Steam loco is difficult to brake. I found "steam brake" is better than "combination brake". Moving "reverser" to -75% also can slow down. And open "regulator"... What is correct? What is the relationship between reverser and speed? How much does reverser to the fastest? 25?15?10? At high speed, shake violently, almost derail, is it true?
There are YouTube videos you can watch. Look at ones by trainsimulatordriver and dtg tutorials. But, here's a very simple explanation. Less cutoff, more regulator. So you decrease reverser and increase regulator as you gain speed. An inverse relationship. Start off full reverser (75%) and bit of regulator. As your speed increases, bring back regulator to 50% and apply more regulator. I usually keep it there and go full regulator. You can bring reverser down more while following the steps. It's a lot more complicated than that to master a steam loco, so I would recommend you watch tutorials online. And loco shaking is fine. It's not going to cause derails
With the brake you have to fine tune the small ejector so that the train brakes stay off when released but don't keep releasing when making an application. Or if they do release gradually just keep re-applying a little train brake to keep your vacuum at the desired level. If you need to release quickly, open the large ejector but don't forget to close it afterwards!
Looking forward to manual firing. Cant wait to use the injectors, and control the burning mass by the player.
Putting the reverser to -75 and opening the regulator is like getting your car up to speed then slamming the transmission into reverse and stomping on the gas will probably work….. ONCE! Most steam engines have non-lapped brakes. The brake handle controls the speed the brakes apply, not the amount of brakes applied. You have watch the brake pressure gauge to the see amount of brake set. Once you get the desired pressure, put the brake handle into lapped to maintain the pressure. It does take practice to brake well without “pumping” the brakes and wasting your pressure reserve then running out of brakes. Of course you have different brake systems as well, vacuum brakes versus Westinghouse brakes… in the former you are destroying a vacuum then recreating while the latter you are reducing pressure and then pumping the pressures back up. The power of the pumps, the length of the train (brake pipe) all contribute to the braking approach. What I am trying to say, you need to learn the different brake systems and how they work, then it comes down to practice. Nothing better than hitting your stop point with a single brake application…. Still an infrequent success for me… but it is fun still trying
OK, I will brake with "combination brake", carefully and slowly. The combination of "reverser" and"regulator"... I tested in training center. I can't believe the poor performance. Something is wrong in TSW3. All timetables delay in SoS. I can't reach top speed. 10-car passenger train climb very slowly at Liverpool Lime Street. This freight almost can't move.
If you are going in expecting to pick up steam easily like an electrostar, then you have the wrong mindset. In the real world, it took many years of training and you couldn't start off as a driver. One single mistake can can blow up the train literally and result in many fatalities. It is steep climbing out of liverpool lime street which is why you can't go fast. But once on the mainline, you can reach 90mph no problem. But you will eventually get there. Freight is even more of a struggle. It is extremely heavy and only one steam locomotive. The freight isn't supposed to reach 90mph and wasn't even allowed to go that fast. Here is a link and there is a playlist for driving steam locomotives in tsw3. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvUwWjZgALPUMpipydysQ7QuQa1WYYPk9 https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLFWmA-38s1AeM7zKv2dAt6hutp-HtWaY Watch how he plays the scenarios and services on sos. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUfYBWWPBgd60Gv12-cDHFUcb3dQ2GNIF
One thing I like to do for realism is pay attention to real life freight speeds. With the 8F you get a mixed of fitted (Brown wagons) and Unfitted (grey mineral wagons). The fitted wagons have brakes but the unfitted dont. The way they used to run these trains was if it was completely fitted you could run around 40-45mph I believe. If you had a mix it was more like 30-35mph and I believe it was 25mph if it was completely unfitted wagons. And these trains weren't meant to run at high speed because the faster you go its easier to lose control of the train and you don't have enough time to react to signals etc
When starting heavy freight, or still slip, reverser should be 50 not 75. I can't repeat this. I drive a bad loco. Does it broken again? https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/tsw-3-spirit-of-steam-pressure-problem.58845/
