Or should that be “another month another twenty five quid” 2.9gb downloading now, look forward to the intros and a general albeit brief explore before some much needed sleep. Shall edit this once have completed those. store calls the DLC elkhorn - Dante Download file DLC elkhorn - St. Paul Weird.. must say I do like the look/tone of this map judging from the screenshots in the store and the decent demo/stream the other week with Sam and Matt. just launched and noticed we have new mastery challenges for this. Just tier 1 it seems. Unlocks and bear/tent in game reward. Tasks are complete 2x scenarios or timetables Second task, load 60 wagons of coal.
Had a quick, and I mean quick , look and I'm loving it. Brakes is the biggest thing for me to look at at the moment. Regards Hentis
I take it the braking is on the “poor” side? Guess We PC users will find out later today. Still, heavy trains with clasp brakes don’t stop on a dime and you do need to plan ahead to slow down and come to a halt.
yeah i found it. when i first looked for it, it wasnt there so i left it 5 minutes and went back and looked again and it was right down the bottom of the list
OK, first off, I absolutely LOVE the route... But, have to vent a little. First service i ran after doing tutorial was Train 93 (i think, it's the first northbound manifest freight of the day in any case). About 1800t, 46 cars with ABBA power. All was going well until i was almost at Elkhorn, which as i learned, becomes quite a steep downhill grade- got a yellow signal but looked on the map and didn't see any AI trains approaching, so i figured it would do the usual TSW thing and be clear once i got there- wasn't speeding, but should have slowed down more- come around a bend and see the red signal about 300 yards out. Emergency brake saved me with about 10 yards to spare. Whew!! Turns out it's a stop and proceed signal, which should have warned me i wasn't out of the woods yet. Got the brakes released and am rolling slowly into Elkhorn- as i'm slowing to a stop at the destination, i wasn't paying attention (it being after 4am didn't help lol) and didn't realize there was a signal immediately past the stopping point. Rolled through and SPAD at like 3mph- never saw it, i guess it was one of those red flag ground signals......ouch. My own fault, but ouch! Anyway tl:dr route is amazing but challenging!
The final two points in the Fremont Ascent scenario are set incorrectly, causing me to derail by crashing into the back of a parked wagon. So check the last two point in Moss before you arrive.
i know the automatic brakes on the F7 are a lapped brake but they dont seem to work. when i use them they just seem to go straight into emergency brakes. So i use the independant brake but they dont stop you when on a full train. i know have to find out how to use the other brake. the tutorial on this train dose not explain how to use the brakes on this
As for the brakes, the SD40 ones aren't good going downhill, unless there are settings I'm missing, for example what are the various options on the MU-2A valve for?
Yes set them up like you would in sand patch grade. Turn the lever to freight and make sure the valve is on lead and the other engines set for trail
Lucky on Steam we have another 3 hours to wait. Grrr. Edited by DTG Natster - Removed inappropriate language, please reacquaint yourself with the forum rules before posting again.
what i have figured out on the SD 40 put the transiton/ mu2 into b on the console it is the dynamic brake and then you can use the auto brake . its the same on the F7 put the transition into B on the console and then use the lap brake in first service
So excited to hear about this route and can wait to drive it. How are the engine sounds? Do the horns reverberate in the hills? Is the scenery as spectacular as it looked on the preview stream? Does the brake gauge work in the caboose? So many questions ...
Beautifully beautifully done route. Yes the introduction to the F7 leaves the brakes a bit of a mystery. The lapped brakes do work they're just very slow to come on. With very few notches for the brake to be in you soon learn to be gentle on the lever, and you have to set them well well ahead and not overdo it before lapping them either. A real good challenge especially shunting freshly loaded rakes on a 1:30 slope!
It looks great! As far as the locos and scenery go, DTG can take a bow. The route itself though, man it's uneventful! 90% of it is just add a notch of throttle, wait a minute, then take a notch off. Running south to north, it's just rinse, wash and repeat with the dynamic brake. With it being a single track line too, there's little (if any) in the way of traffic triggering signal shenanigans either. I've done 3 timetable routes thus far where they've just been set off, hold it at a handful of different speeds anywhere between 15 -30mph, stop at destination. The gradients are hardly what you'd call challenging, the route is slow and lumbering and the on track traffic is stationary and sparse. I've yet to get onto the loading and shunting side of things, so maybe that'll spice things up. I can't see it being much different from any other loading and shunting work that we've already had before though. But it sure does look pretty.
DTG pulled a rabbit out of the bag with this route, i love it. it has kept me well entertained. with loading coal wagons and keeping to the speed limits going up and down the gradients. The scenery is well done and the locos nothing to complain about them. Not come across any bugs so far so fingers crossed
I'm glad I wasn't the only one who thought the train brakes were crazy sensitive. I've used lapped brakes before on the Peninsula Corridor route, but these are like, runninglapservice EMERGENCY!!! Hahaha!
For the brakes, one tap of LT will set brakes to "First service", which is about a 6 pound reduction. After that it gets tricky with the controller shortcut, IMO, and i've stuck to using the in-cab controls to make additional reductions (move the train brake handle past "lap" to "service" to initiate reduction- it can take a second to engage but will quickly increase to full service if you're not careful to move the handle back to "lap" when you have the reduction you want). Also, use the independent brake handle to "bail off" once you have the train brake set where you want for a smoother deceleration.
So does the F7. I'm not sure, but some people may be missing the fact that the DB controls are not the same as they are in the familiar Dash-2s. On both the CRR locos, you have to first move the selector lever to "B" (for brakes), and then use the throttle lever to control them
Holy cow- didn't realize the F7 had them, i don't think it mentions it in the tutorial (the sd40 tutorial does explain as you say above). Thanks for the info!
Dear DTG, Please remove the rearward horn cord and effect. Clinchfield Fs only had a forward facing horn. You even modeled the engine this way. Why it was necessary to add this completely inaccurate feature is beyond me. Thanks a bunch.
Most F7s had this- it was a factory option- because EMD always intended F-units to be operated in A-B or A-A multiple units. The rear horn rope controls the horn on the rear engine, not any imaginary "second horn" on the lead.
You sure, from some pics I looked at, alot of early F7s had two horns on the front of the locomotive, one facing forward, one backwards, so I assume each one was individually controlled. Obviously this doesn't apply to the Clinchfield F7, as they have Nathan M5s equipped.
IIRC, the 'dual horn' setup were controlled by a single valve, it was just a way to project the sound in both directions. Later cluster-bell horns like the M5 point every which way in one mounting.
No, the second cord does not control the rearward facing unit. One cord controls the forward facing horn. The other one controls the rearward facing horn. There's no MU options for horns. It was a railroad's option when they bought the units as to if they'd have one horn or two. Clinchfield chose to go with one horn per A unit. There never has been a way to MU control the horn on the rear unit of a consist in the USA. The closest anyone ever came to that was the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range MU'd the bells on all of their engines. When you turned on the bell anywhere in the consist, they all turned on.
Finally found time to have another go. SD40, refilling. Don’t think I spotted this on any other loco’s. The needle of the fuel tank actually moves!! Amazing small detail and slightly sad I’m pleased by this noticed the loading screens have a brake cut off hint for the F7 also, imagine it’s a placeholder until the other introduction is patched. (Thank you Matt for covering this at the start of the stream the other evening)
Try limited power, and the Nora and Moss branches those have been my favorites so far. Some of the switch moves and grades are quite challenging.