Railworks America

How come you can't see wheelslip on steam locomotives ?

You can on the K4.

Since I am having problems with this myself, I will not start a ner page, but rather comment on my problems on this one.

The other day, I went to HSC and got in a K4 I had planted. I had another behind it so I could coupla and have an off chuffing sound for a doubleheadder. I coupled up, then applied throttle. The wheels beganto turn, then I sanded, applied more throttle, then it says wheelslip, but the lead loco's whels locked up. It stopped when I decreased throttle, but it makes no sense. The K4 used to have the best wheelslip, spinning wildly out of control, but now it locks up (It still moves forward though)
The weather was the Durango SIlverton heavy snow in winter.

I had this same issue with the Big Boy (with the performance upgrade) and it made me mad. Just the other day, I left Laramie on Sherman with a heavy freight in the same weather. Wheelslip galore, and managed to get 45 mph on track 1. It was a slower start, but I like the different engines to slip and have the drivers on oposite rotation cycles (1 up 1 down) I need the wheelslip to do this, but it would no longer work...

There was an update of some kind yesterday that downloaded, so I don't know what's up...
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

UP3985 wrote:...but I like the different engines to slip and have the drivers on oposite rotation cycles (1 up 1 down) I need the wheelslip to do this, but it would no longer work...

Hi

A bit of a nitpick ...

If it's a two cylinder steam loco (as most North American locos were), the drivers were 90 degrees apart, not 180 degrees; 1 up 1 down wouldn't occur. The term used is "quartering the drivers".

The reason for this is at zero or 180 degree difference, there would be two "dead" positions in each rotation. No power could be generated when both pistons were at mid stroke; 90 degrees apart solves that. Also, at 90 degrees there are four positions of maximum power, much smoother power curve than the two power peaks that zero or 180 degrees would give.

A big audible/visual difference would be only two 'chuffs' and puffs of smoke per rotation instead of four if the drivers were at zero or 180 degrees separation.

Finally, you would get your wish, the loco would be very slippery with two power peaks per revolution, both twice the power that a properly quartered driver set would provide.

End of the nit pick.

GaryG

No, I mean the Big Boy's individual engine sets showing on the right, one up in front, and one down in the back. This only happens with articulated steamers, and it happens somehow in real life. Weather it's wheelslip, or if the rotation is slightly smaller or larger on one set, somehow the wheels manage to get out of sync with eachother for most operations of a steam locomotive. (and my problem fixed itsself somehow... )

This gnitpick shows my point that the Challenger and Big Boy desperately need remaking like the ES44 due to their age, and lack of necessary detail.

There is a reason they're pulled from steam.