Bulleid light pacific: is it under-powered?

[Brutalist Ape]

Anyone else having difficulty with the Bulleid Light Pacific? I can't get this engine above 80mph no matter what I do - and even that is a struggle. Other engines such as the GWR castle will get up to 96mph easily on the flat. Yet the Bulleid LP is supposed to be more powerful! Any help/tips would be much appreciated! Thanks

[dgre1950]

I got it, I think its ok. Nature of the beast maybe.

[CrazyGecko]

Would it vary on the load and throttle/regulator management?

[Brutalist Ape]

They should be able to get up to the high 90s or even 100mph but even reaching 80 is a huge struggle.

[Chicken Balti]

Hello Brutalist Ape, the Bulleid Light Pacific is not as powerful tractive effort wise as a Castle, plus 'many' other factors will also determine how well an engine performs speed wise.
Wheel size, bore and stroke, valve settings, blast pipe design and chimney type, working steam pressure, boiler and firebox size which determines steam production rate, train load behind, gradiants and quality of driving and firing, to name a few.
Around 80-85mph for a Bullied LP, around 90-95mph for a Castle on average, with around seven behind on the flat.
Best.

[Brutalist Ape]

I've found reports of people who actually drove these locomotives in real life saying they reached 104mph on level track, and that's with a rake of coaches behind them on a regular service. This should definitely be faster than it is in the game. I'm not sure if anyone knows how to mod the file to fix it, but if anyone has any suggestions, I'm listening(!)

[dgre1950]

CB has already told you. Can you read? Go ahead and mod your file. Then wait for the next update. Bad karma.

[FusedCircuit]

Originally posted by Brutalist Ape:

They should be able to get up to the high 90s or even 100mph but even reaching 80 is a huge struggle.

I got one up to 122 on Southampton to Weymouth last week :)

[Broomwagon]

I don't have it, so perhaps talking out of my hat, but imho one of the very good things about TS is often it's not easy to get high speeds out of locos - if everything isn't just right they don't deliver. I like the challenge of that.

[GeneralGeldenhuys]

Originally posted by Brutalist Ape:

I've found reports of people who actually drove these locomotives in real life saying they reached 104mph on level track, and that's with a rake of coaches behind them on a regular service. This should definitely be faster than it is in the game. I'm not sure if anyone knows how to mod the file to fix it, but if anyone has any suggestions, I'm listening(!)

What regular % and reverser position are you running you bulleid at? I found that most steamers will reach top speed on flat with a 78% regulator and 12% reverser position, but that is at full boiler pressure.

If boiler pressure is 20% lower, which I alway try to keep to prevent steam safety valve from activating, I put my regulator on 84% and reverser around 16% ish to maintain speed.

You also need to know your route, where ups and downs are and when to shovel, pump water, etc.

Originally posted by Chicken Balti:

Hello Brutalist Ape, the Bulleid Light Pacific is not as powerful tractive effort wise as a Castle, plus 'many' other factors will also determine how well an engine performs speed wise.
Wheel size, bore and stroke, valve settings, blast pipe design and chimney type, working steam pressure, boiler and firebox size which determines steam production rate, train load behind, gradiants and quality of driving and firing, to name a few.
Around 80-85mph for a Bullied LP, around 90-95mph for a Castle on average, with around seven behind on the flat.
Best.

I've always read complaints on the forums that the Bulleid is a much lighter locomotive than the Castles and that GWR favoured heavy locomotives which made them difficult to service than post nationalisation steam locomotives.

If I may ask, is the Bulleid design half LNER and LMS? It looks like it have a boiler of the LNER but firebox of the LMS. I watched a few series of the Roundabout, but is not 100% sure.

[Turbofintan]

Originally posted by Brutalist Ape:

I've found reports of people who actually drove these locomotives in real life saying they reached 104mph on level track, and that's with a rake of coaches behind them on a regular service. This should definitely be faster than it is in the game. I'm not sure if anyone knows how to mod the file to fix it, but if anyone has any suggestions, I'm listening(!)

It was a Merchant Navy that reached 104mph not a Light Pacific, so you'll probably need a MN to do 100 although there isn't much difference between the two.

[Brutalist Ape]

Originally posted by sohome:

Originally posted by Brutalist Ape:

They should be able to get up to the high 90s or even 100mph but even reaching 80 is a huge struggle.

I got one up to 122 on Southampton to Weymouth last week :)

What?! How on earth did you manage that?

Was this on level track? And with how many coaches? Also, roughly what regulator/reverser settings did you use?

[Broomwagon]

Down hill with a Castle pushing at the back xD

[IC125]

Originally posted by broomwagon:

Down hill with a Castle pushing at the back xD

Or the jet train ''assisting''.

[Brutalist Ape]

Originally posted by Turbofintan:

It was a Merchant Navy that reached 104mph not a Light Pacific, so you'll probably need a MN to do 100 although there isn't much difference between the two.

Not according to this: http://www.railwayforum.net/showthread.php?t=304

One of the guys posting above claims to have seen 110mph while on the footplate of a West Country class, and another guy says he achieved 104mph with 4032 Camelford, through North Tawton & Bow during the bad winter of 1963.

The official record appears to be 106mph by 35003 (a Merchant Navy) on June 26 1967 between Winchfield and Fleet with 170 tons. But others report that Bulleid pacifics may have reached 118mph in testing, although this last claim is a rumour.

Either way, it seems there are plenty of reports of Bulleid light pacifics reaching over 100mph.

[Chicken Balti]

Originally posted by Brutalist Ape:

Originally posted by Turbofintan:

It was a Merchant Navy that reached 104mph not a Light Pacific, so you'll probably need a MN to do 100 although there isn't much difference between the two.

Not according to this: http://www.railwayforum.net/showthread.php?t=304

One of the guys posting above claims to have seen 110mph while on the footplate of a West Country class, and another guy says he achieved 104mph with 4032 Camelford, through North Tawton & Bow during the bad winter of 1963.

The official record appears to be 106mph by 35003 (a Merchant Navy) on June 26 1967 between Winchfield and Fleet with 170 tons. But others report that Bulleid pacifics may have reached 118mph in testing, although this last claim is a rumour.

Either way, it seems there are plenty of reports of Bulleid light pacifics reaching over 100mph.

Hello, I can assure you as a driver, I have seen all sorts of 'claims' over the years from railwaymen 'and' the public regarding lots of locomotive performance. Further detailed questioning of some of those making such claims, often reveals anything from 'wishful thinking' and 'out of normal situations' to ''my grandad used to drive the Flying Scotsman and told me so'' (seems there are thousands of grandads out there that used to drive that engine).
The reality is simple as I mentioned in my last post, many factors will impact any engines performance including load behind and gradiants, even weather conditions, especially wind direction. Have all these in your favour plus a good crew and engine in fine fettle, 'above normal' performance is possible. However, that is not to say that then represents 'normal average engine class performance'.
The following link to Bulleid Light Pacific details is below.
Best
http://www.southern-locomotives.co.uk/Class_Details/Bulleid_Light_Pacifics.html