Hi everyone. I recently picked up this route during the latest steam sale as I have heard it is a good route, but I seem to be having trouble operating the steam trains, mostly for the brakes. I play with automatic fireman. Also what is the difference between legacy and realistic driving? I've heard the brakes are manually lapped or something. Could anyone describe how the brakes work or how to operate the steam trains? I know that to go faster you reduce reverser and apply more throttle but that is pretty much it. The only experience I have with steam trains is from tsw2 if anyone plays that. But, none on tsc and it feels more difficult to drive steam trains in tsc using the same techniques. Any information on how to operate the brakes and train would be helpful since I could not find a manual either for the route.
There is a manual in your Railworks\Manuals\En folder but it doesn't really tell you much about driving steam locos. First off get out of legacy mode and also turn off auto fireman. First off make sure you have the blower on and the dampers open. When you start take a note of the fire % and also the boiler pressure. Always maintain the boiler in the green. What I do is let the boiler pressure build up until the safety valve opens and then take note of when it closes then try and maintain the pressure in the green. Driving a steam loco is not like driving a car as you have no gears to change down when you come to an incline to maintain speed so the only option you have in a Steam loco is that it will slow down as you maintain the boiler pressure. Sometimes it may drop to 5 MPH but it won't go any slower and should maintain that until you get over the incline and it levels out or you go down the other side. Those locos on this route are pretty basic compared to ones from the likes of Bossman games. I have had TS for over 10 years and learned how to drive them from scratch but also read on how to drive them from the internet.
Generally speaking, Realistic Driving mode simulates the delayed reaction of the engine to regulator movements by simulating the steam chest, and requiring you to maintain your brake vacuum by using the ejectors. The Release/Running/SelfLap mode is a simplified steam brake model.
I forgot to mention using the regulator (throttle) and reverser. When you start you have the cylinder cocks open and the reverser at 75%. To start moving you might need to open the regulator quite a bit then once you have started bring it back to 50% or less. Now after you start moving shut the cylinder cocks say at about 5 MPH ( On some advanced steam locos if you don't open the cylinder cocks the scenario will end.) and as you continue moving slowly decrease the reverser and also the regulator because as you will notice as you go faster the boiler pressure will go into the red which we don't want to, bring back the reverser to maintain it in the green. At about 50 or 60 mph and say 50% regulator you may have the reverser back to 50$ or less. This can vary between different types of steam locos. In wet conditions, you may also need to use the sander to start to stop wheel slip. Again in basic models this is not very well simulated but with more advanced locos from Bossman games, this is well simulated. Here are some videos of Bossman games steam locos. bossman games 8f - YouTube
Except I'm more interested in driving the steam loco instead of doing all the manual firing lol. But if I ever get the time, I'll give manual firing a try. What would you say is like a good braking distance with the steam locomotives, how much brakes to apply and stuff since I found it really difficult to bring the train down to a halt on the downhill portion after the steep incline. I had full brakes applied and no regulator but my speed wasn't decreasing at all (was going 45). What speed I should be going at, etc.
Were you using the train brakes or the loco brakes? What scenario are you talking about so that I can try it?
The steam train have Vacuum Brakes When you move the brakes to Apply the Vacuum in the train pipe reduces. The Brake Handle has three positions - Apply, Lap and Release As you get to around 10" move the handle to the Lap position and see how the train is slowing down If you are still going too fast let a bit more Vacuum out so the Gauge goes down If you are going to stop short move the brake handle to Release to increase the pressure then back to Lap Section 6 of the route manual has this The steam locomotives included with this route have both “Expert” and “Legacy” modes. Legacy mode allows the user to drive the steam locos without using complex controls such as the ejectors, and also doesn’t use the realistic steam chest simulation. In expert mode, all controls need to be used to get the best out of the loco and a real steam chest simulation is present. To toggle between these modes, press B. Use Legacy Mode until you get used to the Braking and other controls
A while back Matt Peddlesden made a pretty good guide for driving steam https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=117906786
Oh I see. So I'm assuming to drive in realistic mode, you have to know how to be the fireman as well?
Driving the scenario in expert mode I have no issues with the brakes. The brake gauge on the F4 hud doesn't show what mode the brakes are in but just the %. I also notice that the firebox is only 45% full which I thought was rather low and filled it up to 60% and the loco ran better. (GWR Tank Loco.)
