Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Nov 26, 2014

  Horseshoe Curve is a real-life route set in Pennsylvania, and is now operated by the Norfolk Southern Railroad. But RSC has taken a turn from the normal, modern-day route, and gone back to a time in history when Horseshoe was owned by one of the biggest railroads in the country: The Pennsylvania Railroad. Set in the 1950's, the route includes a PRR EMD GP7, and F7 locomotive. This is one of RSC's ONLY heritage routes, and it is a great start to what should be a growing collection of Heritage routes. The track is well layed, and includes elevated curves, just like the real thing. The yards are well set up, with era-true switch posts. The signalling system is well designed, and realistic. Also, the route includes a nice batch of career scenarios, and standard scenarios too! There is also a large array of DLC available for this route! The only problems I can find with it is that the two included locomotives have default sounds from the KUJU F7, but that is easily changed! Also, it performs slightly slow in yards, on my system. In Final, this route is a MUST HAVE, because of the track layout, the great Career scenarios, and wide range of DLC. This route also provides a great opportunity for scenario writers, for both past and present scenarios! Also, for 10 dollars less than a normal route, it is a no-brainer (it is easily worth twice as much)! What are you waiting for? Buy it now!
• gamedeal user

  Jun 14, 2015

  It's an old route, as some things go to show... but overall the scenarios are a lot of fun and it's a very beautiful drive.
• gamedeal user

  Jul 1, 2015

  A very nice route that is also a part of railroad history. I recommend this route. The only thing that im nt happy with is that some of the PRR locomotives are not included in this pack sadly.
• gamedeal user

  Feb 18, 2017

  [h1]Summary[/h1] Love the setting and love the era. 1950s are too rarely depicted in sims, and this one nails them perfectly! I can heartily recommend it to anyone who loves vintage rail. [h1]Pros[/h1] 1. Great setting. It really feels like the 1950s with unique trains, amazing motor cars parked by the train station, and passangers accurately dressed. Stations look pretty good too. 2. Scenarios are pretty fine, though not that many, as usual. 3. Locomotives are awesome. 4. Its performance is pretty good, I did not notice any significant drops or slowdowns. [h1]Cons[/h1] 1. 45 miles is not that much, I would love to see a longer American route from the 1950s or 40s.
• gamedeal user

  May 8, 2017

  The Horseshoe Curve could be summed up as one of the largest missed opportunities in the whole of DTG’s Train Simulator. Not only by DTG themselves, but the third-party content developers for Train Sim as well. Today however, The Horseshoe Curve is well worth the asking price, and if you want a taste of semi modern American railroading, you shouldn’t miss this one. But I still can’t help but cry at such a missed opportunity. To sum up, the Horseshoe Curve is a route based off of the PRR’s line of the same name, as it would have been in the 1960’s. It’s famous for a hairpin styled, banked, 4 wide turn where hundreds of classic rail fanning pictures have been taken. The name of the game is long heavy freight trains, with lots of locomotives, thundering up and down the hill and though the curve. To this end, the route does a good job for 2013-2014. You get a GP9, and F7 as motive power. A Passenger car, a small handful of freight cars, and of course the route itself. The GP9 and F7 are nicely detailed, but both lack the small features that made the PRR ones different to the default ones. For example, not train phone antennas on top. The freight and passenger cars are okay, but are low poly and don’t hold up well to modern standards. And just a tad of salt on the wound, there are no foreign roads as far as freight is concerned so expect a lot of PRR everywhere you look. The Route itself thankfully makes up for all this, it’s very pretty in sections, epically in the winter and fall. It’s also 4 tracks wide, which make for some interesting traffic arrangements. If I had one complaint about the route itself, it’s 75% trees and mountains. So, although it will look nice for the 6 included missions, after that, it does feel a bit same ish. Not a fault of DTG, it’s just how the route is in real life. Speaking of, the 6 missions included are very good in the story telling department. You are literally a new recruit on the line, and you work your way from a switcher to pulling a special train for an event I won’t spoil. The last mission does need a beefy CPU though, so be warned. What does suck is the general lack of traffic. The horseshoe curve was and is still one of the busiest sections of track in the US, yet you’re lucky to see another train every 15 or so miles. Often too, you’ll see two trains in a row with the exact same consist. And that neatly brings me to my final point. The Horseshoe Curve was the first route designed around DTG’s DLC model. Thus, there isn’t that much content as standard and a lot of DLC. What makes me angrier though is the completely missed opportunity that comes with DLC of backdating the route for steam power. Yes, there is a K4, but the PRR had an incredible steam roster. Yet DTG picked only 1 locomotive, and it happened to be the most boring choice available. For American steam fans, it’s a kick to the nads. Here was a route perfectly set up for the challenges of driving monstrous steam locomotives like PRR’s 6-8-6 Steam turbine, 2-10-2 Texas class, Strange articulated locomotives like the 4-4-6-4 or 4-6-4-4 duplexes or the T1 4-4-4-4. Yet in 2017 all we have is an angry starving American steam fanbase, begging for a route and rolling stock to call their own. It’s sad, especially as DTG keep pumping out American modern routes even into their new game Train Sim World.
• gamedeal user

  Oct 22, 2020

  I've owned this route since 2013 and live in Altoona, so I'd like to think I can speak relatively authoritatively on this. It's great to see the PRR recreated in Train Simulator, as it doesn't get enough representation in railroading sims despite its monumental impact on railroading in its entirety. Of course this route is from 2011 and looks & feels as you'd expect such an old DTG route to look. But its flaws go way beyond dated models and textures. What is inexcusable is the sloppy terrain work (basically, if you're not looking at the Horseshoe curve or the Gallitzin tunnels, the terrain is almost certainly incorrect.) and the era of choice. For many modelers the 1950s transition between steam and diesel is prime for party-pleasing, as there is something for everyone to enjoy. If you prefer the dirty and sooty alco switchers, sleek covered-wagon power, giants of steam like the M1, T1, and K4, the pennsy used em all in the 50s, and it still leaves the route both modern enough for later options like the Geeps and U-boats of the 60s or the thunderous steam of the 20s. However we got none of that. Rather, we got a single K4s pack with godawful sounds and nothing but diesels since! The PRR was starting to slide from its glory days by the mid 50s and it shows in the appearance of their facilities by this time. The Altoona & Logan Valley Electric Railway had shuttered their Streetcar lines by the end of 1954 (not that DTG modeled that or the tracks!!) and the area was very much in the slow beginning of an agonizing decline. If you're going to pick an era to depict the Altoona area and the Horseshoe Curve... I think they picked a pretty lousy one! And they aren't even playing into the strengths of the transition era, it's just diesels! It all just feels like a real big ghost town. Johnstown's trolley lines are similarly not modeled despite servicing well into the late 60s. Another issue in Johnstown is the spur running along the main line on the opposite side of the Conemaugh river floats in a startlingly high amount of places. A default scenario for the GE 44 tonner takes place there and the gradeschool-level modeling errors can be seen from the cab as you drive, let alone what you notice if you enter freecam or flyby-cam. Back to Altoona, DTG decided to do the bare minimum effort modelling the Hollidaysburg branch and snip it after a mile for seemingly no reason. And if you dare venture there you will have clipping issues and more floating track. A huge waste of what could provide some true branchline switching and stopper-service to break up the monotony of mainline driving. Also omitted is the hump yard in Altoona, which was the first hump yard to be built in North America. There are no scenarios for the Altoona Works or Juniata Shops, and with only one type of boxcar the yards look... pretty awful even when full. The freighthouses and transfer facilities are simply not modeled, though some track is laid and labeled. Also omitted is the branch from South Fork to Windber (which lies just next to Johnstown) which again could have offered a more varied experience on this route than what it currently offers. It seems DTG really wanted to get away with the bare minimum for this. Ultimately, this is a huge disappointment of a route even when it was new, and I'd like to see it redone or get an Altoona-Harrisburg route set in the 1920s-30s to do the region and railroad a proper justice, since by the mid 50s as this route is set many smaller train stations were in limited or no service, like many along the Altoona-Hollidaysburg branch and even ones along the main line like Kittaning Point by the Horseshoe curve. There could be connections with the Altoona & Northern, the Everett Railroad, the Newry RR, the Bell's Gap, and Bald Eagle Valley rr, among others depending how lenient you are with the time setting. With the Altoona works, Juniata shops, and Hollidaysburg car shops, there is so much potential for unique scenarios and fascinating rolling stock/locomotives that this route fails to realize. Hell the Johnstown steel mills are only mentioned ONCE! But seeing as this game is on its death bed and new sims are being announced (heres hoping for SimRail 2021) I doubt much will ever happen here, and honestly, there is much of the US which still needs covered before the PRR can be revisited. If you really want to work the PRR in Train Simulator, this is your only option. Go for it, but only on a sale. This route is a shame, even by DTG's ever-so-low standards, and hardly deserves to be called a recreation of the PRR's broadway, rather a barely-lucid artist's interpretation of a single wikipedia article. Thanks for reading