Fuel Consumption

[tannerd1495]

Hey everyone, just got the game and absolutely love it. I started my company and once I had the money saved up for a new engine, I popped over to sandbox to test some out before buying in my save game. I was messing around with the power and fuel consumption and seemed a little stumped. I did more testing and what I can find is that coal and water consumption is all dependent on throttle. It doesn't matter if you are running the engine by itself uncoupled or if you're hauling 1000 tons behind you. Fuel consumption is the same.
Also, there is always a specific ratio of coal to water is consumed. It is always 144 gallons per 0.1 ton of coal used. The rate of consumption does differ from loco to loco. I tested the A-26, the T-21, and G-16 out on this:

A-26 burns 0.1 ton/144 gallons every 68 seconds.
T-21 burns 0.1 ton/144 gallons every 86 seconds.
G-16 burns 0.1 ton/144 gallons every 110 seconds.

It seems to roughly be 1 gallon burned for every 203 to 217.5 Tractive Effort, again weight doesn't seem to have much to do with it.

Also, I did find that when starting, the fuel consumption is different for the first 0.1 ton of coal burned. The coal to water ratio remains the same for that one though.

The T-21 and the G-16 both burned 72 gallons for the first 0.1 ton of coal burned instead of the normal 144. But the A-26 burned 125 gallons for its first 0.1 ton of coal burned. Can't really find the reason behind that one in the math. The A-26 does weigh a lot more. But the T-21 and the G-16 don't weight the same, they're about 10% different.

Anyone else do any testing or have anything to add or found anything to the contrary?

Dev's, am I on the right track? pun intended, haha.

On a side note, the game is seriously awesome. Great balance of tycoon/business sim but hands on train running. Can't wait to see what the future holds!

[Lemon Friend]

Originally posted by tannerd1495:

A-26 burns 0.1 ton/144 gallons every 68 seconds.
T-21 burns 0.1 ton/144 gallons every 86 seconds.
G-16 burns 0.1 ton/144 gallons every 110 seconds.

It seems to roughly be 1 gallon burned for every 203 to 217.5 Tractive Effort, again weight doesn't seem to have much to do with it.

Also, I did find that when starting, the fuel consumption is different for the first 0.1 ton of coal burned. The coal to water ratio remains the same for that one though.

What throttle setting did you use to generate these numbers? My experience is that lower throttle settings use significantly less fuel.

Also, the difference you noted for the first 0.1 ton of coal to water ratio is almost certainly due to rounding. That is, if a tender holds 4.0 tons of coal, it will read 3.9 tons once the unrounded value reaches 3.95 tons. As such, the first 0.1 tons is really only 0.05 tons.

[tannerd1495]

Didn't think about the first one being due to rounding but that makes sense!
Also, for this testing I used full throttle. I did 4 runs for each engine, but kept the throttle at 100% as to not change too many things in between runs.

1st Run: Engine only, 100% throttle, reverser all the way forward
2nd Run: Engine only, 100% throttle, reverser pulled back once 10 mph reached.
3rd Run: Engine pulling 635 tons, 100% throttle, reverser all the way forward
4th Run: Engine pulling 635 tons, 100% throttle, reverser pulled back once 10 mph

Each engine gave the same numbers for all for of their runs, which is why I said it must only be due to the throttle and not the weight or reverser.

It certainly does lower the consumption when the throttle is lowered.
I didn't test the ratio of water to fuel burned with the throttle lowered though...now I have something to do today!

[W0mbat]

I have found that the weight of the pax doesnt alter the weight of the carriage like the freight does, or the load you are carrying. I guess that is in the works for when they add visual pax to the game. The weight of the car is the same whether its empty or full so the overall weight of the consist doesnt change on a pax train.

[macParzival]

You may be right, if you look at that way, consumption is almost only related to the passed time. But, with heavier consist, the acceleration will be much slower, and you'll reach your top speed much later, therefore getting there later, and consuming much more

[Imperial Strikeforce]

I just simply hover my mouse over the tender or locomotive and when I physically see the coal and water getting low, I know it's time to top off. Or I just play it save and top off before I begin my journey across the map. Doesn't need to be more complicated than that, does it?