Questions of FEF-3 Proper Operations

[dr1980]

Hello, I’ve never really spent any time running steam but decided to buy the excellent FEF-3 in the current sale.

I’ve read through the manual, and can get it running well enough, but there’s a few things I’m still not sure of and I’m hoping someone can help with:

1) what is the best practice around boiler pressure? Should the engineer try to keep it pegged at 300psi all the time or is it acceptable to have it drop down (for example when extra power is needed to climb a hill)? If not 300 all the time, what sort of range would be considered normal/acceptable?

2) Is the cylinder ** master the be turned off at the same time as the cylinder cocks after the locomotive starts moving or does it stay on?

3) I see the following steam/exhausts from front to back: at the front is the exhaust, second is a single plume of steam that looks to be a pressure bleed since it comes into play when I’m at 300psi only, then there’s two smaller steam exhausts that look to be on all of the time...what are these? Should they be exhausting all the time or did I miss something?

Thanks for any help! I’m really having fun with this, it’s a whole new learning experience.

[mrennie]

Hello, I’ve never really spent any time running steam but decided to buy the excellent FEF-3 in the current sale.

I’ve read through the manual, and can get it running well enough, but there’s a few things I’m still not sure of and I’m hoping someone can help with:

1) what is the best practice around boiler pressure? Should the engineer try to keep it pegged at 300psi all the time or is it acceptable to have it drop down (for example when extra power is needed to climb a hill)? If not 300 all the time, what sort of range would be considered normal/acceptable?

2) Is the cylinder ** master the be turned off at the same time as the cylinder cocks after the locomotive starts moving or does it stay on?

3) I see the following steam/exhausts from front to back: at the front is the exhaust, second is a single plume of steam that looks to be a pressure bleed since it comes into play when I’m at 300psi only, then there’s two smaller steam exhausts that look to be on all of the time...what are these? Should they be exhausting all the time or did I miss something?

Thanks for any help! I’m really having fun with this, it’s a whole new learning experience.

Hi, I'm glad to hear you're having fun with the FEF-3 :)

Ideally the boiler pressure should be kept as close as you can to about 297 psi. If it falls below that, the engineer should take immediate steps to stop it from continuing to fall, i.e. pull back a notch or more on the reverser and/or close the throttle. Watch the back pressure gauge while doing this, because the change in where the needle reaches is a very good indication of the effect you're having on the steam consumption. Meanwhile, the fireman (the expert auto-fireman, or you firing manually) will do something too, to increase the heat of the fire (usually moving the firing handle to inject more oil and turning the small damper handle clockwise a tad more). The tricky part is when you're about to go downhill and want to stop the boiler pressure from going up too far and lifting the safety valves, because of the way TS works (it hasn't the slightest idea of how oil-burners work, and doesn't really do a good enough job with any type of steam locomotive, which is why so much extra scripting is needed). TS assumes that the only way the fire mass goes down is when steam is consumed. When you're drifting downhill, there aren't many ways to consume steam quickly enough to get the fire mass already in the firebox to come down, so it continues to generate steam at the same rate as before. The best solution for that is to allow the pressure to drop enough, say to 290 psi, before you get to the crest of the hill, but if you're too late and need to get it down forcibly, you should almost completely shut off the fuel, close the damper (to starve the fire of air) and even drift down with the reverser a long way forward and a little bit of throttle, just to use up steam.

The cylinder master rooster handle can be left open all the time.

The FEF-3 has many exhausts There are, of course, the two main exhaust stacks, but in between them there's a small exhaust pipe for the air compressors. You'll see that one emitting steam when the compressors are cycling. The box in front of the stack is the feedwater heater (most of it is actually inside the smokebox). It too has an exhaust sticking out of the top, but it has another one that goes down the left side and is attached to the front of the left-hand cylinder. Many people think it's exhausting from the cylinder itself, but it's not (it just uses the cylinder as a convenient fixing point). You'll see those two exhausts pumping out steam in time with the main exhaust beats because the feedwater heater uses exhaust steam from the cylinders to pre-heat the feedwater before it gets pumped into the boiler by the big pump under the left-hand runboard. After that, there are the safety valves which you'll see emit steam when they lift (faint at first as they start to lift, then more when they "pop"). Farther back you have the two dynamos (or steam-driven generators) with their exhaust. Below the cab deck on the left side there's the steam-driven cold water pump, which also has its own exhaust, and you can see that emitting steam when the feedwater pump is running. There are also exhausts for the sludge remover (right-hand side under the cab) and foam separator (in the middle of the dome covering the steam turret in front of the cab).

[dr1980]

Thanks for the information and quick response! Sounds like in my attempt to climb the 1.5% grade in the included Sherman Hill activity (the one without the diesel helper) I definitely let the boiler pressure drop too low, I was moving the reverser forward way too far trying to generate more power (ie a higher number on the back pressure gauge) to accelerate a bit. I was always able to then move the reverser forward and get back to 300psi but perhaps that’s just a lot of unnecessary fluctuations. I was well below track speed the entire climb but maybe I need to readjust my expectations for steam as opposed to diesel and (most likely) just get better at steam engine management

One other question, what should I read into how much the back pressure gauge moves/jumps? It seems to jump more on each stroke at lower speeds and less at higher speeds, is that more or less it or is there anything else I should be aware of in monitoring it?

Great work on this locomotive...it’s a great immersive experience, and a challenge quite different from diesel. I’m definitely going to add a few other locomotives of yours to my stable.

Thanks again.

[mrennie]

Thanks for the information and quick response! Sounds like in my attempt to climb the 1.5% grade in the included Sherman Hill activity (the one without the diesel helper) I definitely let the boiler pressure drop too low, I was moving the reverser forward way too far trying to generate more power (ie a higher number on the back pressure gauge) to accelerate a bit. I was always able to then move the reverser forward and get back to 300psi but perhaps that’s just a lot of unnecessary fluctuations. I was well below track speed the entire climb but maybe I need to readjust my expectations for steam as opposed to diesel and (most likely) just get better at steam engine management

One other question, what should I read into how much the back pressure gauge moves/jumps? It seems to jump more on each stroke at lower speeds and less at higher speeds, is that more or less it or is there anything else I should be aware of in monitoring it?

Great work on this locomotive...it’s a great immersive experience, and a challenge quite different from diesel. I’m definitely going to add a few other locomotives of yours to my stable.

Thanks again.

The main thing to try to do as far as the reverser is concerned is to make fairly small adjustments and watch the boiler pressure gauge carefully after making any change. That way you can soon see if you can afford to use more reverser or need to use a shorter cutoff. It's a bit like trimming an aircraft. Also, allow the fireman time to react to what you've done (in real life, the engineer lets the fireman know what he's about to do so that they can coordinate better, but in the game the scripted auto-fireman simply reacts to what's already happened, so you have to be extra gentle with the adjustments in order to give him a fair chance). If you switch the Head-of-Train Device (or "Wilma") to read acceleration instead of train length, it lets you see when you're gaining speed. As long as it's positive, you'll keep going faster and there's no need to use even more reverser.

The back pressure gauge reads the pressure of the exhaust coming out of the cylinders on each piston stroke, so it jumps more at low speed simply because of the fact that the time between strokes (or the time between each short period of opening the exhaust ports) is longer, so the pressure has more time to drop before the next "chuff". At high speed, the frequency of opening/closing the ports is higher so the needle jitters faster but the amplitude of the oscillations is smaller. The script keeps tabs on when the ports in each cylinder are open and closed, which depends on where the piston is in its back and forth movement and how much valve cutoff is set by the reverser. It also calculates the back pressure based on the steam pressure entering the cylinders when the admission ports are open and the pressure drop caused by the steam expanding when the admission port closes and the piston moves away from it. The result is that the reading on the back pressure really is a pretty accurate reflection of the timing of the chuffs and the pressure remaining in the cylinder at the end of each stroke. Some amount of back pressure is usually a good thing, because it's a consequence of using more of the direct force of the high pressure "live" steam and less of the expansion force, but it's costly in terms of steam usage (it's a bit like using first gear in a car to accelerate from standstill, but then needing to go up through the gears as you go faster). The negative side of back pressure is that it also acts against the oncoming piston head, and that's particularly bad if you're going fast. Also, as you go faster, the exhaust ports have less time to get rid of the back pressure (up the stack), so it builds up. These are all reasons for reducing the cutoff as you go faster. Of course, there are plenty of other considerations, which is why running steam locos really does feel a bit like "flying by the seat of your pants" (as well as "by ear"). That's what I try to capture in the models. It's especially so in the 1800s locos because they have very few gauges (boiler pressure, the water try cocks and that's it!) so it's mostly done by ear.

Thanks again for the kind words :)

[dr1980]

Fantastic, thanks again for the detailed information!