Steam loco test in OR

[Traindude]

Another idea for steam engines in OR--

Differences in feedwater appliances. The injector is the most commonly used feedwater device on steam locos, but some use a pump with a feedwater heater, while other, older locos used motion-driven pumps.

[muskokaandtahoe]

I recently slapped together an Activity for a smaller steam locomotive to handle 54 cars up a slight grade... I wanted to see if I could set it up so it would be difficult to make the hill. First try out of the gate I couldn't get the train started at all. Maybe 37 of the 54 cars moved slightly and then nothing. I added up the tonnage - it was within expectations... then I noticed that in my haste I had not paid any attention whatsoever to where loads and empties were in-train. I shuffled cars around in the consist file to put all the empties at the end and then, much to my surprise, I had no problem at all getting the train to start and up the grade. Might even add a couple more cars.

A useful lesson.

[ED_4]

I recently slapped together an Activity for a smaller steam locomotive to handle 54 cars up a slight grade... I wanted to see if I could set it up so it would be difficult to make the hill. First try out of the gate I couldn't get the train started at all. Maybe 37 of the 54 cars moved slightly and then nothing. I added up the tonnage - it was within expectations... then I noticed that in my haste I had not paid any attention whatsoever to where loads and empties were in-train. I shuffled cars around in the consist file to put all the empties at the end and then, much to my surprise, I had no problem at all getting the train to start and up the grade. Might even add a couple more cars.

A useful lesson.

54 cars on a "smaller" steam locomotive? Might I ask what sort of "small" steam locomotive would that be? 54 isn't exactly a small number unless they were all empties. That number gets apparently heavy if it really was a small steamer to begin with. And what was your test route with the small grade?

I driven some small steamers. That's why I ask about what exact steamer you might be using to pull that much cars.

[muskokaandtahoe]

54 cars on a "smaller" steam locomotive? Might I ask what sort of "small" steam locomotive would that be? 54 isn't exactly a small number unless they were all empties. That number gets apparently heavy if it really was a small steamer to begin with. And what was your test route with the small grade?

A SP 2-8-0. About 2500 trailing tons. Don't overlook the fact that in the steam era the average lading in a boxcar was 32 tons (64,000 pounds). Add a light weight of another 14-16 tons... so if all 54 were loaded and averaged out as described, it would be about 2700 tons. There were some MTY's so the number was less, a bit more than 2500.

I don't recall the (short) ruling grade... probably something like (in MSTS RE lingo) 0.375, whatever that works out to as a percentage.

[BNSFfan]

Another nice thing would be to implement the use of Slack for a steam locomotive to get a better start up. Steam locomotives have a hard time starting a stretched train, or a train designed to have little to no slack *i.e Coal trains.

[muskokaandtahoe]

Another nice thing would be to implement the use of Slack for a steam locomotive to get a better start up. Steam locomotives have a hard time starting a stretched train, or a train designed to have little to no slack *i.e Coal trains.

Actually it's already there. Visually it's too subtle (IMO) but functionally there is slack. That small steamer I mentioned before, I ran it again and couldn't get the train moving. So I thought about for a bit and decided to put it into reverse and try scrunching up the front half of the train, which I did. I stopped, set up to move forward, a started the train moving.

Speaking of slack, it's my understanding that a typical set of North American couplers (i.e., non-cushioned) has 3 inches of play per coupler which, if true, means a 50 car train should stretch 25 feet in length (6 inches per car) between fully compressed and fully drawn. Does that amount of increase sound right to you (not the math but the visually large increase)?