When I received the assignment from Nels to review this product, I optimistically told him it would only take me a week and a half. He told me to take my time and play with it a while, and I'm glad he did. To put it bluntly, for me, this add-on breathed new life into Train Simulator. I must admit that the default routes had provided me with a lot of virtual railroading enjoyment. But the well-known Marias Pass bugs started to get a little tiring and the other routes either didn't interest me, or were getting a little stale. Then I started the Moffat Tunnel Route, almost finished it during a month of vacation between jobs, only to have it wiped along with everything else when my machine was infected with the Code Red virus. And of course, there are other excellent routes out there, some of which I have spent time exploring and driving trains on. But in my opinion, the Bigge Lake is close to being Trainsim 2.0. It looks and feels like what the default routes should have looked and felt like.
Let me start at the beginning though. I received the add-on via the US
Postal Service,
packaged in a small plastic DVD style case, which was placed in a thin cardboard
envelope. It survived the trip through the trip with only a small amount
of damage: The center piece which holds the CD in place was broken and the CD
was loose in the case, but fortunately wasn't harmed. There is a small manual
included, with far more documentation than TS came with. And yes, you're much
better off if you read it, there are a lot of hints and facts which you will
need to enjoy this add-on. I decided to install the Bigge Lake on two
computers to provide meaningful comparisons. The first, my daughter's computer,
is a 667 MHz P3 with 392 megs of RAM and a 32 meg Radeon VE card with a
Soundblaster Live! Not exactly the screaming game machine. This computer is
configured to dual boot Windows XP and Windows ME. I 
did a fresh install of
Train-Sim, which runs very well on ME, with some slight problems in XP. I then
installed The Bigge Lake and decided to restrict my testing to Windows ME. The
second machine is a P3 1 Ghz with 512 megs of RAM, a Radeon 64 MHz VIVO card, and a
SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 X-Gamer, in other words, last years screaming game
machine. This computer runs Windows XP exclusively with complete stability in
Train-Sim. I can use the Route Editor for hours without problems, and I've never
had any problems in the game. This copy of Train-Sim is heavily modified with
hundreds of extra locomotives and cars, extra routes installed, including three
of my own, and X-Tracks 3.2.
The amount of extra content on the CD is simply amazing. Route maps, track
diagrams for every station, gradient profile, timetables, speed manuals, signal
manual and a list of activities are all included. And just in case you don't
have it, a copy of Acrobat Reader 5.0 is included to access all of the
information. You could spend hours just reading the documentation. And much of
it is necessary. The signals on the route have a learning curve, there are
several different types, with associated rules, and they are
very different from
US or UK signals. They look like a cross between a semaphore and a wig-wag with
lights on them. There is a tutorial that will walk you through how to read the
signals and especially obey them. I have run through this particular activity a
number of times, it's easy to forget everything.
There are actually two routes combined: Route 361 (Finnentrop-Olpe-Betzdorf) and Route 416 (Olpe-Dieringhausen). These are depicted as the may have appeared in the Seventies. I have never been to Germany, and couldn't judge how close the route is to the actual prototype, but it certainly has the look and feel that I would expect. It brings back an interesting exchange I had with a fellow train-simmer from the UK. I thought the US models looked poor and the UK ones looked great. He thought the opposite. The overall quality leads me to believe that someone put a lot of thought and effort into what they were doing, however. There are no floating trees, no bridges out of alignment, and no track hanging in air that I saw. I did spot a building in the middle of a road though, and no more than a couple minor problems with buildings. I've often wondered why Train-Sim buildings don't have "foundations" extending downward 8 or 10 feet so you can place them on uneven ground without them looking like toy train houses. You could simply place the majority of the foundation underground. Since the bridges and tunnel portals all work this way, I doubt it would cause a problem. The track textures are new and improved and among the best I have seen. They created a lot of objects and buildings from scratch, way too many to list here.
According to the documentation, the signals don't work properly in "Explore" mode, so they've included two activities to allow you to explore the route and sight-see. Here lies one of the few criticisms that I have of the Bigge Lake. You must blow the whistle at level grade crossings which are marked in advance by a whistle post that has a "P" on it. These don't show up in the Track Monitor, and by the time you spot them, it's usually too late and you get the dreaded "Activity Ended" message. This seems a bit harsh for what's supposed to be an exploration and sight-seeing activity. It's hard to sight-see when you're staring down the track looking for the grade crossings. It would have been nice if these had been left out. Not being an Activity Editor expert, I really have no idea if they can be removed. The track speed restrictions, and there are a lot of them, will activate emergency braking if you exceed the temporary track speeds. At least the track monitor shows you that they're coming up. In the normal Train-Sim Explore mode, the signals don't work properly, and if you don't know where you're going, you're probably going to go nowhere, into a dead end track. The route isn't straight, with a lot of track changes through the curved portion of the switches, and it's easy to get lost. Again, there's no simple drive and watch the scenery option.
There are three brand new locomotive designs included with new cabs, one of them which is quite unique. The 211 and 212 DB (Deutsche Bahn, or German Railroad) locomotives, similar in use and horsepower to the GP-38. These locomotives include an all new Cabview, which is very functional and looks good. Not having actually driven any of these locomotives, my best guess is that they're pretty close. The most innovative, as far as Train-Sim, is the 323 or Kőf II Shunting Engine. In normal Cabview, you're looking out the left side of the locomotive. Use the right arrow, you're looking to the front, and use the left arrow, and you're looking to the rear. If you use the "H" key once, the headlights come on to the front, if you use the "H" key twice, the headlights come on to the rear. A very solid solution to a missing element of the game. This allows you to actually use the shunter for shunting. Strangely enough, the 212 doesn't have any locomotive brakes. You stop by reversing and applying throttle or using the brakes on the cars you're moving about. This locomotive is used in a couple of rescue missions to allow you to get it out on the mainline. It seems to be a bit of a waste, since this little loco is so much fun to maneuver around the yard. I'd love to see a GP7/9 or an SW series with a similar arrangement to use on the Timesaver Route.
Rear view, Cab view and Front view from the 323.
In the 1970's, due to the decline in rail passenger travel, not only in Germany, but around the world, a lot of railroads came up with new ideas to replace the old ways of doing things. Instead of a locomotive and passenger cars, the DB built Rail Busses similar to the Budd RDCs in the United States. These were more economical and allowed passenger service to continue. This was probably a lot better idea than what occurred in the US: the creation of Amtrak. There are two different railcars depicted in the add-on: The 795/995 series and the 798/998 series. The 795 is a first generation rail bus with a six speed transmission, according to the manual, and operation is similar to the KIHA 31. In other words, it uses a transmission similar to a truck, and you must use the E and Shift+E keys to change gears. Again, the helpful manual points out the Kuju bug which causes some strange things to occur when the train is shifted into reverse. The manual points out that you should use Reverse to get you moving, then shift back into Neutral. I don't know if the patch fixed this problem, and I haven't experimented with it enough to be sure. The 995 is simply an unpowered trailer, and the VB 141 is a sort of short low baggage trailer. These pieces have a special coupling, and can only be used together, and can't be coupled to anything else. The 798 is similar in operation, the primary difference being that it has chain couplers and can pull the small three and four axle passenger cars and freight wagons.
795/995, 795/995 and VB141 Trailer, 798 and Passenger Wagon
A number of freight cars are also included, box cars, gondolas, tank cars,
and flats with different liveries and other variations. The manual recommends
against using freeware cars and locomotives due to the sharp curves on the line,
but shorter cars and locomotives should do fine. One of the advantages to
Train-Sim is that you can experiment with things like that without damaging
anything. Anyone who has watched a prized HO Scale locomotive plunge to
the concrete floor of the basement knows exactly what I'm referring to. I
have tried a German Br39 Dampflokomotive (steam locomotive) from http://www.mikemad.de/ on the line without
running into any problems and
it
looked right at home. Longer American or British style trains probably
aren't appropriate though. Passenger cars include interior or "5" views,
although some of them are actually outside of the train, more like a head-out
view than a passenger view. The passenger interior views on other cars are
done extremely well, and give you that definite inside the train
viewpoint. I rather wished that there had been an "Introductory Train
Ride" included. I would have loved to watch the German countryside roll by
with a guided tour provided, similar to the one included with the game for the
Northeast Corridor.
The countryside and cityscapes look very realistic, with rolling hill, tunnels, bridges, highways, and appropriate buildings. I'm assuming since this is a payware route that all of the buildings and scenery items were created just for this add-on since Microsoft doesn't allow anything except tracks and roads to be re-distributed as part of a payware route. There is a wide variety including animated items such as signals, which are fascinating to watch, and fully animated working crossing gates with sounds which function perfectly. Churches, houses, stores, buildings and some great looking industrial buildings dot the landscape along with some very good looking trees. Station platforms and the train stations themselves are very well done and add greatly to the realism. In addition, permission is given in the manual to use the items in freeware routes and an e-mail address to contact to use the items in a payware route. A very kind offer, and a great contribution to the community.
In addition, the manual refers owners to the German Railroads web site which has updates with additional locomotives and wagons and presently has a patch which will upgrade the add-on to version 1.07 and a 40 meg demo with 6 kilometers of track, a loco and two cars to demonstrate the quality and appearance of the product.
Finally, my rating is based on whether or not I would purchase a replacement if the original was ever lost. Let me say, that I feel this is an excellent add-on, with only a few minor items, the worst of which is the crossing whistle problem in the Explore activities. However, I would definitely say that I would purchase a copy if mine were lost, and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys participating in activities and driving their train in a railroad-like manner, because there is no cheating allowed in The Bigge Lake.
Robert R. Murphy
Designer's home page:
http://www.german-railroads.de
Available from:
http://www.train-simulations.com
or
http://www.uktrainsim.com
Copyright © 2002 by
Nels Anderson.
All Rights Reserved.