Machine Rail H9

[AmericanSteam]

Thank's. Boss.

[ozinoz]

Ok, I will bite. It is probably very obvious, but what is SNRwy South route? I dont have it, so it is not a steam route

Also, weathered version now available from Macbine Rail, with different whistle

[AmericanSteam]

Ok, I will bite. It is probably very obvious, but what is SNRwy South route? I dont have it, so it is not a steam route

Also, weathered version now available from Macbine Rail, with different whistle

Sacramento Northern Railroad, G-Trax Simulations was the developer on this.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3769 ... ute_AddOn/

[kris120]

Every locoblueprint can serve with a cabcamera (<InteriorInterface>) and a passengercamera (<CarriageInteriorInterface>).
Why not use both in the steam engine ? Cameras provide only the position of the camera, both are cameras which show the interior model of the locoblueprint.
They show internally visible models of the locomotive itself but only the external models of all other vehicles.
So it is useless to build an internally visible model in the tender for a passenger camera of the loco, it must be defined as externally visible in the tender.
I think this method should generally not pruduce any issues as long as you do not uncouple the tender.

[gtw5812]

1921 Baldwin H9 WM.7z

Studying all the files I still think the Machine Rail guys did a great job on their first US steam locomotive.

There are some thing I am not sure about, there should be a reflector and lens in the headlights, the numbers should illuminate, the markers on the tender should display white when running tender first. The headlight switch has 5 positions, so perhaps something has been missed like bright and dim or class lights, also since the switch box has double switches for the same function?
The water glass is solid brass, aren't boiler water level gauges a core feature?
When using a QD consist, the tender has a different number from the locomotive, and there is no scenario setting to get a specific number in the manual?
Stoking should sound like grinding of screws and the beat of the stoker engine, instead of hissing?
There are a lot of sounds used actually, so perhaps a different mix will bring out the character of the steam locomotive more?
Cylinder cocks exhausting should alternate crosswise between left and right on the cylinder block?
Water consumption seems very low, these small but powerful locomotives ran with such large tenders for a reason?

Great job on the "fixes" you provided...changing things around a little bit actually improved the performance in frame rates for me. The added cab positions for the cameras are a "plus"! I also like the way that you have the windows and doors opening, very nice! I have all 3 H-9's, and everything works well. Thank you!

R/
Galen

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

One stage further advanced: animated safety valves and cylinder co.cks!
Required a lot of tinkering and tweaking of all kinds of things, plus information on more advanced engine scripting is scarce. What value of pi is used in the sim for instance to calculate the circumference of the driving wheel?

Make a backup of your folder first and drop the attached files in the \Assets\1921 Baldwin H9 WM folder and overwrite.

1921 Baldwin H9 WM 20220717-1556.7z

If you have packed and secured the original files in an .ap archive, you should pull the H9_Script.out from the .ap and drop it in the Common Scripts folder, since my additional engine script wraps itself over the original,

What has been done:
maximum speed set at 40 MpH, boiler pressure raised to 220 PsI http://www.alphabetroute.com/wm/1954SteamDiag/H9.pdf vs 210 PsI: https://www.steamlocomotive.com/locobas ... d=wm#8875;
sound and particle emitters tweaked, the particles blow in the wind of your scenario's weather selection (which probably means further tweaking to make them look more realistic under strong winds);
safety valves whisp, feather and blow;
stoker screw grinds;
cylinder co.cks alternate on engine stroke (but the sync is derived from the driving wheels' rotation, and I don't how the sim calculates this and to what precision, so I guestimated the timings);
probably other tweaks I've already forgotten.

What still needs to be done:
further tweaking of particle emitters and sound parameters, the default proxyxml seem to be copied from a Mallet and the cylinder co.ck blasts do not sound entirely right to me on the left cylinder of this 2 cylinder engine;
further tweaking of simulation parameters ( the default seems more or less OK to me on manual firing and I assume Caledonian did the proper job on setting the default values );
the 'quartering' of the additional sound and smoke effects to the engine beat might get off over time and distance due to accumulating rounding errors, finding and keeping the proper engine beat is paramount here.
Cleaning up of remaining remnants of copy-pasting from other engines, so a clean LogMate log results.
There is this error '[Content] - Trace cBogey.cpp : 619 = Rail vehicle "MachineRail\1921 Baldwin H9 WM\RailVehicles\Steam\Black WM\H9 Black Loco.xml" missing node "bo01wh02"', but when I remove the reference to the missing node from the shape file, the game crashes on loading. The missing sound files do not matter that much I think, but too many sound files and too large particle amounts lead to the dreaded 'Out of Memory' error.

What I still plan to do:
Improve (additional) sound and smoke effects, abandoning some of the core functions when I am certain the engine beat is right;
Air pump sounds and exhaust on pumping the main reservoir;
Stoker engine sounds and exhaust linked to the fireman valve's opening;
Cab occlusion changing on window's opening;
rain effect on windows;
Improve the gauges, the borked core gauges, not even mentioning double heading, are my biggest eyesore;
- without going into the huge task of setting up my own engine steam chest simulation or braking system (since this is all kept closely guarded by the experienced scripters, but the OR source code has lots of functions and calculations)
finding out how to get a dimmed front headlight on the 5 position headlight switch, illuminated number boards and moving reverser and brake hangers, since there are animations, but perhaps no nodes to animate?
Make a dead and cold engine, without smoke and sound, crew in the cab and glowing grate, perhaps linked to the Engine Start key?
Making a stationary warm engine without crew, simmering away by itself

Some testing is needed, like:
how does the engine perform, smokes and sound as an AI engine, when a lot of scripted functions are disabled by default;

Is there a decent looking and performing proper Test Track with all kinds of curve radiuses, etc to test things out under easily configurable circumstances like weather, yes or no track sounds, etc?
I have already started tweaking the Kentucky 1935 route a bit, since it looks appropriate and has double track for AI to meet.

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

One stage further, trying to get a more animated exhaust within the constraints of the core engine. There is only so much allowed in manipulating emitters.
There should be only one smoke stack emitter running, since the particle clouds clash in dominance and the result gets ugly when the characteristics of the 'chuffing' default Main Smoke Stack and any additional smoke stacks are too far off.
Cleaning up of the sound system, where there is evidence a lot of proxyxml from different locos are all mixed together.

Sound and smoke effects are like dark magic and require lots of experimentation, and I am only interested in a pleasing outcome.
Smoke darkens when firing, but shouldn't get all black, the column should rise when the engine is working hard, the column should flatten when the engine is at great speed. The cloud should drift on the wind and gradually thin out, and not stay as a balloon. Setting a wind in your scenario's weather blueprint helps.

I created a new engine script, and kept some things out: there appears to be no external throttle or reverser animation on the model, there appear to be no animated brake shoes on either locomotive or tender, so the OnConsistMessage function isn't included anymore. Still need to find a way to have the tender given the same number as the locomotive when in Quick Drive scenarios, so there needs to be some kind of consist messaging still?

The model has no separate cab geo file, so all major internal animations are slaved to the exterior model, I have added the firedoors.

I am still not certain about the water consumption, done a few trips Caliente-Tehachapi up the Loop, with the 16 car loaded coal train. The engine has a real struggle with this small consist up those stiff grades and through the tight curves, which seems correct to me, but there was hardly any water consumption?

There is probably still something possible in 'aural and visual cosmetics', mixing and tuning the sound and particle emitters.

I believe the numbers in the headlights aren't illuminated as a node.
I cannot find the 'dark bulb' node in the cab light.

The headlight switch in the cab has 5 positions, the headlight control liked to the HUD only 3, so press twice to get from 0 to 1 and have the headlight on, and two more times to switch to 2 and have the backup light on. Still trying to get a dimmed headlight when backing up.

The core engine is borked when double heading or having a pusher in the consist, meaning the gauges stop displaying sensible values.

Create a back up of your "1921 Baldwin H9 WM" folder and drop the files from the archive in, overwriting. If you have packed your original files in an .ap archive, best delete my earlier files. The archive contains my latest tinkerings.

1921 Baldwin H9 WM 20220724.7z

When you have the other H9 locomotives, there should be clashes since some shared files have been changed too. I only have this one locomotive.

Things still to do: sprung brake handles that spring back from Release to Running when released in the release position ;-)
Notched throttle (regulator) and reverser levers, a pity the latch isn't animated;
Animations of injectors discharging water while the tender fee is open and the steam isn't on ;
Animated drifting and snorting valves emitting puffs of steam;
Animated sanders, sparks when slipping;
Boiler priming when overfilled, sparks from exhaust;
Accumulation of condensation in cylinders and blowing cylinder covers when cylinder co.cks aren't properly operated;
Setting of difficulty levels;
scripts for these effects can be found in some more advanced engines of older production, which are still scripted in cleartext .lua

[Footplate1]

Certainly not worth the money they are charging, I'm sorry to say, many faults with it, anyone noticed the wheel tyres don't move!

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

Certainly not worth the money they are charging, I'm sorry to say, many faults with it, anyone noticed the wheel tyres don't move!

We can disagree over value for money with all DLC. Personally, I am not going to buy Machine Rail's every variation at full price, but am prepared to pay a 'pack price' for a base model and several repaints.

About the driving wheel's tyres not spinning, that's probably a design choice.
There are lots of models with 'unround' wheels, off center wheels or poorly textured wheel treads, even on the latest much lauded DLC, that look poor when in motion.

Train wheels are generally very evenly weathered, and one can discuss endlessly whether wheel treads should be shining like polished steel as on the prototype. I would already be glad if there was a standard all developers adhere to, also with couplers.

I am more concerned there is no shadow texture on many newer models. Has this requirement been dropped, or are there new and more advanced weather blueprints that provide for better rendition of shadows?

[buzz456]

Certainly not worth the money they are charging, I'm sorry to say, many faults with it, anyone noticed the wheel tyres don't move!

Then don't buy it. There that was easy. Problem solved.

[Footplate1]

I don't intend to buy it, and no one in their right mind would either, $36.00 for 3 Loco's. Plus there isn't a era related route to run it on. Victory Works and Steam Sounds Supreme have just released the WD 2-10-0 Austerity there's just no comparison and it only costs $17.50 and includes rolling stock of which have animated tank loading and unloading.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EESSGgrD-U

[buzz456]

I don't intend to buy it, and no one in their right mind would either, $36.00 for 3 Loco's. Plus there isn't a era related route to run it on. Victory Works and Steam Sounds Supreme have just released the WD 2-10-0 Austerity there's just no comparison and it only costs $17.50 and includes rolling stock of which have animated tank loading and unloading.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EESSGgrD-U

If I wanted a Brit loco that would be nice but I don't want that and there is no reason to buy all three of these. Using your logic no one would ever buy any of the SS stuff for forty bucks.

[CArailroader]

Been a while since I’ve made any post. (This weird thing called a career has gotten in the way of time for TS!) Anyhow, I’ve been lurking and watching this thread with great interest. I just bought the H9 in the Fireball scheme, and it is fantastic! I may even have to carve out a little more time to play TS and run this beautiful machine… and maybe even create a repaint or two! Looking forward to running some long coal drags behind it.

[EngineerJohn]

I bought the original fireball skin and right now at least, have no intention to buy the other packs.

It is still a fun model to toy with from time to time. Sounds and eye candy are popping.

[cnwfan]

I picked up the weathered version this evening along with the Sierra pack. Only complaint so far is that the driver wheels and leading truck wheels are too light in color. I feel they need to be darkened up a bit to match the smokebox and the rest of the weathering. Other than that, looking forward to spending some throttle time on both these engines.

While others may disagree, I do like the fact that the different versions are offered separately. I personally like that transition phase when steam was being replaced by diesels, and the steam engines were not getting much attention. Having the weathered version offered separately means that I can get just the engine I want. Now I will agree that it would be nice if there were several weathered versions within the pack. However, and like the previous Machine Rail purchases, no disappointment here. Between Smokebox and Machine Rail, we've got some good steam power to run on the routes.