Errrrrr................ Yep Try turning your kettle on at home with no water. Same applies to a steam loco. Basic needs = Full Water / Coal in tender at start. Managing the movement of said elements to the boiler either makes for a superb run with coal / water to spare or a large explosion half way down the line. Suggest you start with a google of "How to drive Steam Locos in TSC (TS20XX)" If I try to help you now on this thread the page would be huge, there is a lot to learn. On saying that don't be afraid to have a go, you will fail multiple times to start with but gradually you will start to learn how these buggars work and can be very rewarding and satisfying when you first master the basics for the first time. There are multiple tutorials both on these forums and You Tube to help you learn, they are all free, use and abuse. One word of advice check if the loco you are trying to drive has an Advanced / Simple mode option. If so start with simple and work your way towards advanced once you start to understand the concept of how these things operate. The lovely thing about steamers is they don't come with a mamby pamby joystick LOL They are proper Locos driven by proper drivers. OOps possibly caused another rail strike there sorry. Seriously have a go start at the bottom and work your way up, I only got into this train driving thing during lockdown and like yourself shook with fear the first time I got on a footplate of a steamer. Two years later and I can confidently drive one from A-B without any help and only occasionally blow it up. LOL They are not easy but if it helps, after struggling like yourself I invested in the BMG Rebuilt Royal Scot It sounds a bit daft delving in at the deep end with such a complex piece of kit but it worked for me. You can start off with Auto everything maxed to the full and slowly dial the automation back till you are in full control. Best advice I will give at this point is "READ THE MANUAL" and when you have completed reading "READ THE MANUAL AGAIN" print it and keep it by your side. Good Luck and Happy Steaming
Yes, but if the steam loco is well modelled and you start with full water tanks you should be able to get 70 miles plus before you've used all your water, which is further than most routes. A UK express loco can do hundreds of miles on a full coal load. I believe the Flying Scotsman on an express run up the East Coast typically did about 70 miles to a tender of water, 300 miles to a tender of coal and 400 miles on its lubricating oil tanks. If you know how to use the editor you can add water or coal facilities from another route into the one that interests you.
There's a scenario on the JT Chiltern Mainline which has a road tanker parked in Banbury as a water point for the Brit, presumably done in the scenario editor. I imagine you could do something similar with a water crane.
You could add water cranes and coal towers to the route. Actually the sensible thing to do would be to clone the route and add cranes and coaling to the copy.
