So I love using the steam engines in TSW. Mange to drive the Jubille, 8F, and 4F with no issues at all. The Scotsman however? I just can't get it to build up speed, it feels like a slug.
It seems like you need the reverser close to 50% and a fair amount of regulator to get any performance out of it when it has a full complement or coaches behind it. That’s on auto firing mode, I haven’t tried manual firing on any steam locos myself yet.
Does the Class 66 on the back even do anything? I checked it on my last run and it had the engine switched off. Doesn't that just make it an extra heavy weight to haul?
Scotsman's physics seem worse than the Jub and 8f somehow. I am just treating it as some nice AI as it is way too far from reality, I mean doing 100mph with 50% cut off my rear passage.
So fun fact, I just started the 100MPH speed limit Scenario. Two issues so far lol. 1. Passengers won't board, they spawn at the back of the train, can't get into the back carriage cause it's a storage one, try to walk up to the next carriage and despawn. So there isn't a single passenger on the train. 2. The Scotsman spawns with no lights equipped whatsoever, running on the mainline, planning to go 100mph. No EOT on the back carriage either.
I don’t know. Can’t say I’ve even seen a Class 66 on the back of any of the runs I’ve done. It would be a big lump to be hauling around though.
A lot of the heritage stuff on the mainline has a traction unit in tow in case of brakedowns, mechanical issues, loss of power etc.
Not automatically, it's dead weight by default as far as I can tell, but it can be configured to run. Its engine's already running, it just needs things like the generator field switch and reverser setup. If you've ran the 66 in service mode before you basically set it up the same way as that. And if you use Ctrl - and Ctrl + combinations you can switch to the cabs of the 66 mid-run, and you can control just like normal. It's really stupid you can't just radio a crew in back to do it, but hey, at least it is possible.
Not to mention that, the Scotsman’s wheels keep slipping when having the reverser set to 75% and 20% throttle when leaving Peterborough station.
In reality you would probably never start on full reverser despite what the game tells you. Try 60%. But the FS is definitely the worst of the steam locos poor physics. I have run at 100% regulator and 30% cutoff and speed tops out at around 70 MPH on the level. With 25% open on both dampers it’s impossible to run out of steam, too, not to mention the water level gauge on the tender behind never drops! IMHO needs a major physics rework and DTG should seriously pause any additional steam content in TSW until they can at least get the physics and performance to match basic TSC.
Steam traction is in such a weird place in TSW. Nothing feels completely right, just shades of wrong. We got the Jubilee to a place where it feels sort of right with manual firing (there’s a thread about it for anyone interested). The 8F might be okay, too, with the same settings as the Jubilee. The rest though? The 4F is ludicrously powerful and needs insane gradients just to lower the boiler pressure at all. And as far as Scotsman is concerned, the real builders shouldn’t have bothered with a full reversing gear according to TSW. Any cut-off below 40% seemingly doesn’t do anything.
