Atomic Systems

I know i have asked this before for msts, but here i am again asking for RS! Ive been "playing" these things since msts came out but still i have real trouble driving steam loco's. Just been getting into the sim again but on the bath route with all the gradients (and auto fireman with) i can't seem to either get up enough speed or maintain my speed going up the gradients, by the time i get to the top my engine is virtually at a standstill no matter what level i have the regulator or reverser at (but then again i dont really know where they are supposed to be :p). So can anyone offer me any tips please?

I find the RS loco's behave just like the ones I used to fire on BR 50years back.

Start of 80% regulator, this stops wheel spin, and 100% forward cut off, at 10 mph bring the cut off back to 75% and 20mph to 50%, then 100% regulator and at 35mph bring the cut off back to 30%, again 45mph back to 25%, back again at 60 to 12%. We always drove 5's on full regulator and controlled speed with the cut off. (If it stops accelerating you have too much cut off, bring it back)

Keep the fire mass at 2300 -2400lbs and alternate firing with water imput.

On hills watch the speed if it starts dropping too much wind up the cut off a little, dont try and keep 60mph up the mendips let it drop slowly to 30, 35 or less mph or the steam will run out.

After releasing the brakes, go to cab view and watch the vacuum guage return to 21'' then put the brake up to 8 / 9% running. If you dont do this all your steam will soon go. If you run out stop and let it build up again ( a blow up we used to call it). Even on the Mendips you can usually start off again with a full head of steam, but as with a car keep the brakes on a bit untill you opened the regulator or it will roll back.

Stopping, bring the train down to 30 mph a hundred yards before the station, release the brake so it comes off and you get 21'' back and run in, apply brakes again, you will get to know best run in speed depending on grade and load.

Thanks, I will try those tips! Interesting what you say about the brakes though, i never knew you could loose steam if you had your brakes fully off. Just out of interest, what is the "running" part of the brake travel for/what does it mean? I have always wondered that!

"Running" at least on an air brake is the position for when the train is, funnily enough, 'running' it keeps the air (vacuum in this case i suppose) at a steady level. If left in the released position, at least with airbrakes, steam keeps being used to power the compressor to compress more air and force it down the pipe. This leads to overcharged brakes whichh cause all sorts of problems... Someone more familair with vacuum brakes will no doubt explain better

Same situation for vacuum brakes. Just thing (in both cases) of "pumping up" the brake cylinders. Once they are at maximum release position (not the valve, but the position in all cylinders in the train), any more "pumping" goes lost via some valve. Don't ask me about the valve, but I know for sure that in MSTS you lost steam if you kept the brake on "release". When the reading shows the maximum value, it is time to change to "running" or "hold". Then, if you see the pressure reading go down after a while, you could release the brakes again a little to restore the maximum value. This is caused by leaks in the prototype, but MSTS did not model this. I don't know for KRS, but I do not remember it being mentioned in the documentation.