Further to my musings on the 9F, I took the Bossman 8F out for a spin on one of the supplied S&C scenarios yesterday evening. Now this is definitely a different beast - struggled to get above 25 MPH on the 1 in 100 climb out of Settle. I enabled the auto fireman and watched the steam generation rate plunge along with the tender water level. I also need to spend a bit more time understanding the brakes and getting the hang of trimming the large and small ejectors. I was finding closing the small ejector immediately applied the brakes but keeping it open as soon as I tried to apply the brakes they released. Also seemed impossible to apply and hold a set amount of brake force. If even some of this translates across to the TSW 8F and Jubilee I can see some interesting times ahead!
Just to update, I have got the hang of the 8F brakes so waiting to see what the TSW version brings. Great locos though, if they have translated across to TSW well, then we are in for a treat. Caveat being in TS I have 100's if not 1000's of track mileage to drive them on - currently doing a little scenario of my own creation from Stranraer to Carlisle.
