large yards at both ends of the route allow for lots of switching. -Has a good presence on the Steam Workshop. -maintaining low speeds is a really good challenge on the mainline Cons: -This route is very buggy. Aside from some scenarios not working properly (I once got an "invalid consist" glitch after spending a good 90 minutes on a career scenario), along with this, I've come across a few invisible buildings, and many signals along the route, for me anyways, have invisible stands, that cause the signals to float midair, which can be really distracting and immersion ruining, which is essential for a route like this because... -scenarios are really really long. There are very few towns along the route, and with the exception of Sparks and Reno, they are all very spread apart. Due to this, the scenarios included take very long to complete, and are actually kinda boring after a while. -this route is NOT beginner friendly. at all. I still have no idea why this was included in the TS2014 package, but this route is really really bad for people new to train simulator. Because of the sheer length of the route, how long scenarios are, and how difficult it is to manage consists going up and down really rough slopes, this route is incredibly difficult to get the hang of without prior experience. Plus, the low speeds will get incredibly boring for new players. -Honestly, not a fan of the overall look of this route. Its really really brown, IMO. It doesn't look unrealistic, its just not a very pretty route. -There is almost no change in scenery at all. Its literally all just big brown mountains. There is no variety at all with this route, you start in the mountains, you end in the mountains. This may seem like not that big of a deal, but trust me, after staring at mountains for hours at a time, you'll beg for something different. Despite all this, I would reccomend this route for one thing. The Southern Pacific Engines are pretty good, and if you want to run them as unpatched locomotives on any UP route, you'll have everything you need. Unless this really appeals to you, I would not reccomend this route to you. I would CERTAINLY not reccomend it if you're not already an avid North American Freight RailSimmer, are new to Train Simulator, or this is the first time you've ever heard of "Southern Pacifc". If you do want to get into North American Freight, I would direct you to lots of other routes, mainly Marias Pass, but unless you're really into SP, you should buy something else.

Several scenarios in career mode are broken and have been for years. I can't beleve they're still allowed to sell this.

The Donner Pass route is, in my opinion, the worst and most boring route available for Train Simulator. It goes from nowhere to nowhere with nothing of interest in between. It is very long, which some might see as an advantage, but with a 25mph speed limit along most of its length it is almost 4 hours of utter tedium to travel the full length. Those looking to earn experience points in career mode should give this one a miss because most of the scenarios cannot be completed with a positive score due to the simple fact that the speed limit is 25mph but you need to travel at an average 28mph to stick to the timetable. So, you can either stick to the speed limits and build up huge penalties for lateness or accumulate even more speeding penalties. It is typical of Dovetail Games that this problem has never been fixed in the 4 years since the game was first issued. If you want a US mountain pass route, try the Stevens Pass - it has better scenery and some interesting towns, ports and industries along the way.

Only buy this route if it is deeply discounted as the included scenarios were created by an idiot who does not understand basic math nor did anyone bother testing them before puking them onto the paying public.

Jeezus christ, this route is FILLED with bugs! I do not recommend this route at ALL. The horns are overused, the route is EXTREMELY boring and bland with speed limits at max of 25 mph on most of the route, timetables make it impossible to complete scenarios (The speed limit is 25 and you have to go 28 to be on time) which means either getting a ton of speeding penalties or getting a ton of late penalties, which makes completing scenarios impossible, and, as I said, SO MANY BUGS! There was one bug that was EXTREMELY annoying, which was the fact that when you were traveling on or under the speed limit and just cruising happily along, when all of a sudden, the train goes flying out of NOWHERE! It just shoots up into the air which causes a derailment. This bug has been fixed but you can find video's of it. Just search up "train simulator donner pass flying train bug" on YouTube and you'll see what I mean. Seriously, it ain't worth the money. Bland, boring, overused things, and super buggy. Unless you SERIOUSLY want it, knock yourself out. Otherwise, I'd use your money on something else. Worst ever route I received for free (which was in 2014), and I probably won't be using it anytime soon.

I can't say for sure that this is my favorite DLC, but it's up there pretty close. At first I didn't like it at all. I love the career scenarios are rarely finish standard ones. Several of the career scenarios are completely broken as far as their timeline goes. In fact, I believe only one works right. In one (very long at 210 min), the speed limit is set for freight but you are carrying passengers and the scenario thinks the speed limits are set accordingly. There are also not really 12 scenarios. There are six, but both career and standard. The standard ones work perfectly fine of course as the speed limits don't matter. The route is, at over 140 miles, one the longest available. It's very mountainous but still varied. Pros: + It's long! Takes several hours to run end to end. + Comes with quite a few different locomotives. That's better than most of the new ones that come with one or two. They are all reasonably well done and in the SP livery. + The route has some of the steepest grades I've been able to find anywhere in TS. There is a very short spot of 3.2% and longer stretches of 2.7 and 2.9. I use it frequently to weight test consists. + Two large train yards and many stops allow for a lot of possibilities when creating custom scenarios. + All achievements are possible despite career scenarios being broken. Simply drive through them and finishing will get you the achievements if you care about them. Cons: - Broken career scenarios which DTG has refused to fix despite being told exactly how to do so by a forum member who himself made a fix. That fix somewhat mitigates the con here, but it's still sloppy work on DTG's part. - There are several spots where speed limit changes are not marked properly on the HUD. There is one that is not marked properly on the track. - There are a few buildings that could have used greater detail. Relatively minor, to me at least. This route is also home to various interesting locomotives that are separate DLC's such as the Cab Forward and the Zephyr. If you like mountains, and don't care about the situation with the career scenarios (remember there is a fix on the workshop), you'll love it! Note: The fix adds in new scenarios. You will see both listed in the possible scenarios to play. They are replica's with the speed limits fixed. I mention this as some may not find that adequate.

There is a quite big issue with the included career scenarios - it's impossible to keep up with the timetables without exceeding speed limits. That makes some of the achievements unachievable. This particular problem has been known since the addon came out. And DTG never cared to fix it (but you can find fixed versions of the scenarios in the workshop which makes it all even more ridiculous because there clearly is a solution). The scenario length could be a big plus for some people (some are more than 3 hours long) but that timetable/speed limit bug just kills all the fun for everyone. This addon is one of the worst and most disappointing ones I've played (and I own many) and I suggest to avoid it. Sherman Hill, Soldier Summit, Marias Pass routes (similar scenery) are a lot better.