Narrow gauge (30") 0-4-0 Porter

[thegrindre]

That's it, Ben. You read my thoughts. It's those percentages that need tweaking a bit more but can't, huh?

The water level on the hud is the one that keeps rejuvenating. Hadn't thought of looking at the engine itself. Duh
I'm using the default hud. Is there a better 3rd party hud I should use?

Thanks,

[bdaneal]

Well the water on the HUD is what is in the boiler. Use the injectors (I on, O off) to keep it above 0 but below 100. If your water level is too low, you'll expose the crown sheet, causing the boiler to explode (okay, it won't in Trainz, but the engine will become inoperable). If there is too much water, it'll go into the dry pipe, then the cylinders, and then out the stack. The water out the stack isn't too bad, but the water in the cylinders can be (again, not in Trainz).

Another change to the enginespec:
piston-area 0.0182
I checked the pulling capacity, and it was too low. That one gets it about right. You might want to lower the initial boiler tempurature as well. I haven't tried any variables, but maybe 381? The goal is to make it stop popping off at the start of a session.

[Pencil]

I'm out of town for a while, but when I get back I'll make that change also. As for huds, there's another one that is included in TRS that has sliders for the various controls - you should be able to use that for finer control. Unfortunately, I don't remember the name, but there are only a couple to choose from, iirc.

[thegrindre]

Ya, thanks, forgot to mention that pulling power. I almost stalled on my way up the steep inclines from my mines.

I'll look for the other hud...

[thegrindre]

This is even better then before. Pulling power is good, now after I applied your suggestion.

The driver wheels are way out of sync. They slide along the rails too slowly, now.

Water and wood fuel consumption seem to have come to a stop. They stay at 100%, now.

Cab Mode is beginning to be fun...

[bdaneal]

The drivers sliding along is something I mentioned earlier. If you want a quick fix, replace one of the Porter's invisible bogeys with one of mine. Then open up the drivers and change direct-drive from 1 to 0. That will change the rate of chuffs in DCC, but it will fix it quickly for Cab.

If you want to consume fuel and water, run it for a while. When the water hits 50% (on HUD), hit I. Press O when the water gets to 75% or so. When the boiler pressure drops below 150, hit the space bar.

With the piston area change, the tonnage ratings I listed above are accurate. Well, at least 2% is, I didn't check the others. The weight listed is how much the engine can start on the hill. My experience with the sim shows that if an engine can start the train on the hill, it will be able to pull the same train up it at speeds of 4-6 miles an hour.

Hmm,
I just noticed that the boiler pressure is too high. It should be 140. I'll play around with the enginespec and fix it up.

Edit:
I just calculated the tonnage rating on a 4%. It should only be able to haul 10 tons there.

Doubly edited:

Code: Select all

motor {
	brakeratio					6500
...
	axle-count					6
...
}
steam {
...
	firebox-efficiency				0.4
...
	initial-boiler-temperature			367
...
	safety-valve-low-pressure	1070
	safety-valve-low-flow		0.0035
	safety-valve-high-pressure	1110
	safety-valve-high-flow		0.2
}

[Pencil]

OK, I (finally) updated the porter again. I've included Ben's suggestions into the enginespec, and also moved direct-drive to an invisible bogey with 1/2 the animdist of the main bogeys. You now get 4 chuffs per rev in DCC mode, and the wheels appear to rotate correctly in cab mode. Cab mode chuffs are still off, but I think that's going to have to wait for the engine fixes in TC3.
http://www.carsoncarshops.com/files/porter_cab_test.cdp

Next step will be to add animated controls in the cab - someday!
Speaking of which, the hud I've been playing with is "cab controls hud" - it looks like it's built into '06, perhaps? Anyway, it gives you sliders for finer control in hud mode.

[Pencil]

The current version is now available on the DLS. I'll update it again when I do the interactive cab.
Thank you everyone for your help and feedback!