Locomotive help

[peraltas]

hi, i got the game around 1 week ago, and i played 21 hours (according to steam), but i never used a locomotive before, now im doing the bath green park scenarios and at "swift and delighful" you need to reach the stations in time, and i cant do that. what i do to make that train go faster? what is the small injector and why i need it. I would love if someone could tell me how to make a steam locomotive to go faster.

thank you guys

[matthewt1501]

This scenario isn't that easy! :) It took me a few goes before getting it.

To answer the first question, the small ejector "releases" the brakes.
It does this by using steam to "eject" air from the brake system, thus creating a vacumm to make the brakes usable.

annnnnnyyyyy ho, back to the point.
When you say make it go faster, how fast have you got the black 5 to now then.. she will hit 65-70 along that route.

But the trick to getting this one is set off as soon as you can. You have to be quick off the mark.

Don't use 100% reg (you can have to much steam, though each loco is different in this respect) between 50-60% on the flat, and up to 88% on a 1 in 50. Wind the reverser out a notch (or a bolt as you see it in the cab)every 10MPH or so. Conversly, wind it back in by the same amount when you are slowing down.

Turn the Blower off, and shut the cylinder ♥♥♥♥♥ past 10MPH (TBH I shut them at 5MPH)
Don't let the pressure valve blow, so keep the boiler pressure on, or just below the red line on the guage.
Stoke when going down hill or running on the flat. The same with the water.. don't open the injectors while climbing, as it will cool the steam in the boiler, and you'll loose pressure.

These are the basics that apply to this loco, but you have any other specific issue, just shout.....

Hope that helps.

Matt

[Toripony]

Matthew,

Thank you for taking your time to explain this. This is the first time I've seen someone explain using the ejector, blower, and cylinder c o c k s. Would you mind a another sentence or two to tell us what the blower and c o c k s DO? Having burned a wood stove, I assume the blower makes the fire hotter? Oh... and what about the damper?

Thanks again! My steam loco driving skills just improved another notch.

Tori

[elof_ffs]

If you want to go half way to start with,
In Options/gameplay set Control Model to "Expert"
And Auto Fireman to "On"
This gives you full control of the Reverser, Regulator and Brakes
and the Auto Fireman does the rest,
I will switch my auto fireman off one day, but i like to look around while im driving:)

kevin

[matthewt1501]

Matthew,

Thank you for taking your time to explain this. This is the first time I've seen someone explain using the ejector, blower, and cylinder c o c k s. Would you mind a another sentence or two to tell us what the blower and c o c k s DO? Having burned a wood stove, I assume the blower makes the fire hotter? Oh... and what about the damper?

Thanks again! My steam loco driving skills just improved another notch.

Tori

Hello,

Glad I could be of some help.. :)

Sure, i'll explain, thats no problem.

First off is the blower.
This is used to make the fire burn hotter, as you suggested.
It does this by releasing steam out of (7?) nozzles just below the funnel. This is used to create negative pressure in the firebox. This draws air in though the damper, when it's open, or the firebox door.
Drawing air in through the firebox door is crucial for the survial of the crew. The fire can blow back onto the foot plate if the regulator is shut suddenly, or the loco enters a tunnel with the doors open. The crew will be toast. This is beacuase the hot gaeeses suddenly encounter no low pressure at the front of the loco, and infact when going through a tunnel the pressue can increases. So the hot gases try to escape somewhere else.. and that will be on the foot plate.
SO don't stoke while going through a tunnel. :)

The blowers primay use though is when stationary to build up steam when the regulator is closed and thus not creating a "chuff". Also opening up about a 3rd twhen going through tunnels helps a bit. (though that still doesn't mean you should open the firbox door!)

It builds up boiler pressure by realeasing steam into the smokebox. as the steam rushed out the funnel it draws the hot air from the firebox through the heater tubes, and over the superheaer tubes. This increases the boiler pressure when stationary or when moving slowly.

The Dampers are used to the same effect, except it's a little door just below the ashpan that "scoops" fresh air from under the loco and when in forward motion this effectly becomes a sort of "blast furness". When stationary, with the dampers open you can use the blower, and the steam production will rocket.
You can open the firebox door with the dampers open while stationary or moving. One of the most effective ways of kicking steam production down a bit is closing the firebox door and dampers. It takes little while to have an effect, but it does work well. I normally have the firbox door open, and dampers shut with blower on around a 5th when working around the yard. When running, the dampers are open, firebox door shut (unless I'm stoking), and the really gets the steam going! :)

Cylinder ♥♥♥♥♥ stops the cylinder exploding. :) Kinda! (I just wanted to say that to make it sound dramatic)
These are opened when a loco thats been stating for a while moves off.
When a loco is stationary, so are the pistons. This means that hot "dry" steam is not entering or exiting the cyclinders. Though when the loco was running this would and been the case and the cylinders would have been very warm. Now it's been stationary for a while the slight amount of steam or even warm air that is in each side of the cylinder has condensed, and formed a puddle at the bottom of the cylinder. Water is not compressable so it has to go somewhere. In severe cases blowing the end stop off the cylinder with a big bang!
The ♥♥♥♥♥ are opened to push this puddle out, though obviously this does come at some expense. The initial pulling power of the loco is reduced as effectivly you just made a hole on the end of the cylinder. I trend to close them over 5mph, that are not needed after a 30(max)seconds of running.

Hope that helps.

Matt

[arizonachris]

Excellent stuff as always, Matt. I'm still using "Intermediate" controls on this sim, have not ventured into "Expert" yet. But, wow, fantastic info. :D

[matthewt1501]

Go-on, take the plundge, go Expert! :)

[benco97]

I would use Expert controls all the time but I find it terribly annoying when I venture into a train that has AWS and I'll be doodling along when suddenly I stop thanks to the emergency brakes. The problem of course being that you can't hear the AWS alarm unless your camera is in the cab!

Basically, I use Expert for driving steam and intermediate for everything else. Wish you could have expert on but turn AWS off though.

As for manual fireman.. whoo.. I'm not nearly good enough yet, maybe one day though.

[matthewt1501]

I would use Expert controls all the time but I find it terribly annoying when I venture into a train that has AWS and I'll be doodling along when suddenly I stop thanks to the emergency brakes. The problem of course being that you can't hear the AWS alarm unless your camera is in the cab!

Basically, I use Expert for driving steam and intermediate for everything else. Wish you could have expert on but turn AWS off though.

As for manual fireman.. whoo.. I'm not nearly good enough yet, maybe one day though.

LOL, yeah I'm the same.. I wish AWS was an option.. :) Quite happily trundling along, then all of a sudeen... buuzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz at 4,000 decibells! Then it's a mad panick to find the q key, even though I know where it is... I seem to have imense trouble finding it when AWS Screems at me, and I need to react in under 0.5 seconds!

Cheers.

Matt

[peraltas]

matthewt thank you so much for that.. now i finish that scenario!
and can make the locomotive go faster =)

[matthewt1501]

glad I could be of assistance. :)

[styckx]

Steam is a blast to drive full manual fireman on expert. Tons of work to do to keep you busy.

The power of these beasts is always under estimated and what's going on inside is hard to grasp unless you really get to see the inside of a boiler. It's quite amazing.

If you ever have a chance to hit up the nearest railroad that runs steam excursions you should really do so.

Here is video I recorded last year in July of #89's morning activities at Strasburg. At the 53 second mark gives you a good idea of the power these things harness as it's blowing out. That much steam in the middle of a hot July morning is astonishing. Morning activities are my favorite part to watch of any steam train when I go to see them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eF2QRqraF6Q