OK, so I'm late to this steam business, what with not really wanting to drive it with all the AI Spads and all, so I thought what with the recent patch I'd give it a go. All going fairly well until I hit "Edge Hill - Nuneaton" on journey mode. This is a fully loaded 8F coal train, 871.7 tonnes with 30 coal wagons behind you I can get out of Edge Hill, creeping up the hill and over the Mersey and get up to speed. My issues come when you get to Crewe, onto the Independent lines and the tunnel. You slow down to 20, go through the tunnel and then onto a 1 in 3 hill up to the first signal box. Last few attempts I stopped here, eventually spinning the wheels out and then the brakes locked and down the hill I went This time I put the sander on, 54 on the regulator, 45 on the reverser and made it up that hill (doing about 3mph at the top) but then a few hundred yards down the line you hit another steep rise back up to "yard track level" and again: stop, slide, back down the hill If there a trick to getting these units up hills at slow speeds, especially with so much weight behind you? I have little enough hair as it is and don't want to be yanking it out...
I ain’t sure whether what I do is correct, but anytime below 15mph I always have the reverser at 75 Forward it does seem to work best for me that way after 15mph I drop it to 50 Forward until 25-30mph then 25 forward for all other higher speeds. as for the regulator, if I want to speed up, I put it until the lower left gauge on the left HUD, goes to the max as it will go at that point and no wheel slip.
I'm in the same boat except my slowwwwwww 'forever' slide down the slippery slope ended with a SPAD at just under 2 mph...lol Hopefully one of the steam experts will chime in. kind regards, Dave
On these services, I just keep the train moving. You have to use the momentum from running through the underpass, together with a decent amount of power up the hill. The signals should come off for you as you approach them. To minimise the risk of wheelslip, you should not use full forward gear except when starting from rest (when you may have no alternative). Using 40% cutoff should give you plenty of power without instantly draining the boiler, and also giving you plenty of scope for adjusting the regulator. You might even be able to use less than this, but I think 40% is a reasonable guess.
Yes reverser is usually about 50% at 10mph, 30% at 30mph and 19% at 45mph. Leave it at that for higher speeds. Also go easy on the regulator. If you are using 100% your steam will drop fast. Try going up the hill with about 40-50%. If that doesn't work try 70% but no more. Don't use sand unless you are slipping. If you are slipping you are wasting steam anyway. Means reduce your regulator.... and reverser down to 30% even at 20mph. Keep your injectors and everything else off as much as possible. Large injector OFF small injector 18%. I would watch a video or read some articles if you still struggle after reading this. Youtube and google have lots of info. You'll probably find a steam guide too (Steam not SOS) on the Steam platform. Like an aeroplane treat steam as your SPEED, if you lose too much speed you stall. If you put water in before you go up a hill you aren't a good driver. If you absolutely need to STOP once you reach to the top of the bank, refill there if water level is too low. Build up your steam again. But you can relax this if you have a good 20 minute downgrade.
Found Matt's steam guide which is excellent! https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=117906786 And here is another very in depth! And the latest with videos.....
I gave this a try in Journey mode as I had no issues with it at all in timetable mode in dry conditions. The wetness is dialled up in the Journey weather setting and it makes it much harder. I couldn’t do it and rolled/slid back down for a SPAD. More tries required I think.
I think the only way I managed to complete one of these was to jettison some of the carriages at the bottom of the hill. It flashed up some sort of "incorrect consist" error, but then finished the trip and gave me a gold medal for it, so that was good enough for me!
I solved it last night first run I stopped on the first hill, couldn't get going again and slid back Second run I stopped on the first hill, added sand, got going again, got stuck on second hill, slid back Third run I thought "just go for it", ran through the tunnel at 60mph, full power up the hill, go to the GO VIA, couldn't stop before the stop point, 1 SPAD later and I was home with my P45 Fourth run (half midnight this morning) I thought, "go for it, but not quite as madly", ran through the tunnel at 40, didn't power up the hill (stupidly didn't lose much speed either) and stopped OK and got a gold medal for my troubles...
That’s quite an adventure. I’ve decided to just be a fair weather train driver when it comes to steam.
I just ran this myself to be sure of it. And yes, you can do it within the rules, even in the rain, if you know what you're doing. (If it's snowing, that might be another matter entirely.) My technique was to slow to about 12mph approaching the dip into the tunnel, select 33% forward cutoff, and use the brakes to control the train's speed to 20mph near the bottom of the incline. There is then a significant run (maybe half a mile) of level track, during which I maintained almost exactly 20mph with a little steam - which had the effect of draughting the fire, ready for the uphill ahead. At the foot of the hill, I turned on the forward sanders and opened the regulator fully. The sanders are necessary to maintain traction with this much power in the rain. The front of the train easily reached the top of the incline and was able to then drag the tail of the train up as well. From there, it was just a matter of driving carefully to the stopping point.
Which was what this whole post was about... Thanks for the advice, I'll give it one more go with your technique and see what occurs
Oh, I know exactly which service you're talking about. I solved it by basically doing what post #15 did. That is, preserving as much boiler pressure as possible before the uphill while maintaining 20 mph (if you do it right, you can arrive at the uphill with close to 225 PSI), then as soon as the uphill started, opening up the front sander and putting the reverser into the "very forward" position. 50% in my case. However, I didn't then open the regulator fully, instead opening it only as much as needed before the effort dial would no longer increase — again, to preserve as much pressure as possible. I thought that would assist me in not blowing all my steam early, ending up with no power near the top, but apparently, it wasn't necessary. Or maybe I could've been a bit more generous with the regulator. Anyway, I managed to get the train up the hill with 3.5 mph of speed left. Took 3 tries in wet conditions. So it's challenging, but definitely possible.
Yes its nice to have to think about what you are doing. Good challenge! Well done and glad you did it.
