Amtrak Dash 8-32BWH

[DrewG]

The newly released Amtrak Dash 8-32BWH is defiantly a much awaited model from DTG.

To say the exterior model is very nicely modeled is an understatement, DTG in recent releases has been really stepping up there game, detailed panels, under body detail, it's there and looks good, and with two livery's included there is just more to love about the exterior.

The lights included with the model are varied and nice, the headlights included have low, medium and bright settings, separate ditch lights, that flash when horn is blown (with a moving switch in the cab, take that Sherman hill GEVO!). It also has working rear low, medium and bright settings, which again adds to make the model more realistic. Red class lights that work also give the loco a boost in realism. Number board and step lights are also included.

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The cab is unfortunately where the negatives of this review begin. It is nicely detailed as the exterior but the texture is where the negatives begin. The gauges texture quality is rather sub-par, the writing at the bottom of the brake gauges is unreadable and the speedometer and amp gauge don't fair much better. The diver seat is locked to a forward facing position, meaning I can't turn the camera fully around to look out the rear window or see the switches at the rear, oddly the other view can see the switches at the back and the startup and shutdown button works, which makes me question why the camera for the engineer can't be turned around. There are two other camera positions in the cab, one in the middle, which lets you open the front door and to take a card from VRC, the bathroom door. When the front door is open it changed the sounds of the cab to louder engine sounds. The conductor view is the last one, which is standard with all DTG models. A few other things to note about the cab is the lack of opening windows (I thought this was becoming a DTG standard, maybe not) and the last complaint is there seems to be no light for the cab light, the room brightens up but there is no actual light and the shadows don't make much sense (Minor complaint I know but worth noting in a review). One last thing to note about the cab lights, and this being a major thing, having them on halves my frame rate from 50 to sometimes lower than 25, they are on by default so if you get bad frames in the cab I recommend turning them off.

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The sounds are okay, but once again the place for improvement by DTG. Sounds for these models are always highly debated,some people say it's not important, others do, for me I fall on the side of it is important, Sounds really help make you feel like your actually controlling a locomotive. The engine sounds to me are way to quiet and get drowned out by the P42 in the included scenarios. I can't comment on how realistic they are as I've never been around an actual Dash 8-32BWH. The horn and bell are okay, but just that, still too quiet for my liking.

Overall I'll give this DLC a 3 / 5 as there is still room for improvement, especially in the sound department.

One thing I recommend and one of the first things I did was install Fanrailers physics and sound mod, gives a nice touch of added realism.
If I happened to miss anything, let me know and I'll update the review.

Thanks for reading!

[Railroy19]

Nice review. Thanks.
I've had my eyes on this engine because of the nice detailing they did on it.
Guess I'll put it on my list. Oh could you give us more information on the sound mod you installed?
Thanks again.

Bob

[DrewG]

Sure thing.

Fans mod, which is here in the file library changes the physics of the loco giving it a more realistic feel. It also changes the horn and bell too two very nice new sounds, which as I take it is taken directly from one of these locos.

[ErikGustafson]

What's the VRC?

[AlcoFan]

What's the VRC?

Virtual Rail Creations: http://vrailcreations.net/

[OpenRailer90]

Sure thing.

Fans mod, which is here in the file library changes the physics of the loco giving it a more realistic feel. It also changes the horn and bell too two very nice new sounds, which as I take it is taken directly from one of these locos.

There is also the payware AudioShack sound pack that can be used in conjunction with the physics mod. http://theaudioshack.wix.com/theaudiosh ... udio/c16rb https://the-audio-shack.dpdcart.com/pro ... _id=137099