u/Xloafe

I think the Hitachi AT300 horns in the game should be updated. Am I the only one who thinks they sound unrealistic compared with the real-life horns?

The HST horns, for example, have that distinctive trumpet-like sound derived from the real thing. I don't understand how the current AT300 horn tone was created, or where the sound reference came from, because it sounds quite far removed from the actual AT300 horns.

I've watched Class 801s sounding their horns at whistle boards along the ECML, and the real horn is much longer and isn't nearly as high-pitched. The current in-game sound almost resembles a notification sound rather than the actual AT300 horn.

I hope this reaches the developers because this is one area where the game's realism could be improved significantly. Games such as TSW6 have much more accurate AT300 horn sounds, so there are good references available for comparison.

Would be great to see the AT300 horns brought closer to their real-life counterparts.

I was testing out the Enhanced Permissible Speed (EPS) signs between Brynmouth and Pencarn using the CrossCountry Class 221, and I noticed the higher speed limits didn’t apply to it at all.

Did some digging and realized this is a massive real-world Easter egg. In 2008, CrossCountry permanently disabled the tilting mechanisms on their Voyager fleet to cut maintenance costs, while Virgin/Avanti kept theirs active. Because XC lines don't have TASS beacons, they couldn't run at EPS speeds anyway.

Huge shoutout to the devs for coding this constraint specifically for the XC livery, while the other 221s in the game can still tilt. Fun fact for the real world: Now that Avanti has retired their 221s, the active tilting Voyager era is officially dead since XC and Grand Central units have them permanently locked.

Class 43s in InterCity livery are fitted with the iconic Paxman Valenta engines. You can literally hear the difference compared with the other post-privatisation HSTs, which don’t have that distinctive Valenta scream, as the engines were phased out between 2005 and 2010.