Atomic Systems

Hi

anyone know how fast the King Class can go? I can only get her up to 50mph? Seems a bit slow, especially as http://www.greatwestern.org.uk/m_in_kin.htm claims one managed 67-70mph?

I am trying now on the TestTrak, but still only 48mph. I have tried my two usual steam driving methods - full regulator and bringing down the reverser and also the bringing down the reverse and regulator, neither of which gets me past 50

I have had 35% reverser and full regulator and it won't go past ~50mph

*This is with a rake of 9 coaches

I've managed about 57 mph with I think 7 Centenary coaches on the slight down grade between Didcot and Reading. I seem to remember reading that these carriages are pretty heavy so that could also be a limiting factor

Well,we did 8Xmph with 6024 on a railtour last month so in reality you should be able to go much faster! That was with load 12.

Under normal circumstances a King should really run at 75mph on heavy trains for mile after mile. (on the modern railway)

How heavy ARE those carriages? I have a empty King Class on TestTrack at 77.4mph - 27mph off what you can do with Centenery Coaches...

Which coaches? No idea about the Coronation ones but a standard Mk2 I think is about 33 tons? A kitchen ways a bit more,I think overall train weight on most railtours is 400-500 tons.

These are the Centenery coaches which came with the King Class...

I will test now with some basic Mk I coaches now...

Bear in mind the speed you mentioned of 67-70mph was an average with a trailing load of 800 tons! A king should lift 500 tons to 75mph with relative ease.Of course the Castle's were better known for high speeds in service as the kings were left to the heaviest trains.

almark wrote:Well,we did 8Xmph with 6024 on a railtour last month so in reality you should be able to go much faster! That was with load 12.

Tut tut tut, breaking the speed limit were we .

cilldroichid wrote:

almark wrote:Well,we did 8Xmph with 6024 on a railtour last month so in reality you should be able to go much faster! That was with load 12.

Tut tut tut, breaking the speed limit were we .

Oh,I put 8. I meant to put 7

Top speed I can get is 60 mph on level track with 10 Centenaries in tow and 70 mph with 10 DT Mark 1's. I think this is about right for the King class. You will note that the site to which your link refers states that in 1953 King Edward VIII when hauling 796 tons maintained 67-70 miles per hour on easier than level track.

Note carefully the remark 'on easier than level track' which I assume means downhill! It seems there were later improvements but I would expect these to be of a modest nature.

Mark

Hmm OK I get 60mph with 9 Mk Is

Ahh I see that remark, must be downhill

RSC King seems to be bit odd steamer. On the first Ox-Pad scenario from Paddington to Oxford i had really difficult to get her up to speed. Waterlevel didn't seem to change much, i think it dropped at 0.9 at most (BIG boiler?) and fire mass was also bit stable. Obviously, i run out of steam pretty fast, steam generation WAY below use, even how low i went with reverser. Quick check revealed that dampers were closed so i opened them, but they didn't help much. It was pretty much 50-60mph most of the journy. Spent maybe 800lbs of coal but didn't observed water usage. It took ages to fill the boiler from 0.9 to 1.0 even with both incjectors. Also, the brake would only go down 10 but not release, only with use of vacuum injector, prototypical?

The other King how ever...well, she went up to speed easily and was fairly easy to keep happy, shame that i had 60mph+ when i met som points that forced me to loop and...well, you can imagine the rest

I managed to get the FREEWARE King up to 85mph on level ground with 12x Mk1s in tow. It does use up water rather quick though - 1 hour and 20 minutes to empty the tender if you work it hard! That's Carlisle to Carstairs on WCML-N.

I bought this yesterday so have given it a go.

On the Cornish Riviera scenario which is on 10 Centenary coaches, I could only manage 66mph on basically level track after Reading. I would have thought you could get to around 80mph in real life?

Just been from BTM to Weston, in the king managed 73mph, thats with autofireman off, as I find that the autofireman can do his job properly