I've only had the game a few months and now that its winter I started adding some snow when doing services on SPG but I'm having a devil of a time with them on the stretch from Cumberland to Sand Patch. Going uphill some trains with only two locomotives will start wheel slipping badly just beyond Hyndman. Either I apply a lower level of power that does not cause wheel slip but is not sufficient to keep me going forward, or I apply higher power and wheel slip constantly and cannot go forward. Sanding does not seem to help. Similar thing when coming down from Sand Patch to Cumberland. When the maximum dynamic brake setting is insufficient I usually apply some automatic brake to check the speed. But with any snow setting when I apply the automatic brakes it is either insufficient to slow the train down or if I apply more it causes wheel slip. Either way the train accelerates and before long my speed is into the red. I've completed all the timetable services before (though mostly in summer\fall weather) and services with pusher locomotives seem fine so far. So I'm wondering are some of these services just not doable in certain weather conditions? Or am I missing something or not doing something correctly? DW
The problem is that a lot of the services out of Cumberland are under powered making some services impossible, these are particularly the GP38-2 service variant and some of the SD40-2s. One thing I definitely recommend when approaching Sandpatch, bound for Cumberland, is to reduce your speed significantly when approaching the steep downhill grade after the tunnel, which can get as steep as 2% near Sandpatch. Use the uphill grade approaching Sandpatch to slow down, not the airbrakes as doing that will probably cause your train to stall out.
I think the reason why you’re having problems getting up and down the grade is because of the lack of power. Those GP38-2s only generate 2000 hp and only two of them would bring a total of 4000. The SD40-2s however generate 3000 hp with two of them being 6000. I would personally stick with the GE locomotives for those runs like the AC4400CW because first of all they have much better horsepower ratings and second of all they have much better tractive effort with AC compared to DC
Services with HPPT (HorsePowerPerTon) < 2 are a waste of time, especially in snowy conditions, between Hyndman and the summit. Perhaps even ~2.5 is not enough. BR o7
That's a bit exaggerated. In the dry, 1.5 will do it. Haven't experimented with snow yet. (One key is not to overbrake at the speed reduction at Hyndman; you want to carry as much momentum as you can)
I made the whole SPG so many many times. I don't remember exact numbers, but in the snow - 2 is not enough. BR EDIT Certain services are underestimated (POWER) after recent changes in physics (adhesive). ... Another famous victim of these changes is the Spessartrampe ekhm ekhm (it may be fixed already)
All heavy freight services on MSB are now double headed; making them much easier to get from Laufach to Heigenbrucken.
I think you meant the CW40-8, The Dash 9 is not in the game but I can understand how they look similar
I mean, technically CSXs Dash 9s are built in Dash 8 carbodys because they were preproduction models, but yes, no Dash 9s are in game yet.
I'm not using the GP-38s when this is happening. When I've had this issue both times (going up and down) I've been driving an AC4400 with an SD-40 behind it. I tried Sergio's suggestion limiting my speed, so I came down through Sand Patch tunnel at 15mph attemping to hold that. After some fiddling when I started to accelerate I managed to get it kinda stabilized at about 22mph but it was causing wheel slip about every 5 seconds or so. The amps would go to zero and back up and the speedometer on the HUD would jump to 100mph then back down to 0. When I tried to adjust the brakes more it got away from me again and I ended up doing about 34mph in a 25 zone before I reached a flatter stretch of track and could slow. It seems like its on a knife edge between not slowing down and the wheels on the loco locking up. Its odd because all I added was a small amount of snow slider. It wasn't the precipitation slider so there was no snow falling, both it and the wetness slider are all the way to the left. In fact, I just tried the same scenario again (Q226 - Autorack) with the same weather but the snow slider to zero and it was totally fine. It seems odd that a very low snow setting appears to turn the rails to ice. DW
I have had a similar issue with the AC64 on Boston Sprinter. Anything over 50% power in the snow until speed exceeds @70 MPH induces severe wheel slip in power. Sand doesn't help. So there definitely seems something skewy with the snow physics.
