I figured out most of the stuff in the cab, except a couple. The glass gauge handles. On both the engineer and firemans side there is a vertical gauge that looks like it contains water, with a valve on top (filling?) and valve below (drain?) What is this gauge? The amount of water in the locomotive or something? Also, on either side of the coal door, near the floor there are handles for some water injection thing. What are these for??
Yes these show the crew how much water is in the boiler. It wasn’t 100% accurate as hot water expands meaning it would always give a higher reading and the level would change depending on whether the train was going up or down hill. Nevertheless it was an essential component. To make sure nothing was clogging the tubes or air was trapped giving a false reading, the crew could open the valve and clear the tubes (that’s what you see when the water level goes down quickly) and then the water would return to the true level. If the glass smashed for whatever reason then the cab would be filled with scalding hot steam, therefore that is why you’ve also got an isolating valve. You’ll notice the handles are quite large as the crew would have to find them with their eyes shut with burning steam being blown into their faces. And then finally, you’ve got two glasses as they were very important so you’ve always got a spare. If the water got too low there was a danger that the boiler would explode.
Thanks so much for an informative answer! I had a suspicion those glasses were sorta the "fuel level" for the locomotive. Appreciate it. Now I know what all the handles are in the cab and feel a bit more comfortable driving these steam engines!
Steam engines when broken down are fairly simple but when all the components are packed together onto a locomotive it can be very confusing. A good way to learn is to look at stationary steam engines. Since they don’t have to fit on a railway, a lot of the components are spaced out and it looks a lot simpler.
So I was trying out the handles yesterday in the 8F on one of the timetable routes (forget which one). It seemed like the water gauge was completely full and I was unable to drain it (which I have done in other routes). Could this be because the water tank is full, so there is nowhere for the water to drain out to? I tried paying attention to it during the route but it didn't seem to change (just looked full the whole way). Also those two water injector handles on the floor next to the coal door. One was called "Live injector" I believe. I set those to both open and shut positions. If these are left in the shut position shouldn't this cut off the water to the boiler and consequently lead to a rapid depressurization of the boiler as whatever water is left gets cooked off? Or maybe these two injection handles aren't simulated? Or possibly the automatic firing feature is somehow ignoring their position or overriding it (although I did not see them animate or change from shut to open, and vice versa). Just trying to figure things out in practice
Until such time as full manual firing is implemented (sometime around the Second Coming of Elvis), water in the boiler is always full and the water-supply system is noninteractable.
Alright, thanks for confirming. I was toying around with it but noticed no difference so kinda figured it might be non-interactive at this point.
I'm no steam expert, but I'm fairly certain that it would take a decent time for the boiler to run out of water if it wasn't fed, and that filling the boiler to the brim wasn't standard practice, so having both injectors shut frequently occurs in regular operation.
That’s the great balancing act and is what is missing from TSW steam engines. It means driving at the moment feels hollow and unsatisfying. In reality you would use the boiler water level to your advantage. A low boiler level would produce more steam as there is less water to heat, so perfect for a short hard burst. You couldn’t keep it there for long though as it would soon become dangerous, particularly when a downhill gradient would slosh the water to the front and off of the firebox crown. Pumping water into the boiler would reduce the pressure as the cold water would cool the rest of the boiler. This is ideal for going downhill as the safety valves will not lift and you will have a nice full (usually about 3/4) boiler ready for the next climb. Then there is the effects of putting coal on the fire which would initially dampen it and stop your pressure from rising, then in a few minutes you’d have a roaring fire to take you up a hill. Everything had to be done in advance so both the Driver and Fireman would have to know the route like the back of their hand and work together. These things are not modelled in TSW and in my opinion leave the experience feeling hollow. Hopefully in the update to Spirit of Steam we get full functionality.
One of the things that kinda annoy me a little bit is when you are coasting or just rolling downhill, and the boiler pressure tops out and it starts venting steam continuously. I'm thinking I certainly do not want that to happen at all. By that I mean... I do want the safety valve to relieve pressure rather than it exploding in my face, but I do not want to just waste water and steam for no reason. So when coasting or going downhill I would want to either cut the water (ideally shortly before going into a coast or downhill) or add water as you mentioned to cool off whatever is in there and for a moment prevent it from building boiler pressure. It just felt wrong from the get-go when it was wasting steam relentlessly when coasting and going downhill with the regulator closed. But then again, I suppose we aren't really wasting anything to begin with if the water level and the water physics are not even simulated.
