So, I was messing with the 8F included with the new training center and part of that was trying to reach it's to speed. I manged to get it up to 70 mph pretty smoothly but when it stopped accelerating, I thought I just ran out of pressure so I set the reverser to a very low percentage (30% or so) and needless to say after a few minutes, the loco took off like a missile. I then went even lower to 20% and 10% to avoid wheel slip when the safety valves started releasing steam and it got up to 131 mph in the end. I didn't continue even though the speed could probably still climb a little more. I smell bugged physics as this is some LNER A4 territory but still, pretty cool. The regulator was at 100% the entire time as that's my preferred driving style so far.
I saw a video. They tested 8F and 6P each in double traction on LGV. And the result was that 8F was faster than 6P. Very realistic.
Exactly. They canceld UP SD70Ace and UP AC44 at Sand Patch, because it's unauthentic. But 183 mph with the 8F is okay.
The issue with this might just be the fact that we don't have structural damage modeled. In other words, the real loco would have probably fallen to bits before getting anywhere near these speeds.
I agree with this point. The thing about steam locos. is that they're theoretically very powerful. If you just measure the power output of the boiler, it'll be tremendous. But a lot of that output is lost due to leakage of steam, thermal radiation, friction in the driving gear, and so on... They should've hardcoded the top speed or simulated a 'loss factor' that grows exponentially after a certain speed. That would've been an ideal solution IMO.
does that mean if we just freeze everything relative to the loco in place so it doesn't fall apart it would manage to reach these speeds IRL?
I managed to achieve 197 mph with Scotsman yesterday. I'm not sure if I'm happy with it, because by mistake I didn't lower reverser below 25%. Seems like in TSW the fastest steam loco is the least powerful out of decently powerful ones. That is because the more power loco outputs the sooner High-Speed Wheelslip will occur and those completely destroy acceleration. (That's also why lowering reverser further might have worked)
We would also need to reduce energy loss to 0. No big deal. It's only breaking of the fundamental laws of physics
Seems they never fully understood how Kuju implemented Steam in Rail Simulator despite having bought the source code back then... look what BMG, Smokebox and SteamSoundsSupreme are capable of doing based on that old (but well laid out) Kuju code in TSC. Steam on TSW is a total failure, sadly.
Locomotives are geared to developer their highest power outputs at different speeds depending on the intended purpose of the locomotive. With a steam loco that gearing is largely achieved through the size of the wheels delivering the traction. Large wheels - like on an A3 (such as Flying Scotsman) give relatively low power at low speeds, but relatively high power at higher speeds. That’s good for high speed running with express passenger trains. Small wheels - like on an 8F - give very high levels of power at high speeds, but power tails off rapidly as speed rises. This makes them great for starting heavy freight trains and moving them at low speed, but no good for express passenger trains. An 8F is not capable of speeds such as those described, not just because of the physical damage which would occur, but because their power output drops too much as speed rises to achieve such speeds. As mentioned by others, unfortunately the physics of TSW’s steam locos is a long way from reality. Hopefully at some point it’ll get a thorough re-work, as it feels as if there’s a significant pool of people who would be interested in steam locos and routes if the physics were a reasonable approximation of the real thing.
Yes, as the wheels are the last multiplicator in a transmission, big wheels for high speed, small wheels for higher tractive effort, simply put. Like changing your car's tires from 16" to 18" will increase top speed, lowering your wheel diameter will give you better acceleration at lower speeds. W = F * s
