Highworth - keeping the route alive.

[saddletank]

Pleased you are enjoying it. If people get just a fraction of the pleasure in driving the route as I got in making it (when it wasn't driving me up the wall that is) then I'll be very happy.. and, yes, all praise to Martin Heywood for the amazing activities. His work really brought the route to life and made it what it is. The fact that I'm getting feedback from people who are running the activities in the intended sequence is very nice to hear.

[pjd123]

Hi guys, I am thoroughly enjoying the route, can you give me some pointers to get the best out of the railcar? I seem to run out of effort about 1/4 of the way down the branch line? The only way I can get it to proceed is to disconnect the trailer. I have managed to get it up to about 30MPH down a hill, but on the main line, a max of about 20MPH?

[saddletank]

Are you setting the steam brake to the running position after you release it, or leaving it in the released position?

[douglee]

Hipjd,???
Sorry I missed your name.

Hi guys, I am thoroughly enjoying the route, can you give me some pointers to get the best out of the railcar? I seem to run out of effort about 1/4 of the way down the branch line? The only way I can get it to proceed is to disconnect the trailer. I have managed to get it up to about 30MPH down a hill, but on the main line, a max of about 20MPH?

Are you setting the steam brake to the running position after you release it, or leaving it in the released position?

In addition to Martin's good advice above.
All the stock on Highworth has very realistic physics. It is not a case of open the throttle and go.

I posted this (below) to answer a similar query on another thread.

Steam driving procedure.
Starting off.
Cut Off (Reverser) MAX
Small amount of throttle. (Just like a cluch)
Release Train Brake increase Throttle.
Close Cylinder Cocks.
As soon as Brake Pipe Pressure climbs back to normal, (25psi) think, return the Train Brake lever to 99% running (or Hold) whichever method is on the loco.
Lower Cut Off as speed increases to 15% on the level, 25% on an up gradient with loaded wagons.

This is what makes MSTS a Simulator rather than a Train Driving Game.
A second press on F5 will show the Steam Generation Rate and Steam Usage Rate. Keep Genreation above usage. Rather obvious really.

Hope this helps
Good luck
Doug

[kieranhardy]

In other words, you need to use it with a bit of skill

I too had issues when testing the activity using this model but i feel it is far more realistic to be struggling up a steeper gradient than flying up with an unrealistic load.

Keep an eye out for activity 45, it uses an older style steam locomotive, i was climbing nicely to Highworth when all of a sudden the locomotive slipped, brought me to a stand and started rolling back. With a bit of patience and careful use of the sanders i was able to creep my way back up to a suitable speed, even if it did mean arriving a few minutes late. Nice to have that realistic touch to msts

[saddletank]

A steam railmotor was tested on the line a couple of times in the 1920s. I do not know if this was because the GWR were looking at more economic options to a loco hailed train or it was simply a test of the steam plant after overhaul at Swindon. It wasn't used regularly in service. This may have been due to the low clearances at the small bridges or a lack of power.

The hill to Highworth was infamous around the GWR shed apparently as a place that sorted out the good drivers from the bad ones, so do please expect the route to take a bit of learning and don't be discouraged or think the .eng files are at fault if you fail the first time or two. Many drivers did and more than one train load of passengers had to get out and walk the last quarter- or half-mile up the track to the terminus! All the activities have been thoroughly tested and all the trains will go up that hill, you just need to practice.

One or two players have told me that the real skill (once you are very good) is to arrive at Highworth and NOT have your loco's safety valve lift. Having the safety lift in the platform would scare the sheep and cows - not to mention the ladies - so it was frowned upon by the management. Thus the art is to generate enough steam so your train does not stall on the bank but not so much that you have a messy excess at the end of the run.

[AndiS]

Martin beat me to it ...

Steam cars always have a small firebox, which means that you must be careful to maintain firemass pretty constant, or steam generation will decrease noticeably. Also, the grade from Hannington to Highworth is a challenging one. I think that running up that branch with the trailer is about the hardest you can ask of the poor steam car. I guess it is more made for flat grounds, or running alone. But it can be done, obviously. People ask for challenging activities, here they come. With education included.

I found it pretty hard in MSTS to get up to Highworth and still keep the safety valves from blowing off while doing your business there. This is a limitation of MSTS -- there is no good way to reduce steam production once it is at full blow. I always used combinations of filling in lots of fresh water (which you should not to in real life because of the strain on the boiler), putting on lots of coal (which is a time bomb, of course, and you can only go down from Highworth!), and closing the dampers, of course. Also, exaggerated use of the vacuum brake consumes some steam, but it is not exactly prototypical to get rid of the steam that way.

[pjd123]

Thanks guys, I will give that a whirl.

I'm Phil by the way.

[douglee]

Hi Phill,
On behalf of the others you are welcome.
It all sounds a bit difficult at first but practice makes perfect.
Stick with it.
Any real problems just ask.

Good luck
Doug

[saddletank]

How is the route stability for people, by the way? Any crashes, any weird glitches? Anything going wrong? Any rolling stock that is hard to couple to/uncouple from? Feedback on these issues is always welcome though I'm not sure we can do much to fix things that are not rolling-stock related.

[lightandlighting]

Re: The Steam Rail Motor. I did get up the hill to Highworth but at about 5mph. That was using Simple Controls. I have yet to master the full driving experience but am working on it. Of course, limited "oomph" was the reason they were replaced by autotrains, as they didn't take kindly to hauling trailers. There was one South Wales route which was nearly as difficult as Highworth, though also longer, and for that an SRM with a 6-wheel bogie was acquired by the Port Talbot Railway, but that didn't last very long and ended up in London docks, where the gradients can't have been too challenging.
Re: issues with Highworth. My computer is not bad but not state of the art. I have not had any crashes but have lowered the MSTS settings, and an odd effect is that the tops of the timber bridges disappear. I am still experimenting with the highest settings I can get away with for this route. Highworth doesn't seem to be as demanding as some other routes I have installed, though I have yet to explore Swindon. I haven't had the sudden complete freezes I have sometimes had with other routes. Mind you they often seem to happen on entering tunnels, which Highworth does not have.
Jonathan David

[douglee]

Hi Martin,

How is the route stability for people, by the way? Any crashes, any weird glitches? Anything going wrong? Any rolling stock that is hard to couple to/uncouple from? Feedback on these issues is always welcome though I'm not sure we can do much to fix things that are not rolling-stock related.

Absolutely no problems with stability crashes ect.
Coupling suffers from the usual speed related re-coupling when pulling away from uncoupled wagons.
Not really a problem, simply creep away at around 2mph or less.

Only progressed as far as the start of Act. 11 1912 Early Morning Mixed Train.

Frame rates around 7 to 10 in Swindon. MSTS Settings Maxed out. MSTSBin 1.8.0521.....

System:
Microsoft Windows XP
Home Edition
Version 2002
Service Pack 3

Intel(R)
Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz
2.99 GHz, 1.50 GB of RAM

Good luck
Doug

[johny]

One minor issue, is that the fixed distant signals are not displaying a red lamp, although the yellow approach does show in the track monitor. This occurs in both a non-MSTSBin and MSTSBin version, so would not appear to be related in any way to the "too many lights syndrome". As originally supplied these signals did show a light, I still have the "piccies" of all the signals installed, although they were the post-1923 versions.

If I were building fixed distants, today, the lamp would permanently show the appropriate colour without using the sigcfgdat and sigscr.dat files. Even the lamps of operating signals can be made to display without recourse to the sigcfg.dat file, although the two files are still required to make the arms move.

John

[systema]

I'm having trouble running in Winter Clear and autumn and spring snow environments. That is the sim won't start up in these in explore mode except at Highworth, but going towards Swindon it freezes at Stanton.

Mick Clarke
MEP

[saddletank]

Hi John

Thanks for your observations and help. The signalling actually went wrong on the route years ago and you and I discussed it at length but we could not work out what was causing it so some signals are faulty. How to fix them? No idea. I'm not an MSTS signalling expert. You are and if I recall correctly even you couldn't work out what was wrong.

@ Mick - have you got any environment/sky packs installed such as from "How in the World?"