Bundles and purchase question

[Yazite]

Looking to buy this game but wanted to clarify a few things.

1. What bundle is best if I want to play the London based routes?
2. Is there any bundles or DLC with steam trains?

Thanks

[Platinum SLS]

A good choice for some London-based routes is purchasing the Great British Railway Journeys game:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1226690/Great_British_Railway_Journeys/

While this is a standalone game in itself, all the routes featured are added to TS2021 as well, so you can play them all within TS2021 without having to install GBRJ. For £24.99 this pack includes the following routes that originate from London (alongside the Settle & Carlisle route):

Great Eastern Main Line - London Liverpool Street to Ipswich
East Coast Main Line - London Kings Cross to Peterborough
Portsmouth Direct Line - London Waterloo to Portsmouth Harbour
Chatham Main Line - London Victoria to Chatham (and the Medway Valley Lines as an extension)

[𝟑𝟕𝟏𝟐𝟎𝟏-𝟓]

Originally posted by Platinum SLS:

A good choice for some London-based routes is purchasing the Great British Railway Journeys game:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1226690/Great_British_Railway_Journeys/

While this is a standalone game in itself, all the routes featured are added to TS2021 as well, so you can play them all within TS2021 without having to install GBRJ. For £24.99 this pack includes the following routes that originate from London (alongside the Settle & Carlisle route):

Great Eastern Main Line - London Liverpool Street to Ipswich
East Coast Main Line - London Kings Cross to Peterborough
Portsmouth Direct Line - London Waterloo to Portsmouth Harbour
Chatham Main Line - London Victoria to Chatham (and the Medway Valley Lines as an extension)

It is worth noting that buying this package will remove the Hitachi class 801 which is part of ECML-South.

[DIFFLOCK66]

A fair point. However you then just copy the 801 back into TS20xx.

[sbmarauderman03]

I don't have answers to the questions you posed, but do have a suggestion. Wait until the next steam sale; it is likely you will get more content for less money versus buying something now.

[JJTimothy]

If you don't mind going a little "off piste" I'd suggest looking for a Steam key for TS2016 (a quick Google shows it selling for three pounds or less though I can't vouch for any of the sites listing keys). That would get you TS installing through Steam, which would automatically update the core program to the current version, and scratch your steam itch since it includes The Riviera Line in the '50s which has four or five Great Western kettle classes, albeit in BR livery, running on a route that is nicely detailed and varied if a little short.

You'll notice if you do look around that you could get keys for two or three older editions for the price of the current bundle. Buying old editions is a good way of building a cosmopolitan collection of DLC relatively inexpensively and a couple of them include routes that are no longer available otherwise. Personally I'm not especially impressed with the 2021 bundle but YMMV of course.

I'd second the recommendation for the Great British Railway Journeys bundle but a shame it isn't in the current sale- it's been £10 previously. I have three of the routes and am inclined to buy it if I see it again at that price to get the other two. If you do get it Settle-Carlisle includes a couple of steam loco's. Again for steam traction there's the S&C Specials pack- a collection of five steam loco's meant to be used with the S&C but perfectly useable on any other route. They're older models but look OK and it's £1.19 at the moment.

[cuavas]

Originally posted by Dragoner_Online:

It is worth noting that buying this package will remove the Hitachi class 801 which is part of ECML-South.

Does it actually remove it if you previously bought ECML-South separately, or do you just not get a copy of it if you obtain ECML-South via GBRJ?

[cuavas]

Originally posted by JJTimothy:

If you don't mind going a little "off piste" I'd suggest looking for a Steam key for TS2016 (a quick Google shows it selling for three pounds or less though I can't vouch for any of the sites listing keys). That would get you TS installing through Steam, which would automatically update the core program to the current version, and scratch your steam itch since it includes The Riviera Line in the '50s which has four or five Great Western kettle classes, albeit in BR livery, running on a route that is nicely detailed and varied if a little short.

TS2016 is still on sale at Humble Bundle for a bit over a week: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/train-simulator-2016

You don’t need to worry about getting a key purchased with a stolen credit card that way.

[DIFFLOCK66]

Originally posted by cuavas:

Does it actually remove it if you previously bought ECML-South separately, or do you just not get a copy of it if you obtain ECML-South via GBRJ?

I cannot say, because when I bought GBRJ I did not have any of the five routes - my TS EMCL London-Peterborough came from there and the 801 didn't transfer across. However, if you DO lose the 801 scenarios, then you can easily put them back in - here's my post over on DTG:

Here's my quote from another threa on here regarding an 802 Nova -
"EDIT: GOT THE BARSTEWARD!! Because GBRJ is a standalone install I had a look in that folder. Lo and behold, in the DTG assets folder is a Class 801 and I copied the appropriate Route folder into my TS too. I found this out thanks to some of the review comments for the ECML route DLC. :D"
To be more detailed:
First off is the Asset pack:
GBRJ>Assets>DTG>Class801Pack01 Copy that into the Railworks>Aseets>DTG folder.
Then there's the Routes folder:
GBRJ>Content>Routes>00000029-0000-0000-0000-000000002014 this has the ECMLSClass801Pack01Scenarios.ap file which you need to copy into your Railworks>Contents>Routes>00000029-0000-0000-0000-000000002014 folder.
Hope this helps :)

[cuavas]

Originally posted by DIFFLOCK66:

Originally posted by cuavas:

Does it actually remove it if you previously bought ECML-South separately, or do you just not get a copy of it if you obtain ECML-South via GBRJ?

I cannot say, because when I bought GBRJ I did not have any of the five routes - my TS EMCL London-Peterborough came from there and the 801 didn't transfer across. However, if you DO lose the 801 scenarios, then you can easily put them back in - here's my post over on DTG:

Here's my quote from another threa on here regarding an 802 Nova -
"EDIT: GOT THE BARSTEWARD!! Because GBRJ is a standalone install I had a look in that folder. Lo and behold, in the DTG assets folder is a Class 801 and I copied the appropriate Route folder into my TS too. I found this out thanks to some of the review comments for the ECML route DLC. :D"
To be more detailed:
First off is the Asset pack:
GBRJ>Assets>DTG>Class801Pack01 Copy that into the Railworks>Aseets>DTG folder.
Then there's the Routes folder:
GBRJ>Content>Routes>00000029-0000-0000-0000-000000002014 this has the ECMLSClass801Pack01Scenarios.ap file which you need to copy into your Railworks>Contents>Routes>00000029-0000-0000-0000-000000002014 folder.
Hope this helps :)

Good to know exactly which files need to be copied. I already had Chatham Main and Medway Valley before getting GBRJ, but not the other routes, so I’m going to have to manually copy the 801 across when I get bored with everything else.