As the title suggests, looking to take advantage of the current sale to add some North American steam to my collection. Was looking for recommendations as to what is good and what isn’t. I think a Big Boy is pretty much mandatory and looking at reviews on Steam fairly obvious there which one is good and which one is a bit, erm, naff. I’m also looking at the Berkshire which seems to get mixed reviews and there are some for the Maryland (?) route which I don’t yet own. Do any of the locos come with vintage passenger stock or is it just freight, or what you already have installed? Finally there’s the Rio Grande Southern which seems to get good reviews as a route but mixed regarding the locos. Many thanks.
Have you seen the Machine Rail website? They have a selection of US Steam locos at good prices https://www.machine-rail.com/shop?currency=USD You would have to ask others on how good they are - I don't do kettles
Thanks Pete. Really looking at buying on Steam as I have quite a healthy Wallet balance at present. Well from what I can see, the Smokebox Big Boy is a must have. Just contemplating whether I should also invest in the Wasatch route to run it on as well as Sherman Hill. Watched a couple of YT clips of the Berkshire and that seems to get the nod, though HSC for some reason is one of my least favourite US routes. If there's any cash left over might also invest in the B&O Cumberland route and one of its steamers. The one certainty is the score in this sale looking like TSC 6 - 0 TSW!
Thanks Buzz, I’ll check those out too. Anyhow looks like I need to buy Wasatch for the scenarios with the Big Boy. Back to the store I go…
Although not mentioned, the PRR locos have dependencies on the PRR K4 (Steam). The other's may also, but I've not tried them.
Pretty much anything by Smokebox is a given, any of his offerings are a good choice. Also its best if you go with the WM Steam loco, is to buy it off of steam vs Machine Rails site, as on steam all 3 paints are bundled into one, where you have to buy individual skins off of their website.
Well I somehow managed to fail the first scenario with the Big Boy, as I fluffed the stop by the coaling point at the start, despite backing up and doing the coaling. Lost a few score points due to an unmarked 20 MPH speed restriction exiting the yard at the start. Arrived a few minutes late at the destination and docked several thousand points. Come on guys this is a freight run, you need to reduce the penalties for delays to a minute amount when setting it up. Anyhow other than that very enjoyable and guess I will rerun to get that green tick. Turned my attention after that to the H9. Lovely looking model but on the first attempt, sounding the whistle had an instant CTD. Started again with a clean boot and fresh load of TSC, no further issues in that department. The loco seems a bit squirrely, very easy to induce wheelslip even at low regulator settings. It also appears to consume very little coal and no water that I could determine during my 40 or so minute run. Can anyone confirm if these are issues, or just me? Still it sounds and looks good. Going to have a fling with the Berkshire later on, see how that plays.
Hi, The BigBoy is an excellent choice in combination with the Wasatch grade route addon. Please note if you have Train Sim Classic there is a problem of injector proportions that were altered by the core game code update. Fortunately, someone has corrected this problem with a mod that's pretty easy to install. This will enable you to run the scenarios supplied with the BigBoy without too many problems. You'll find it here: https://www.nyctarailfan.com/fan-ra...cific-big-boy-&-fef-3-excursion-package-v1.0d This mod has the advantage of performing the modification not only for the BigBoy, but also for the Union Pacific Heavy Challenger and the Union Pacific FEF-3, which are 2 must-have steam engines in my opinion. For the FEF-3, the available scenarios are on the Sherman Hill route addon. The FEF-3 is powered by oil instead of coal (interesting and different to manage). You'll note that the Wasatch grade route addon comes with a (simplified) BigBoy and Challenger, which I hasten to add have absolutely nothing to do with the Smokebox models! Enjoy and Regards, Richard.
You already got the BB, but I'll second any steam loco Smokebox has made. Second to none for the game!
There's no need to apply the patch for the injectors. Fortunately, DTG did corrrect the problem in the core code update and now it all works fine without any patches to the locomotives.
