Boiler pressure immediately disappears.

[Bullhead]

Running a steam engine in realistic mode. Session starts with BP around 120 with coal at 150%. Open up the blower to try and start heating up the fire and burn the excess coal off, boiler pressure starts to rise (as it should). The INSTANT I open up the throttle, the boiler pressure reduces to 0 in less than 5 seconds, and does not recover. What is going on?

[Chrome]

No matter what I do, steam locomotives will dump boiler pressure... start of the session taking off right away, or sitting around for any duration inactive.

[Bullhead]

Originally posted by Chrome:

No matter what I do, steam locomotives will dump boiler pressure... start of the session taking off right away, or sitting around for any duration inactive.

I found the solution. When engines first spawn in (using expert mode), they automatically have the coal turned up. Even while the engine is idling, it's shoveling too much coal into the fire. This suffocates the fire, and drastically reduces steam production. IRL it's a hard corner to get out of because the fire can't breathe, and thus doesn't burn the coal very quickly. The slow burn leads to poor heating, which leads to near zero steam production.

This is what is happening in sim. Allow the locomotive to idle for some time in your scenario, make sure the fire is down at 0%, and let the coal level get back towards 100%. You will notice the steam produces normally then. It is a flaw in the game, especially since the pressures dies off so quickly.

[Chrome]

Originally posted by Bullhead:

Originally posted by Chrome:

No matter what I do, steam locomotives will dump boiler pressure... start of the session taking off right away, or sitting around for any duration inactive.

I found the solution. When engines first spawn in (using expert mode), they automatically have the coal turned up. Even while the engine is idling, it's shoveling too much coal into the fire. This suffocates the fire, and drastically reduces steam production. IRL it's a hard corner to get out of because the fire can't breathe, and thus doesn't burn the coal very quickly. The slow burn leads to poor heating, which leads to near zero steam production.

This is what is happening in sim. Allow the locomotive to idle for some time in your scenario, make sure the fire is down at 0%, and let the coal level get back towards 100%. You will notice the steam produces normally then. It is a flaw in the game, especially since the pressures dies off so quickly.

Fair enough, I'll try that out then. So even if the fire/coal slider is at 0% should I flick it around then set it down 0%?

Hmm... I kinda wish there was an indication of the fire's temperature, wonder if there's a data point that'd help with that already, or if it'd require an overhaul of steam locomotives.

[Bullhead]

Originally posted by Chrome:

Originally posted by Bullhead:

I found the solution. When engines first spawn in (using expert mode), they automatically have the coal turned up. Even while the engine is idling, it's shoveling too much coal into the fire. This suffocates the fire, and drastically reduces steam production. IRL it's a hard corner to get out of because the fire can't breathe, and thus doesn't burn the coal very quickly. The slow burn leads to poor heating, which leads to near zero steam production.

This is what is happening in sim. Allow the locomotive to idle for some time in your scenario, make sure the fire is down at 0%, and let the coal level get back towards 100%. You will notice the steam produces normally then. It is a flaw in the game, especially since the pressures dies off so quickly.

Fair enough, I'll try that out then. So even if the fire/coal slider is at 0% should I flick it around then set it down 0%?

Hmm... I kinda wish there was an indication of the fire's temperature, wonder if there's a data point that'd help with that already, or if it'd require an overhaul of steam locomotives.

I don't think fire temperature is simulated, just coal level. But yes, make sure it's at 0.

[ZecRail]

Hi All
A lot of this will depend on the locomotive you are using, some have more realistic physics than others, depending on how the creator has designed them.

However your 'coal level' (ie the 'CO' value on the HUD) should be kept around 100% for a maximum efficiency fire. Trainz does model fire temperature, and if you have too little or too much coal, the temperature will drop, and hence you won't make as much steam!

The 'coal slider' is an automatic 'stoking' option, which by default should be at the bottom (ie off). If the slider is defaulting to above this, then this indicates the creator of the locomotive you are using has, for some reason, set this higher by default. The default locomotives should have this slider at the bottom through.

It's worth noting that some locomotives are setup to be 'cold' when first placed. This means that even if it has a bit of boiler pressure, it may not maintain this if the engine is 'cold'. In this case you may need to turn the blower on, and keep the coal level close to 100% to heat up the boiler, and hence make more steam to keep up your pressure.

As in the real world, all of this varies depending on the locomotive, some will hold heat much better than others; some will make steam much quicker than others, and some may just not steam very well at all...

Regards
Zec

[Chrome]

Originally posted by ZecRail:

The 'coal slider' is an automatic 'stoking' option, which by default should be at the bottom (ie off). If the slider is defaulting to above this, then this indicates the creator of the locomotive you are using has, for some reason, set this higher by default. The default locomotives should have this slider at the bottom through.

Regarding the 'coal slider'... I don't think it's ever worked for me. Is it's operation supposed to be universal, or only for specific steam locomotives? Every steam I've tried so far, setting the stoker even up to 100% would just give me one initial burst of coal the whole session, then the coal level just drops over time the rest of the session. I want to make use of it but I haven't gotten to...

[ZecRail]

Hi Chrome
This can depend on the steam loco, some locos may not be configured correctly, either in the 'coal shovel' amount (ie the shovel is shovelling in an amount more like a teaspoon than an actual shovel!), or the cab view may not support adding coal for some reason.

If you can let me know a specific loco you're seeing this issue with, I can see if I can reproduce it.

Regards
Zec
N3V Games