Driving A Steam Engine In Rail3D
Driving a Steam Locomotive in Rail3D
This information applies to Rail3D 2k3 build 94 (From Build 97 new, more realistic, control options for driving steam locos were introduced, More On Driving Steam Engines)
Some introductory notes on steam engines in Rail3D.
Build 94 introduced new features for steam engine modelling, including boiler pressure, cylinder size, cutoff position etc. This makes driving a steam loco more complex and challenging.
Learning to drive a steam loco
A good way to learn to drive a steam loco is to start with a simple oval of track (so you can’t run off the end!), a rake of wagons - to practice coupling and uncoupling - and, of course, a steam engine. Russell Darling’s J36 0–6−0 is a good loco to start with.
Setting up Rail3D
Set up Rail3D with a suitable stretch of track and a suitable train.
When you drive a steam loco, you need a bit more information than for a diesel or electric: it’s almost essential to have the train head up display (hud) switched on:
This shows (from top):
- Current speed and speed limit (in brackets)
- Current gradient
- Current power control settings
- Current cut-off setting
- Boiler pressure
- Current brake controller state and pressures
you may also find it useful to turn on the trace window (preferably with the fps traces turned off). This shows the speed of the train as a trace making it easy to see if you are accelerating or decelerating and how fast you are accelerating. The trace also shows speed limits and boiler pressure.
Turn these displays on, then to start driving the train, select “Drive Train” from the “Train” menu. This will open the train drive dialog
Getting the train moving.
Check that the brakes are off (on the J36 - and most steam locos - this means the brake slider right down) and that the hud shows “Brake: Release”.
Starting from rest, the cut-off control should be towards the bottom of the slider - the hud displays the current cuttoff setting - this should be in the range 60% to 80% for starting from rest. To start the train, pull the power slider down - but not all the way. The loco should start to move.
If you pull the power slider too far down (open the regulator too far) the loco is likely to slip. If you are in cab view you are unlikely to see this, but from an external view you will see the wheels spinning and the smoke and sound change as well. A slip warning is also displayed in the hud. When a steam loco slips, very little tractive effort is produced, steam is wasted and the loco can be damaged if the slip is not controlled - you should aim to avoid slipping and if a slip does develop get the loco under control as soon as possible. To control a slip, reduce the power setting until the slip stops: you can than carefully increase power again. Slips are most likely at low speed - above about 10mph a slip is unlikely and you will probably be able to apply full power safely.
As speed increases you should reduce the cut-off (push cut-off slider up). The cut-off control controls the percentage of the cylinder stroke that steam is applied for. If the cut-off is too great, firstly steam is wasted, but also the tractive effort of the loco is reduced -at higher speeds, shorter cut-offs are required to get maximum effort out of the loco.
Stopping the train.
The braking effort on the train depends on the pressure in the train brake pipe - this is displayed on the hud and also on the drive dialog.
The first of the two values on the hud is the pressure in the train pipe (percentage of nominal), the second the pressure in the locomotive reservoir. At 100% pressure no braking force is produced, at 0% the maximum braking effect is generated.
To stop the train, first shut off the power.
The brake control has four key positions:
- In the Release position the brakes are released: the pressure in the locomotive reservoir increases to the maximum and the train pipe pressure follows.
- In the Hold Position (also known as the LAP position) the pressure in the loco reservoir is maintained at its level.
- In the Apply position the pressure is reduced (note that there are also positions between Emergency and Hold).
- In the Emergency position the pressure is dumped rapidly.
To make a gentle brake application:
- Move the brake control from Release or Hold to Apply: the pressure in the loco reservoir will drop.
- When the reservoir pressure drops to about 70 or 80, move the control back to the Hold position to maintain the pressure level.
- To release the brakes, move the control to the Release position.
For a heavier brake application, drop the pressure to a lower value. Note that if you brake too hard, you may cause the wheels to lock and the train to slide.
Following a layout route.
In Rail3D you will often want to drive a train on a route setup in the layout: obviously you will need to obey the signals, but you also need to know the speed limits and the places to stop, reverse, uncouple etc. The best thing here is first to learn the route while the computer drives the train and note the speed limits, stops etc.
However, while you are driving the display will keep you posted of what’s ahead:
Speed restrictions
As you approach a speed restriction, the hud shows the new speed, and the distance ahead:
Approaching a stop, the hud diplays the distance to the stop:
Reverses and uncouples
Approaching a reverse or uncouple, the hud displays the distance in the same way as for a stop.
When you get to the correct position, the appropriate action is indicated:
but note that the program will not do this for you automatically - you need to click the appropriate button on the drive dialog.
Coupling to a train
To couple to a train, the loco needs to be in shunt mode - if this is part of the normal route Rail3D will set shunt mode for you, if not you can click the “shunt” button on the drive dialog.
As you approach the train you are going to couple to, the hud will display the distance to go:
To couple to a train you need to reduce the distance to 0 metres at less than 2 mph.
loneaussie 12/02/2015 01:19:44