Spirit Of Steam, No Speedometer

Discussion in 'TSW General Discussion' started by solon, Jun 22, 2022.

  1. solon

    solon Active Member

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    Hello

    I couldn't find the speedometer in the locomotive. This requires using the HUD. Unless I'm mistaken, why is there no modeled speedometer? and how did train drivers manage speed in the past without?
     
  2. Lamplight

    Lamplight Well-Known Member

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    Welcome to steam era railroading. Not every steam loco had a speedometer and the 8Fs and Jubilees at the time depicted didn’t have one. Drivers would determine the current speed by intuition and methods like taking the time between milposts or other things beside the tracks.
     
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  3. gazz292

    gazz292 Well-Known Member

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    *below is from my memory of reading the book 'A Locoman's Log' by Bill Allcock*

    In the late 1950's, steam engines began to get speedometers fitted for the first time,

    then suddenly the services with a speedometer fitted loco were running later and later, never able to keep to the times the trains had run perfectly to before.

    The unions were asked if they knew how to get the drivers to run to time again, and were told 'disconnect the speedo cable'

    turned out that the trains had been run at speeds the drivers knew were safe, but not actually running anywhere near the actual speed limits (which were still mostly only known in the drivers head as part of his route knowledge)

    So when approaching say a 40mph limit, the driver would 'rub the brakes a bit' to slow down a little,
    when approaching a 25mph limit, they'd apply the brakes a little harder.

    But in reality they were only slowing down maybe 5 or 10 mph from the line speed, it wasn't until the speedometers were fitted they were able to see just how fast they were really running at,

    then suddenly they were driving to the actual speed limits for the line, but the timings were based on real world train runs, and it was a few years untill the timings were adjusted, so when diesels took over they seem'd to run a lot slower than the steamers used to.
     
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  4. lcyrrjp

    lcyrrjp Well-Known Member

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    Drivers also counted rail joints to calculate their speed. The lengths of rail were a standard length, so the number of rail joints over a fixed period of time, tells you your speed.

    Unfortunately on SoS, even with the recent bug fix, I don’t find I can actually hear the rail joints sound other than when the train is running very slowly, so this method is not available to us.
     
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  5. solon

    solon Active Member

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    thank you for your very informative answers.
     
  6. solon

    solon Active Member

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    some of you don't use the HUD to drive the trains on this road ?
     
  7. terry english

    terry english Active Member

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    With the rail lines they had in the 1950’s a driver could tell the speed of his train by listening to the rail joints as the wheels went over them. The less time interval between the clackity clack of the wheels going over the joints, the faster the train was going. This was a real skill.
     
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  8. davidh0501

    davidh0501 Well-Known Member

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    Bit like the road patches on the way to work...
     
  9. terry english

    terry english Active Member

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    Or the potholes.
     
  10. paul.pavlinovich

    paul.pavlinovich Well-Known Member

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    Or counting telephone poles or mile posts. Or simply "knowing". My inspection vehicles on the railway I work on have no speedo (track inspector, steam loco fireman, diesel 2nd person) I know that I need to do 9 minutes between each safe working section and that will be within the speed limit. You just start to know how fast is ok and how fast is too fast.
     
  11. Quentin

    Quentin Well-Known Member

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    I was helping a friend with his Model-T Ford this morning. That has no speedo, either (although as top speed is 42mph, it's not a major problem).
     
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