Hello, so I am in the process of learning to drive stream trains and need some help. I understand some of the basics of driving them but i'm running into an issue with trying to drive the Rebuilt Royal Scott class from BMG and not sure what im doing wong. So after watching a few tutorials I was able to get the train moving however I was only able to get the train up to around 25MPH before the speed started to slowy drop off and no matter what I did I could not get any speed to come back and eventually the train just stopped. I had alll the assistants turned on and had the reverser set to aabout 75% but even when I tried to adjust it I couldn't figure out how to gain speed again. As you can see I included a picture below to show the status of the train. So any Ideas what I did wrong?
As you gain speed you need to bring the Cuttoff (Reverser) Back to reduce the quantity of steam being admitted to the cylinders. Full Cuttoff is only needed to start the train as it provides the most Tractive Effort, But as you get faster you need more power and less effort, By the time you reach 50mph you should aim to have the cutoff at around 30%
Thanks for ther the help, thats what i thought but im still having trouble. So I tried to do a second run but this time I could only get the train up to 10 MPH before It started to slowly loose speed and no amount of adjusting the cutoff would do anything. After of awhile of the train being stopped I was able to somehow get it moving again and this time I was able to get it up to 48mph by slowing briging the cuttoff back as I gained speed and by 48mph I had the cuttoff down to about 30%, but then when I reached 48mph I started slowly loosing speed again, and no matter what i did I could not get the speed to start going back up. The route I am driving on is the WCML North merge from Alan Thomson and I'm departing Preston headed for Glasgow. there is an incline I think when departing Preston but I don't think it should be that steep for the train, but that the only thing I can think of that would be causing it.
Hi, It is important to ensure that the Steam Generation Rate is always higher than the Steam Usage Rate. This is where the Reverser plays a role, as Johnno 124 has written. Turn it down until the values are reversed. In your photo you can clearly see that the Steam Generation Rate is 2852.2 while the Steam Usage is 3051.4. You are consuming more steam than is being created. In your example, increase your Regulator (it's currently at zero) then gradually decrease the Reverser. You'll see that the Steam Generation Rate and Steam Chest pressure start to reverse. It's a subtle interplay between the Regulator and the Reverser. I hope that helps. Richard.
The key is to understand what generates steam and what consumes steam. In general you want to have steam generation slightly greater than steam consumption. Steam generation is controlled by boiler/firebox design & construction, which you can't alter, the amount of coal you've got in the firebox (fire mass), and how much air is being introduced into the firebox to fan the flames. Air flow is affected by the blast being created by the exhaust steam, whether the dampers are open or closed and if the blower is on. Steam generation is also reduced by pumping cold water into the boiler when you operate the injectors. Steam consumption is everything that you open on the loco that takes live steam from the boiler. The biggest effect comes from the regulator and the reverser. Other things that use steam, in various amounts, are the live injectors, brakes, sanders, automatic stokers (few in-game locos have these), turbo electric generators and whistles. Opening the cylinder cocks will also use large amounts of steam, but you have to use them at start-off, or you run the risk of accumulating condensate blocking the piston head and punching the ends out of the cylinders! The really important thing is to understand how the regulator and reverser work. The regulator regulates the pressure of the steam as it enters the cylinders. The reverser controls for how much of the piston stroke steam is let into the cylinders. It also controls direction of travel, hence its name. In simple terms, the higher the steam pressure and the longer you let it into the cylinder, the bigger the impulse the piston creates and the heaver the load you can start, or the greater the acceleration. However, the big downside is that all this steam has to be exhausted at the end of the stroke and this takes time. If you don't have enough time because the piston is moving fast then some of the steam is trapped in the cylinder and creates back pressure on the wrong side of the piston, which works against the next stroke of the cylinder. This is why if you start with 100% regulator and max reverser you will quickly start, but soon reach a low speed where you can't go faster. The trapped exhaust steam is holding you back. To go faster you have to reduce one or both of the regulator or reverser so that less steam is going into the cylinder with each stroke, so it's easier to exhaust it all out. Steam locos are most efficient with low reverser settings, where the steam is cut-off quite soon after the start of the piston stroke and then gives up its energy by expanding in the cylinder. You should generally be controlling the loco more by your reverser setting than by regulator setting, but since we don't have to pay for coal, this isn't as important as in real life. There's a more detailed explanation here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutoff_(steam_engine)
Thank you for the help. However, I noticed a few things that also might be contributing to the problem. The first is, that for me the regulator seems to jump straight up to 100% even when only moving it a little bit. Secondly, for some reason the regulator eventually stops working and no matter how far I move it, it shows 0%. For example, in the picture above you can see the regulator is turned, but in the info display it shows the regulator as being at 0. Even if I turn the regulator all the way to the left, it will still say at 0. I know in the manual it says to slam it open then shut when in the second half of movement, but I'm not sure what that means or if it's causing the problems. Any suggestion?
There's a video on Youtube from BMG that may help you with settings. It is titled " Bossman Games-Royal Scot Class-North Wales Coast Express" Just do a quick search on Youtube and it should appear for you. Hope this helps.
