PC Just Loving The 101blg

Discussion in 'TSW General Discussion' started by elric#1386, Jan 17, 2023.

  1. elric#1386

    elric#1386 Well-Known Member

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    I've been putting off driving the 101BLG as like the BR363, I was struggling with the breaking, and the gears on the 101.
    But tonight I spent the evening practicing on the Training Schools outer loop.
    Even though I'm still struggling, I'm getting there and I am now just loving it.
    I so hope that I get it mastered?

    upload_2023-1-17_23-29-58.png
     
    Last edited: Jan 20, 2023
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  2. rennekton#1349

    rennekton#1349 Well-Known Member

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    Practice makes perfect. I used to hate driving the 101 cuz of the gears but once you drive it more and more, it'll become second nature
     
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  3. TimTri

    TimTri Well-Known Member

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    Back in my early TSW2 days about two years ago, I got the TSW2020 deluxe edition to sort of get a “base” of routes to build on, and NTP with the Class 101 was part of it. At first, I used to hate that train… such a uniquely difficult thing, and abandoned it for about 12 months.
    But about a year ago, I returned to the route, gave the train a proper try one evening and everything just clicked. From then on, I’ve been able to drive that train quite well. I even bought Tees Valley Line to get another route to drive it on, and that DLC is now amongst my favorites as well!

    In addition to the gear shifter, I just love the cab layout. So retro, so cool! :D
    And great timing with your post - just finished a wintertime run from Saltburn to Darlington.
     
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  4. Crosstie

    Crosstie Well-Known Member

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    One of the main reasons I love driving the 101 is that it works so well with the Raildriver.
     
  5. steveownzzz#6107

    steveownzzz#6107 Well-Known Member

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    I love it, it's super engaging to drive. The braking was a bigger challenge for me to learn than the gear changing tbh.
     
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  6. penguinmatt#1924

    penguinmatt#1924 Active Member

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    I struggled with it to start with as well. The game changer for me with it was getting an XBox controller for my PC. The fact that the gear change is mapped to the d-pad made it easier which then made it more fun (I could worry about when to change gear not how). Can always tell when I haven't driven one for a while, my braking skills revert back to being rubbish for the first few stops
     
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  7. a.paice

    a.paice Well-Known Member

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    Its my favourite train to drive. It’s very satisfying.
    I wish they chose to model more older trains which are harder to drive.
     
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  8. Pipe

    Pipe Well-Known Member

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    I love that thingy (after hating her). Once you master the brakes she´s a delight to drive. Sounds are perfect and the interior is charmingly retro. Nobody would be able to carve those wooden panels nowadays.
     
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  9. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    We need more first gen DMU's in TSW. Ideally a Class 120 Swindon Cross Country but I'd settle for a 108, which were one of the last types to be withdrawn.
     
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  10. a.paice

    a.paice Well-Known Member

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    We need more old stuff in general. They came out with NTP at the start. Two locomotives and 1 Unit. All three of them heritage and an absolute pleasure to drive. All packaged with one of the best routes.

    Years later we seem to get a route with one modern unit if we are lucky.
     
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  11. Jonne1184

    Jonne1184 Well-Known Member

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    The 101 is one of my absolute favorites as well. It just keeps you busy all of the time. The DB 110 is a bit of the same as you need to constantly change the power setting during acceleration.
     
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  12. elric#1386

    elric#1386 Well-Known Member

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    Driving it reminds me of when I had a series 2a LandRover. The only way you could change gear was taking your foot off the accelerator, and the braking was similar. The longer you kept your foot on the break pedal you could feel the pressure draining away, so you had to break using the off / on pumping method to maintain the pressure.
     
  13. theorganist

    theorganist Well-Known Member

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    I agree, for us "oldies" TSW was looking very promising. I remember there was much disgruntlement on here when we got two BR period routes, lots of moaning about these old trains and people weren't interested in them. Those same people have gone very, very quiet now!

    I enjoy driving modern trains too but my heart is in the steam to BR sectorisation period, which is now swamped by modern routes.
     
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  14. elric#1386

    elric#1386 Well-Known Member

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    It took me a while to figure out how to open the cab doors to exit. Then I remembered that you had to open the window to lean out to turn the handle.
     
  15. OldVern

    OldVern Well-Known Member

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    The old DMU's offered good visibility too. Just look at that ghastly cab on the 385 coming with Edinburgh to Glasgow, tiny slit. Not Rivet's/DTG's fault obviously but by choosing a less modern era we could have got a train which actually showcased the route rather than this push to go/stop plastic thing with a narrow view.
     
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  16. theorganist

    theorganist Well-Known Member

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    Yes I would have far rather the new Scotrail route be set in the 1970's or 1980's. You would certainly get a better view of the route indeed.
     
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  17. a.paice

    a.paice Well-Known Member

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    Not to mention that layers are so much easier to implement with older routes. Now everything is branded and geographically specific but before 1991, similar to the German routes, everything is already mostly in the correct livery.
    There were definitely plenty of variations and units found only in certain places but you could see most of the locomotives and rolling stock we have in the game all over the country. This means any route they create is going to have a rich timetable.

    Rivets new route will be nice but you’re driving between two giant stations with no other trains at all.
    For example if it was set in the 70/80’s you could have 47’s and 45’s ready to take expresses down the ECML at Waverley and the West coast at Glasgow, 47’s running push pull operations between the capitals, 40’s and 37’s leaving North to Perth and Inverness, 31’s and 20’s on a whole host of freight workings. You already have a full timetable before you’ve even introduced a new train to fill in the region-specific gaps.
     
    Last edited: Jan 18, 2023
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  18. Crosstie

    Crosstie Well-Known Member

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    Yes, the route should have been set back in the period when the Class170 was ruling the roost.

    That would have opened up the possibility of more drivable trains, like the Class 37 or 45 and some appropriate AI traffic.

    I'm beginning to wonder if routes are being chosen because they only have one appropriate train.
    Nah, that would be too cynical, even for me.
     
    Last edited: Jan 18, 2023
  19. a.paice

    a.paice Well-Known Member

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    Hitachi actually had to redesign the cab window shortly after it was introduced to reduce the refraction of light.
    The bend in the glass was causing drivers to effectively see ‘double’ with a real image and a fake image projected slightly to the side.

    At night, approaching a gantry of signals you can see how this would cause massive problems when trying to identify your signal.

    There were also instances where drivers saw track-workers on the track in front of them due to the refraction in the glass but in fact they were stood safely to the side.
     
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  20. Pipe

    Pipe Well-Known Member

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    Which brings me to a question to the in-the-know people here:

    Does the Class 101 have some kind of engine brake, maybe an exhaust brake, a jake brake or a retarder just like you´d find in trucks and busses? I tried to reduce gear and zeroed acceleration but there seems to be no braking power coming from the engines when going downhill. Is this prototypical or is just not modeled?
     
  21. theorganist

    theorganist Well-Known Member

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    I don't believe there would be any engine braking as you would get in a manual transmission car with a clutch. When coasting into a station you should actually be in fourth gear and then put it in neutral when you get below 15mph and are coming to a halt, that is what I was always told.
     
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  22. a.paice

    a.paice Well-Known Member

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    Yeh that’s quite right
     
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  23. elric#1386

    elric#1386 Well-Known Member

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    That's how I used to brake in my Lanny. I kept it in 4th. This allowed the low revs of the engine to assist with slowing down
     
  24. Jonne1184

    Jonne1184 Well-Known Member

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    It should be very close to an automatic transmission in a car, just that you preselect the gear manually. Meaning that there indeed is nearly no engine brake. To add to that, per an old instrunctional video on driving the 101, you would put it into neutral for braking anyway.
     
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  25. Redbus

    Redbus Well-Known Member

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    Absolutely, push-pull 27/1s and /2s, or even 47/7s would have been far more interesting. Saying that I’ll still be buying it if it’s well done.
     
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  26. Thunderer

    Thunderer Well-Known Member

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    The 101 is still my favourite drive on TSW probably for nostalgic reasons, in the late 80s/early 90s I used to commute daily on these trains between Liverpool Lime Street and St Helens Junction. DTG absolutely nailed the look, feel and sounds of them.

    If I took the Trans Pennine expresses it would be on class 40s, 47s or peaks, DTG also did a great job on these locos too, especially the sounds.
     
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  27. lcyrrjp

    lcyrrjp Well-Known Member

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    The 101 is my favourite TSW train too, because it’s challenging to drive which makes it so much more interesting than modern stock. It’s the reason I’m so keen to have a ‘tap-changer’ electric (class 81-87) as they’re tricky to drive in a different way.

    On the question of engine-braking - the answers given so far are correct in that the instruction is to brake in 4th gear (moving to neutral just before coming to a stand) so you don’t really get any engine braking in normal operation. However, I remember a few years ago I worked at a depot which used to have 101s. They were spoken of with great affection by most of the Drivers who’d driven them, and the main reason was that it was considered almost impossible to have a SPAD. Why? Because if you’d messed up your braking and were approaching a red signal too fast for the brakes to stop you, you could move the gear handle into 1st gear, and open up the power handle to notch 1. This engaged the gear, and brought the speed down very rapidly indeed! Not the most comfortable experience, but better than passing the signal.

    I haven’t tried this on the TSW version, but if I’m ever in that situation I’ll give it a go!
     
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  28. DominusEdwardius

    DominusEdwardius Well-Known Member

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    You really won't get any engine braking on these things because there is a freewheel device before the gearbox!
     
  29. driverwoods#1787

    driverwoods#1787 Well-Known Member

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    Practice makes perfect but when I tried the Class 101 Daisy DMU on Huddersfield Line NTP TSW2020 Xbox Game pass version. It was a pain in the arse for me because I end up stopping short or overshooting the station due to it being a vacuum brake DMU unlike combined with gear mechanic. Unlike the other TSW 2020 base game class 166 GWML London Paddington to Reading which is Automatic Gearbox with combined Brake and Throttle.
     
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  30. AtherianKing

    AtherianKing Well-Known Member

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    I remember first time trying out that loco, it was on TVL and as usual I don’t always go straight for tutorials, but I try to see for every new loco if I can get it running myself. I immediately got stumped by it, had no clue with the gears and found them the worst thing to happen to such a (IMO) nice looking type of train. Why it couldn’t have just had a throttle handle and simple Brake I never did know. I’m still to this day not perfect with its breaks, but the gears and throttle I find quite fun and helpful to keep to speeds (just don’t up the gears and it will hold in certain places) I do wish it operated more express services (particularly enjoyed operating on an express special service (Leeds to Blackpool) (not all the way to Blackpool just Huddersfield I think it was before it turns of NTP)
     
    Last edited: Jan 20, 2023
  31. a.paice

    a.paice Well-Known Member

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    I’ve made some scenarios using the 101 on Spirit of Steam.
    They aren’t massively prototypical but they scratch an itch I’ve had and much more realistic than Jubilees on suburban stopping services.

    My profile is ‘Paiiccee’ and you just have to download the br green liveries on there for them to show up in my scenarios.

    756CE75D-E48B-476B-B5BE-654BD1AEBBB0.jpeg E86E3466-6CFC-4EC0-B046-A65EF1C90B5E.jpeg 9FE01534-FE29-42BE-A7B8-C123CA656067.jpeg DB1F66B1-FF42-4984-841A-A346C8598803.jpeg A99FB4AA-905B-4B5A-B2A4-2DDA8C1C4BF0.jpeg
     
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  32. elric#1386

    elric#1386 Well-Known Member

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    Looks superb! At first glance, I thought they was photo's of a OOgauge layout LoL!
     
  33. Redbus

    Redbus Well-Known Member

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    The duff and the yellow panelled 101 are definitely out of era, but the all green 101 with whiskers doesn’t look out of place. I would use an all green shiny new class 40 with headcode discs for some of those expresses if such a livery is available. Good effort though!
     
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  34. a.paice

    a.paice Well-Known Member

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    I would love to use the 40 but unfortunately until they make a consist editor- it cannot pull a train of mk1’s. Only mk2’s :(

    The 47 also has an incorrect light and the mk1’s have the wrong bogies haha
     
  35. TeumessianFox

    TeumessianFox Member

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    I'd like to do that too, to assist with my TransPennine driving. How do I get to drive the 101 around the training school? All I find under the Training School Options are the introduction and one other - I've walked around the Training Centre on foot but so far haven't found the 101, maybe it's parked in an obscure location? Thanks for advice ... :)
     
  36. elric#1386

    elric#1386 Well-Known Member

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    You have to create a scenario in the editor. The only loco's that show up in the training centre are the ones that come with the main game pack.
     
  37. TeumessianFox

    TeumessianFox Member

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    Thank you! I'll give that a go this evening...
     
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  38. Redbus

    Redbus Well-Known Member

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    The first time you drive the 101 you feel you need 2 brains and 3 pairs of hands to deal with all the gear changes and the old school braking. It does eventually click though and is quite satisfying once mastered. Make full use of the lap button on the keyboard and controller to move the lever instantly to the lap position, enabling a finer control of the braking. I used to keep forgetting to nudge the gear lever into neutral while slowing to a stop, but I even got the hang of that in the end. ;)
     
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  39. TimTri

    TimTri Well-Known Member

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    Oh god I forgot about the “move to lap” feature on controllers!
    Does putting the gear to neutral during a stop make any difference (except for adhering to the realistic procedure)? I always forget that ;)

    Edit: Had a look at the controller layout on PlayStation! “Move Brake to Lap” is Operations Shift (hold square) + L1 :D
     
    Last edited: Jan 20, 2023
  40. Redbus

    Redbus Well-Known Member

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    I don’t think it actually breaks anything in the game, but it probably would in real life.
    Oh, and don’t forget to always put it in 4th gear when coasting. :)
     
    Last edited: Jan 20, 2023
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  41. elric#1386

    elric#1386 Well-Known Member

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    I've created a scenario with a stop at every station on the route. So now I can practice stopping at stations, and slowing down to reduced speed sections.
     
  42. lcyrrjp

    lcyrrjp Well-Known Member

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    If you leave it in gear you’ll find you need more brake to bring the train to a stand. Try coming in with about 15 inches of vacuum on the gauge in 4th gear. Then, just before you reach the point where you want the train to stop, put it into neutral. Without you having to further adjust the brake the train will come to a nice smooth stop within a few yards. I find this to be the easiest way to get a precise stop at a particular point.
     
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