Locomotive Proposal: Santa Fe 2900 Class 4-8-4

[buzz456]

Not at all. If I came off that way it was not meant and I apologize. I just think you are asking for something that is unlikely to occur unless you do it yourself.

[TheOldDessauer]

u

[StrategyFirst]

In contrast, many of the U.K. steamers have much more detailed, functional cabs.

Of course. DTG , being a British company, has physical access to any remains of them.

The lack of adequate/appropriate particle emitters are another huge issue for a steam locomotive model. The k4 lacks a few that it should have. There are no emitters for the injectors or feedwater system (both of which should be animated), there is no emitter for the stoker motor (which should be animated), I don't believe that there is one for the generator. The sanders lack an emitter.The smokestack exhaust, whistle, and cylinder cocks work, but are anemic ( a nit pick, I know that they can be adjusted, but most buyers don't know about RW tools or how to use it).

It's worse than that... I just saw a post on the Steam community hub wondering if there were any other places to get "mods", without having to pay for them...

How have they not Googled "railworks [insert product here]" for what they want? Most of the time, they'll find it.

Also...
http://www.engine-driver.com/article/sh ... ocomotives

and

http://www.engine-driver.com/article/sh ... -northerns

[TheOldDessauer]

u

[mrennie]

In the information age, lack of physical access is not an impediment. The pertinent historical and technical societies can be contacted and literally thousands of documents can be obtained; pictures, blue prints, technical data, schematics, oral story histories, sound recordings, etc.

True, but obtaining the set of original technical drawings (not the simple schematic diagrams that you find typically in books, magazines and websites) comes at a very high price. Museum and archives in the US all seem to charge an exorbitant amount of money for them. Whenever somebody posts (usually on facebook or the Steam forum) about "DLC is too expensive", I feel like asking them to do the work of adding up the cost of those drawings. It makes it very difficult to even consider starting such a project. The alternative of doing everything by eye, using photos and a few schematics, is a non-starter for me anyway.

Also, you'd be surprised how difficult it is to get close-up photos of all the necessary parts. Just finding enough reference photos showing snippets of the top of the boiler of the FEF-3 was a pretty daunting task, and that's a locomotive that still exists! I eventually managed to do it by piecing together bits I found from various grainy photos and videos (one taken from a helicopter chasing 844 and another taken from a bridge as 844 passed below it).

[TheOldDessauer]

u