Railworks America

Hi,
I have installed the latest upgrade for the Smokebox Consolidation engine and love the extra features but for the life of me can not get it to perform as well as the prior version.
I am talking about the fully advanced version w/manual firemen.
With a consist of six box cars and a 0-1% grade and a full 200psi boiler pressure and full steam chest pressure, 650lb fire mass and the regulator fully forward the engine will struggle and die most of the time. Does not maintain pulling power nearly as well as the older version.
I have run the older version manually and it works very good as expected. I am fully versed on the operation of the engine but the upgrade does not have the same power.
Operation with the automatic fireman is the same. ie insufficient power.
I have tried to operate this engine carefully adjusting all of the operations with poor results.

What say you???

Is anybody else having the same problem???

Smokebox is the developer of very good engines so I can not understand how this Consolation update is performing so poorly...

Papa

j3richard wrote:Hi,
I have installed the latest upgrade for the Smokebox Consolidation engine and love the extra features but for the life of me can not get it to perform as well as the prior version.
I am talking about the fully advanced version w/manual firemen.
With a consist of six box cars and a 0-1% grade and a full 200psi boiler pressure and full steam chest pressure, 650lb fire mass and the regulator fully forward the engine will struggle and die most of the time. Does not maintain pulling power nearly as well as the older version.
I have run the older version manually and it works very good as expected. I am fully versed on the operation of the engine but the upgrade does not have the same power.
Operation with the automatic fireman is the same. ie insufficient power.
I have tried to operate this engine carefully adjusting all of the operations with poor results.

What say you???

Is anybody else having the same problem???

Smokebox is the developer of very good engines so I can not understand how this Consolation update is performing so poorly...

Papa

That's very odd, because the power is exactly the same as before. I haven't had any problems running it. Did you remember to open the damper? When you say it struggles and dies, do you mean it runs out of boiler pressure, or that it slows down on the uphill grade even though the boiler pressure remains high? Are you reducing the cut-off enough, to keep the back pressure at a reasonable level? With only 6 boxcars, you should be able to race up the 1% grade at 40mph or more.

Mike

EDIT1: I assume you've got the lubricator running and that you used the cylinder cocks to drain the moisture from the cylinders before setting off.

EDIT2: This is a long shot, but are you sure you aren't giving it too much power and slipping the drivers? Have you got the sanders on (and in the correct direction)?

EDIT3: I have another hunch. When you released the brakes, did you by any chance move the automatic brake handle all the way to the left, to the Release position? If you did, then it's probable that you overcharged the brake pipe, causing the train brakes to apply again (and stay stuck on). Have a look at the brake pipe pressure needle in the cab. If it shows more than 90psi, it's been overcharged. The solution is to put it into Emergency, wait for the brake pipe pressure to fall to zero, then place the handle in Running (where it's pointing directly at the back of the cab) and wait for the brake pipe to recharge and stop at 90psi.

Edit 3 you guessed it right. I was releasing the brake all the way to the left thereby overcharging the brake pipe. By the way what is the purpose of releasing the brake that far if it causes the overcharge?? or is it the holding it there released and not coming up one notch??

Thank you all for the quick response;

Papa

j3richard wrote:Edit 3 you guessed it right. I was releasing the brake all the way to the left thereby overcharging the brake pipe. By the way what is the purpose of releasing the brake that far if it causes the overcharge?? or is it the holding it there released and not coming up one notch??

Thank you all for the quick response;

Papa

Glad I guessed right :)

In the final version that will go out on Steam, there's a message that will pop up on the screen to warn the player when the brake pipe is overcharged.

Release connects the brake pipe directly to the main reservoir without going via the regulating feed valve (which is set for 90psi) so there's nothing to stop the brake pipe pressure from reaching as high as 120psi. However, it has the advantage of putting the air in much faster. It's useful when you have to recharge a long dry train (one with no air in the brake pipe or the cars' auxiliary reservoirs), because it's a lot faster than doing it In Running, but the engineer has to be vigilant and switch to Running before overcharging.

Some railroads actually ban the use of the Release position and even go so far as to block it off so that it can't be used.

The updated manual is now in the File Library and it's got a lot more in it now about the brakes.

Cheers,

Mike