VNHRR Presents B&O

[Fleegle411]

May I be the first to say that driving Mike's 4-4-0 on this route is extremely difficult?

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Joke aside, this is a very nice route. It's a real tough run. You do need to learn the grade profile and other quirks of the line to really run it right. It's a real challenge. The only issue I have encountered is pictured below:

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No other issues to report at this time.

[CArailroader]

The triplex looks and sounds right at home with that single chime hooter singing through the canyon.

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[buzz456]

Notch 8 with a string of hoppers for the mines 9.8 mph with the 567's screaming away on the 3.whatever grade. You had to be there to catch the ambiance.

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[CArailroader]

This morning I took the Triplex out to see how well it could do on the switchbacks with a heavy load.

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[GreatNortherner]

Hi all,

thanks for the kind words and the great screenshots!

I'm taking notes of the bugs that have been reported. Looks like a few issues did slip through after all.

May I be the first to say that driving Mike's 4-4-0 on this route is extremely difficult?

Hmm. I think there's quite a bit more damage here than just the pistons.
I saw your scenario in the Workshop, interesting to see that the ancient steamer can pull two coaches up to Howesville. How does one get down the hill again though, without train brakes?

Cheers
Michael

[CArailroader]

Hi all,

How does one get down the hill again though, without train brakes?

Cheers
Michael

Pray to the big man upstairs that you make to the bottom of the hill in one piece.

[Fleegle411]

How does one get down the hill again though, without train brakes?
Michael

Believe it or not, I am slowly working on a scenario where you do exactly that, tender first, as a follow up to the first scenario. The answer to your question is: Slowly and carefully, but it is indeed possible. It's is also extremely easy to lose control and... see above image. That's the scenario I was testing when that happened actually.

[charliechan]

Wonderful Route, and with the quality you would expect from Great Northerner!

I tripped over one minor problem... I left Tunnelton on the downgrade with the brakes partially set and dynamic brakes set about 50%. I was updating my computer and I had to reboot, so I saved the scenario.

When I loaded the scenario from the save, the brake settings had not been saved and had a runaway train!

Could someone else please confirm that this is something with not saving the brake settings or was it something I did?

Thanks

Alex

Good Morning:

I thought I would be smart and save going up the hill. It worked in that the settings on power were saved but when I started to go down the hill the brake setting were back to default settings. Nothing worked. I think that it is probably a program error.

Chandler

[wacampbell]

the brake settings had not been saved

Train Simulator remembers the control lever settings but not the brake line pressures. So when you resume from a save it can take a few seconds for the pressures to returned to their previous levels. Of course if you interrupted your game in the middle of a dicey descent, a lot of bad stuff can happen in those few seconds :-). On this route its probably a good idea to find somewhere more level to stop and save at.

[Fleegle411]

Those who wish to test your metal with Smokebox's Jupiter on the Kingwood, I have released 2 workshop scenarios using Leviathan.

"Leviathan to Howesville"
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... =928391154

And "Leviathan to Tunnelton"
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f ... =931167130

Both scenarios offer a real challenge in my humble opinion, but I'll leave it to y'all to decide for yourselves.

[mrennie]

I saw your scenario in the Workshop, interesting to see that the ancient steamer can pull two coaches up to Howesville. How does one get down the hill again though, without train brakes?

Cheers
Michael

It's actually quite easy. Just before you get to the downhill grade, give one short toot on the whistle. One by one, the cars' handbrakes will be applied automatically in response to the whistle. Then run the engine as if you were pulling the train along on the level - set a suitable amount of cutoff and open the throttle. In effect, you drag the train down the hill against the resistance of the handbrakes. Reducing the throttle should be enough to slow the train down. However, if the grade is so steep, and the train so heavy, that the handbrakes aren't enough to control the speed, you can also use the handbrake on the tender. If that still isn't enough, put the reverser into reverse and open the throttle just enough to hear chuffs but not loud chuffs. If the chuffing gets too loud, the pistons and rods get strained and bent and eventually the packing gets blown out of the piston glands (game over).

Cheers,
Mike

[Haystack]

Does anyone have a video of this route yet? Usually there's a official TS video when new routes are released but I haven't seen any.

[ricksan]

In later years, the Kingwood branch was known as the West Virginia Northern railroad. WVN owned a set of SW1200s, but no RS-1s. If it had, they might have looked like this...

WVN RS-1.jpg

Download for free at the G-TraX site.

[dgallina]

What a great what-if paint scheme!

[GEtrack]

I too am amazed that no one has posted a video yet .... did no one buy it? I'm thinking seriously about it but would like to get a flavor for what it's like before I plunge.

Ken