Managed a run from Exeter to Plymouth in 58 mins 14 seconds (no photos unfortunately). Anyone want to try and beat the record?
Hi, my friends! Long time, no see, I know... I was (and still am) going through a very busy and stressful time at work, hence why I haven't checked in for so long. More on that probably elsewhere at some point in the future. Now that's an interesting thought. I haven't looked myself yet, but I do own the route (the included German 294 was enough to get me to buy the deluxe edition after all...). I did adore the scenery on the route the few times I've played it, so it would be lovely to return to it on one of our girls when I find the time.
After a very long hiatus, for which I apologise, I return with a simple, but nice little run. Eager to get back on the footplate of our Jubilee, I had another go at the Blackpool (South) stopping service. Given that I mostly drive regional, stopping services in real life, I felt right at home. You can find my run here on the spreadsheet. I started at 09:55 right on time and used my established Blackpool South start by having the reverser in 55, opening up the regulator to 20% and increasing it to 40% as traction allows. One thing I did slightly differently was that I kept the reverser at 40 until the boiler pressure fell to about 200psi, then I switched down to 18 on the reverser in one go. I felt this gave me adequate acceleration for the stopping service. I arrived at Squires Gate 53 seconds after schedule, which isn’t brilliant but good enough for a stopping service in my book. I needn’t discuss my starts in detail hereafter as they did not differ from what I described above. I had a relaxing go of it until I got to Lytham, the last stop before Preston. I left St Annes a minute late, Ansdell 2 minutes late, and Lytham also 2 minutes late. The top speed between these stops usually hovered around 35-40mph. One thing that really stuck out to me compared to my (now) real experience is just how long the one-minute stops for a stopping service are. No doubt needed the stops more time in steam days compared to driver only operated EMUs/DMUs of today, but I’m certain that the original schedule will be hard to match like this. Not that it hinders the enjoyment of the drive in any way, it’s more of an observation. On the way to Moss Side, a top speed of around 45mph was reached if memory serves before the 35mph speed limit. The latter speed was held on the climb to Kirkham before slowly dropping to about 31mph as the climb stretched on. After Kirkham, it was a straight shot to Preston where I stopped about a minute early. I did miss recording passing speed and time for Lea Road, unfortunately. Overall, I had a blast coming back even if the results aren’t breathtaking. I’m hoping to run more regularly again, but can’t promise so, unfortunately. On another note, I was happily surprised to see the reworked BPO timetable with tap changers et al. in play. What joy! Spoiler: Some pictures from the tracks I came to an almost perfect stop at Squires Gate. The braking was gentle, too. I was a little proud, I’ll admit. Nova Scotia just pulling away from Squires Gate. I do love steam locos in the landscape. Nova Scotia pulls into Kirkham. I’m almost certain I took this exact shot before, but couldn’t find it. Maybe my mind’s playing tricks on me. In colour: Nova Scotia rests in Preston as passengers are reminded to stay on the platform.
Great run, Lamplight, and some absolutely brilliant pictures, as ever. I particularly enjoyed the black and white ones. They’re like a step back in time. I was going to do a similar run tonight and post the results here, but with the announcement about the closure of the forum, it’s difficult to build up the enthusiasm. I must admit I don’t quite see the benefit of closing and deleting a thread like this, which is just a celebration of the game and encourages people to play it and (in many cases mentioned in the thread) buy routes they would not otherwise have bought. However, no doubt greater minds than mine can see the wisdom. I just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who has posted in the thread over the years. It’s been great fun (barely a cross word in the whole thread), and I can genuinely say I wouldn’t have bothered trying to make something out of steam in TSW were it not for the shared enthusiasm of many other posters giving me constant motivation. In particular, a huge thank you to Lamplight, for doing so much work building and maintaining the spreadsheet recording all the runs, and posting so many of his own. Hopefully in the future there’ll be another forum (maybe an unofficial one) where we can revive the thread. Until then, thank you all - it’s been a pleasure. James
My sentiments exactly! Despite not doing a run it's been great to read the depth you guys have gone too and the way you've made steam work despite where it's been! Always enjoyed reading your accounts of each run!
I just read the bad news. I, too, want to take a moment to thank everyone involved over the years, no matter whether you posted runs, posted thoughts, or just read through our rambling. You all made this possible and certainly gave me many happy memories. This thread was and is my favourite little corner of the forums. A huge shoutout to lcyrrjp for starting us on this adventure and laying the groundwork as well as helping me put together the data for the spreadsheet and always having a kind word on his lips whenever anyone posted a run! With the future of this thread unknown, I’ll see about backing up at least the posts outlining the challenge runs/rules/instructions so the spreadsheet remains “mostly” functional even should all else disappear. Of two things I can assure everyone who has been with us till now: The spreadsheet isn’t going anywhere. It’ll stay exactly where it is. It might even improve a little if backed up information about the runs from the forum becomes accessible within (just an idea for now - we’ll see). Should this thread cease to be and become an ex-thread once DTG brings down Beeching’s axe, I’m fully on-board with reviving it either here or elsewhere as possible. I can only speak for myself, but I have no intention of stopping with our runs despite the news. In any case, thank you all for the happy memories, it’s been jolly good fun! Cheers
Since we're still all here after all, I thought a little celebratory run was in order. Therefore, I decided to have another go at the run that started all this: Crewe - Liverpool in 50 minutes with a load of 10 coaches. A little other matter first: For those who didn't happen to catch my post before, I made sure to manually save this thread on the Wayback Machine of the Internet Archive. You can access these backups here (you can click through the pages as normal). Now, back to my run. You can find my exact timings here in our spreadsheet. Join me on 45591 Udaipur. At Crewe, I had an easy start this time since no freeroam spawning and/or shunting was required given that we have timetbale runs on SoS. I set everything up on the footplate and had enough time for some sips of tea. Once departure time and the green signal had come, I opened her up to 20% on the regulator and 55 on the reverser. You know what's coming next at this point when I'm driving. I closed the cylinder cocks and tried going to 40% regulator but with the heavy load, the wheels started slipping around 30%. I backed off the regulator immediately and instead stuck her at 30% regulator and 40 on the reverser. This proved a good setting for getting up to the 20mph limit. Once clear of that, I set her at my ususal 40 regulator, 16 reverser and let her run along. She accelerated and happily so. She got up to 77mph before dropping to 75mph when passing Hartford, which seems to be a new record (though just by 1mph and only among the runs that reported a passing speed here). Speaking of Hartford, about 1.5miles before, I suddenly heard the safety valves blowing off, to my surprise. It would seem that at speeds around 75mph, the Jubilee creates more steam than my 40/16 uses up. Therefore, I switched to 40/18 and that shut the safeties up again. Before hitting Weaver Junction, I managed to get 83mph out of the old girl, another record, it would seem. But this momentum didn't carry forward. I misjudged the braking a bit and thus still had sticky brakes when starting the climb to Sutton Weaver. I didn't worry too much though and just stuck to my 40/18 for the climb. I haven't compared to the other climbs, but I felt slow. Once at the summit, I used some 40/16 to get speed back up before inevitably preparing for the Runcorn 55mph limit. To Ditton, it was now just about holding the speed close to the limit. On the way to Speke, I used more 40/18 for the gentle climb and later 40/16 for the harsher climb from Speke to Edge Hill. Why I did not use 18 on the reverser, I don't quite know in post. It probably would have been a sensible choice. In the end, I eased off the regulator and drifted to the 40mph limit into Edge Hill and then braked for the 20mph limit through the platforms. I made full use of the 30mph limit downhill into Liverpool Lime Street. I stopped at the platoform at 11:28:22 giving me a run time of 45:17 - 6 seconds slower than my last run. Overall, I'm quite happy with my run. The Crewe - Weaver Junction portion seems to have gone down really well. I suspect the climbs are the reason why the run wasn't faster overall, in the end. I know I could have been faster if I had worked more proactively to counter the gradients with final pushes and harder working before (using more boiler pressure). I don't think I ever got below 195psi boiler pressure the entire run. Still, almost 5 minutes before schedule is more than good enough for me Spoiler: Blasts from the Past Some lovely architecture - both in the foreground and background - as Udaipur stands ready for departure. The car and the locomotive. Steam and Petrol. Worlds collide. From the driver's perspective, the car almost looks like a toy. Somehow, a bit of a bridge theme has snuck in this time. A lovely view on the passing train from under a tree that provides invaluable shade in the hot summer weather. See what I mean about the bridge theme? Anyways, the train looks quite majestic coming out of Runcorn.
