With the pending exhibition in Newmarket (May 25th!) coming up I have been on the look-out for European stock that we can include in our demonstrations. It has become very clear that there are a lot more Continental European commercial products than there are British - but I still missed this one.

It was mentioned to me by someone but it slipped my mind, how foolish!

I was very surprised and glad when I received an email from Jean Marc Gerbaud, one of the Developers at Sylium, asking if I was interested in reviewing their new Paris - St Gervais loco pack.

The pack is purchased online direct from Sylium and you get it in a 34mb download.

Contained in the pack:

1 Loco, BB22300
1 Loco, BB22307
11 Different 'UIC' Sleeping and Seats Cars
Photo Realistic Textures
Transparent Windows
Each car has a different detailed texture
Full 3D Interior and Driver on board
Passenger Interior View
Two way lights and Panto Flash
Animated Wipers
Photorealistic Conductor Cabin
Loco Sounds

The two locos look very similar but they do have different textures, one of them has a number scrawled on it which looks very nice indeed and adds to the realistic look of the locos.

The quality of the models is extremely high, some of the best i've seen, it is a pleasure to sit and watch these trains fly by in F4 mode.

Something that we've started seeing in Freeware models is using one headlight position to have lights operating in one direction and the 'high beam' mode switching it so that you can drive authentically in the other direction. This small touch is present and adds another notch of realism to your driving.

Sylium have also had a go at the doubled-ended cab problem by providing a rear cab view, just press the head-out key and it pops you in to a kind of virtual cab in the other end of the loco, much like I did with my Class 66.

The pack has a very good sound set to go with it and an awesome photo realistic cab view, probably my favourite of the SNCF cab views that i've seen so far.

Passenger view also rates very high with me for its originality. Bearing in mind this is a sleeper train the passenger view puts you in one of the beds and able to look at the other beds, out the window, at the ladder and so forth.

Every coach is different, not just different textures but you'll see the blinds all set up differently which presents a nice varied view as the train runs past you in F4 mode.

All in all, for $12.95 I would have to say this is a very well put together pack indeed. If you want some really high quality SNCF stock for your collection then this is definitely one to give some consideration to.

Our score: