I have Trainz: Driver edition.
It's a great little game...but actually a 'demo.' I paid $4.99 for it at a Circuit City store. It is just the cd in the much smaller package, basically. But it is missing a lot of stuff like the actual creation of tracks and scenery, etc.
I can't figure out how to keep the steam engine fire (and thus, psi pressure) going on the locomotive. For instance, one of the scenarios (Marias Pass) has a pretty long route...like 20 to 30 miles in length. You are given a "big boy" steam engine...a pre-made fire that has about 285psi (boiler), and that's your route. I can get it up to about 300psi and keep it like that for about a couple of minutes. As I increase speed, the pressure goes down, of course. But eventually it falls so low that my speed decreases and the whole fire dies out - no matter how much I try to keep it supplied with coal and watch the water ratio in the tanks. There are a ton of controls inside of the cab, and only a few of them have on-screen labels when you hover over them. Does anybody know where I can get a diagram of what each thing does? I can't complete this scenario without one. The 'manual' doesn't even tell you how to keep steam pressure going, apart from the typical coal and water thing. I know that it has to do with the ratio of water, how much coal, etc. But the valves and such seem to have a significant contribution - and it's hard to tell what each knob and valve does, and whether it is on or off. For some, to the left seems to be on, and to the right seems to be off. Yet for others, to the right is on (such as the blower for the fire) and to the left is off. Very little info is available online for this edition. Any suggestions?
Oh yeah, and the manual on the cd seems to be for some type of full version of Trainz. No indication on the packaging says it is a demo, but I've read up on it online and it does seem to be a demo. I'm fine with that...it's still cool. But hard to figure out a few things. Of course, the manual references for me to play the "tutorial 4" in the full version of trainz - which my version doesn't have. I don't know why they even created it that way if they are referencing stuff not actually in the version of the game I am playing. But...whatever. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. :-)
Your regulator should be reduced to about 40% open as you increase speed. This will reduce the outflow of steam to not waste it at full cutoff.
There is a injector on the boiler that will introduce water to the boiler. You want to introduce a little every so often and keep the water glass 2/3 full. I have not played the big boy engine in years that you speak of in that game.
You want to feed that fire and run the blower to keep it very hot.
The best way to run a steamer is to use just a little less steam per unit of time than is actually being generated by the boiler. One of the games I recall had a function key that displayed steam generation / usage rates.
The full manual should be availible as a pdf download somewhere on the internet. Gamers tend to harvest tidbits that are of value and post it for others to use with a little google.
Thanks. You've been a big help. :-)Funnily enough, not too long after I posted my question and I was trying to figure the game out...I found that lowering the "cutoff" level to about 30 to 40% (after I reached full speed) and keeping the regulator at 100% really helped out. I gained speed, but didn't seem to use up as much water and/or pressure. And yes, the full manual does seem to come with the game (its about 330 pages, which is similar to the ones I see online)...but even in there, it doesn't explain all of the interface controls in the cab. It just talks about coal and water...and that's about it, really. lol
So theoretically speaking, the regulator is equivalent to the gas pedal of a car - the more it is pressed (or the higher it is set), the more quickly the train will accelerate? Because it seems like I 'max out' at a certain speed below the speed limit itself, when I don't have the regulator at 100%
What would the 'cutoff' be equivalent to? Sorry for all of the questions...I'm just trying to figure out exactly what these things do. They really messed up on the manual for this thing...they cover just about everything else in painstaking detail, but left out most of the stuff about the hardest things - running the steam engine scenarios.
I did find out that keeping the blower on all of the time really helps keep my fire white-hot. It is just that my fire dies completely about 75% through the scenario, even when feeding it with coal and keeping the water in check. It worked one time for me to stop the train and build up more steam, then start again...but eventually it got to the point where even the coal wouldn't make the fire white-hot anymore. Kind of irritating.
Seems like a built in time limit via fire temp LOL.
You exceeded my thinking with the cutoff question, all I can tell you is that it is a way to admit steam for the full stroke of the cylinder at whatever pressure is in the boiler. The engine will probably get down and develop full tractive effort.
The cutoff would be like the transmission of said car (well, at least for one with a manual transmission).
IIRC you keep the cutoff at max until you get underway, and then slowly back off until you get to about 10-15%. Once you get to about 40% or so I think you can cut off the blower, as the exhaust and speed should be enough to keep a good draft. also helps if you watch where the coal is going (I think some of the knobs across the middle of the boiler control the steam jets that throw the coal across the fire)
-Dan
Builder of Bowser steam! Railimages Site
I don't know if this is the same scenario as the one that comes with the full version of Trainz. The one in the full version you have to start the big boy with a full train on a 1% grade. I never messed with the different knobs for the stoker...I always assumed that you just added coal every so often with the spacebar like every other locomotive. In any case, in the scenario I've played, once you get the train rolling you only make it a couple miles down the line before the scenario ends.
I don't know if this will help,but there is a place to set the steam locos to "automatic fireman". I just can't figure out how I got to it. This allows you to run the engine with out worrying about keeping steam pressure up. Ken