Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Sep 30, 2021

  Problem I am having, when I try it in Quick Drive, the engine alarm goes off and it shuts down, no matter where I try to go, can't figure out how to get past this, Really annoying.
• gamedeal user

  Aug 2, 2022

  How do I even start this review... There's so much good praise to be said about this route, it's staggering. First off, the route itself is 90km long, fully detailed all the way. This is something almost unachievable for most developers, let alone just 2 people working on the route! The route itself feels very New Zealand like and is set in the picturesque Southern Alps, on the Midland Line, which runs from coast to coast of NZ's South Island. Usually only seeing coal traffic today, this version of the route is set in 1968, where traffic and loco power were greatly varied. The DJ locos are your classic diesel loco, carrying the bulk of traffic up and down the line. Towards the northern end of the route, between the towns of Arthurs Pass and Otira lies the 8.5km long Otira Tunnel, which has a ruling gradient of 1:33, which makes for a real challenge driving the electric 'Eo' locomotives up and down the tunnel. (The Eo's operate between Arthurs Pass and Otira only, as per real life.) Again, these Eo locomotives are incredibly detailed and a fun challenge to drive, much different to the diesel DJ counterparts. Both the DJ's and Eo's have three different levels of weathering, being clean, weathered, and heavily weathered. It's easy to recreate different eras of the route with different levels of weathering, alongside the many different wagons, each with their own weathering sets as well. Managing your speed in the gorge between Kowai Bush and Avoca is another fun challenge, which draws you back to this route again and again. Although the framerate suffers greatly, if you love the views, I highly recommend turning up the draw distance to see the Southern Alps in all their glory, and the smaller foothills that follow with them. Complete with different colour schemes for each season being, a dry yellow tone for summer, more green and orange tones in Autumn, dead trees and snow in Winter, and a lush green tone for Spring. Driving in winter comes with its own challenges, as making it up the 1:55 Avoca bank can prove difficult for single locos on heavy trains, and the same goes for the Otira tunnel. Now, some criticism as well. This route is not for those with weak computers. It is very demanding, and with high settings running an i9 10 series CPU and 3070 graphics card, I still only get an average of 30-40 FPS. Of course you could counteract this by drawing back the settings, but this limits the visuals of the route drastically. Alongside this, I feel some of the summer assets could use some tweaking in the colour, as they feel a bit bright and don't really suit the environment. However I feel they have completely hit the nail on the coffin for all the other seasons. Although the Midland Line comes with NZTSW's DJ and Eo locomotives plus rolling stock, they have been continuously releasing more items way after the release of the Midland Line. So far they have released a DJ livery expansion pack, their Ja locomotive, and stock wagon pack. I believe they are close to releasing a ballast wagon pack and Kb locomotive either later this year or early next year, which I am eagerly keeping a close eye on. The guys behind NZTSW really deserve high praise for all they do; the route took over 5 years to complete, with thousands of custom-made assets and of course countless numbers of locos and rolling stock. Overall, how could I not recommend this route, it is probably the magnum opus of Train Simulator Classic addons. Bravo NZTSW!
• gamedeal user

  Dec 23, 2022

  Unfortunately I am not able to enjoy it in the way I want. I like to explore with free roam, but I select free roam and the amount of rolling stock reduces my fps to 1 if I look at the railyard, and buttery smooth if I look away. so I think, no problem, il make my own free roam. But unfortunately, the map seems to be shrouded in eternal darkness in the scenario editor. Is there any potential solutions to either of theese problems? All this aside its a great top notch route, train sim world quality overall for trains and scenery alike
• mbt

  Jan 5, 2023

  The NZR Midland line poses a hard challenge to anybody who wishes to concur it. Trying to get a DJ (or Ja if you have the pack) up a 1:50 and even 1:33 grade shows of the sights of New Zealand's southern alps. Highly recommend for anybody interested. The only downside to the map is that it requires quite the beefy computer, I myself have a 3060 and Ryzen7 with 16gb ram, but only manage to get 30 - 50fps.
• wolfpredator

  May 12, 2023

  This route is a huge disappointment! 1) TS crashes every time I try to load a career, free roam or standard scenario using 32-bit 2) TS crashes every time I try to load a career scenario using 64-bit 3) The route is extremely lagging, can barely pan the cameras 4) The rolling stock looks ugly and banged up, the has to be the worst weathering I've ever seen 5) Can't even get any trains to move 6) All screen controls are disabled or hidden? Even with Simple Controls enabled, no other routes has the 'Screen' controls hidden or disabled.. THIS IS STUPID! 7) A complete WASTE of $60.00 AUD, I'm getting a refund
• gamedeal user

  Jan 29, 2021

  One of the best DLC in my opinion awesome scenery great locos and rollingstock deffinitly recommend
• gamedeal user

  Jan 30, 2021

  This is a bloody great route with amazing assets! I really recommend this route to others. Very good job!
• gamedeal user

  Jan 31, 2021

  I am most impressed with the sound effects created with the escaping compressed air during the uncoupling sequence and the sound effect of the Buffers coming together. Then there is the detail of being able to add the name of the destination station to each wagon in an amazingly realistic font as if marked on in chalk, like we used to do down here in New Zealand during that era. Having worked as a Shunter in Palmerston North, in the 1970s and 1980s I have developed a passion for creating shunting scenarios for this route, as of February I have uploaded four and am looking forward to doing more. Do I recommend this route? For myself as an ex NZR railwayman then I surely do.
• gamedeal user

  Feb 1, 2021

  Review update: Downloaded the updates from Developers site ( will be soon available on Steam ). Well, top class and now I really can recommend this route. I love the sounds, the wagons and locomotives are top class and it have a very real feel to it, really feeling you are driving a train. Just want to say thank you to the Developer, you did a amazing job, love, please make more routes.
• gamedeal user

  Feb 1, 2021

  Absolutelly excellent work...Amazing route