Irish Enterprise Version 2 is the Southern half of the Irish Enterprise Route covering Dundalk to the capital Dublin (Connolly). Irish Enterprise North covering Belfast to Dundalk is also available as a separate product. If you have the Irish Enterprise North already installed then on completion of the installation of Irish Enterprise South, a linking installer will run which will join the two halves together so that you can drive from Belfast to Dublin. If you install Irish Enterprise North AFTER Irish Enterprise South you will need to follow the instructions on THIS CD to run the linking installer.

First Impressions

The product is delivered in the standard DVD style case containing the DVD and coloured manual. Production and distribution is by Fastline Simulations. Installation is a standard autorun QSetup installer that installs XTracks, Tsection and the route and rolling stock. It took about 20 minutes to complete the installation on my dated 2GHz machine and shortly afterwards we were driving along the Enterprise tracks btween Dundalk and Dublin. A very pleasant drive in a "Railcar" (DMU) through pleasant scenery on XTracks.

Stock

Diesel Locomotives

Class 201
207 in Enterprise livery
228/229 in the new Green Intercity livery
A number of other Class 201's in IE Black/Orange livery

Class 071
074/078/084/088 in IE Black/Orange livery
081 in IE Black/White livery

DMU (Railcars), EMU and DART

Class 29000 Diesel Hydraulic MU's
There are 4 of these 4 car "Railcars".

NIR 450 Castle Class DEMU's
There are 4 of these 3 car "Railcars".

Class 8100/8300 LHB Dublin Area Rapid Transit (DART) EMU's
There 8 of these DART units.

Loco Hauled Stock
Pre-Gatwick Express coaching stock in NIR blue/white livery
Mk2 Supertrain stock in IE Black/Orange livery
Mk3 Push Pull stock in IE Black/Orange livery
Irish Enterprise coaching stock in 2 tone grey livery
A number of freight and container wagons are also included

There are a number of other locos and stock, look out for them.
I won't spoil the surprise by identifying them.

Cab views
Excellent cab views for the locos, DMUs, DART and the PushPull Units

Sounds
Some beefy sounds that appear just a little louder than the normal MSTS sounds.
Nevertheless they will make the floor rattle.

Activities

There are 12 activities for this half of the Enterprise Route. Numbered 1 thru 9, but 5 is in 4 parts, thus making 12 in total. All rated in the manual as easy or medium but take care there are a couple "Gotchas" in a couple of the activities despite what the briefing says. If you have the Irish Enterprise North installed then there are an additional 8 activities that cover the whole Belfast to Dublin route. Some of these are rated HARD and you might consider doing part of the activity, saving it, then come back to it later.

Route and Scenery

The route is a good representation of the line within the limits of MSTS. Certainly following the line in MSTS and in Google Earth on two PCs side by side shows an excellent similarity between them. The models and structures made for the route are also excellent and scenery in general matches up to the scenery in the Irish Enterprise North route.

Conclusion

This addon quite happily stands on its own as a very good representation of the Southern half of the Irish Enterprise route. If you already have the Northern half of the route then you have the 110+ miles from Belfast to Dublin complete. The locos and stock are excellent and make for some fun driving. The activities have been well thought out and put together, especially the long haul activities over the two halves of the route.
This addon should certainly encourage those that haven't got the Northern half to go out and get it. Whether you have a fancy to drive Irish Railways or not, a good addon to have in your library.

Final Score: