Scenario LA Excursion - Challenger Steam Locomotive, Help

[orangzeb]

I think I suck on driving steam locos , anyone tried this scenario ? if you try this with autofireman then within few minutes game says "locomotive ran out of water" and if I try it with manual fireman no matter how hard I try I cannot maintain Boiler Water Level and Boiler Pressure, I always loose

Boiler water Level

even if I completely close regulator , decrease reverser or open live steam or any other injector, the level doesn't go up at any cost, Oh my God HELP ME

[transadelaide]

Can you tell me exactly what point (perhaps with a mention of the next destination and the miles remaining) that it runs out of water?
I'm driving it right now and I've just gone on 35 miles without a problem while using the auto fireman, with a number of full injector cycles from 0.70 to 0.90 done successfully. The main thing is to keep your steam production down to below 70,000 so that you're turning water into steam at a slower rate than your injecting water into the boiler, hence allowing the water level to build up rather than dropping further.

A bit of a sneaky exploit I found out (having plenty of time to try it out on what is a quite boring scenario) is that pushing the regulator up and the reverser down gets you better performance and economy, because the F7s behind you follow your regulator percentage only. I was cruising on 76% regulator (notch 6 for a diesel) and 29% reverser (true value on the HUD) for most of the 35 miles I drove.


I have a hunch that the real problem is actually a core coding problem to do with controls rather than a content issue. I found that I lost keyboard control of the reverser right at the start and had to use the mouse control on the HUD. My theory is that the new TS2012 simulation of multiple powered vehicles in a consist is being confused by a steam/diesel combination, and that you might be getting stuck on 100% reverser.
Based on this theory, I believe that if I clone the scenario and edit it so the diesels are dead in consist (like a UK railtour would run with it/them just providing electrical supply) or removed completely the loss of reverser control will no longer be an issue. Unless somebody else tries this first I'll do it late tonight, but a warm and sunny summer day and tickets to the Australia vs India one day cricket rank as a much higher priority between now and then

[Kariban]

This might also be double-heading steam issue ( the Challenger is a two engines ) which was meant to be fixed in the patch from two days ago? which version of RW are you currently using?

[orangzeb]

Thanks for replies, i'm on latest 10.9a update, I tried 2 approaches thus far.

1. Keep the throttle to 100% and reverser to 25%
2. Keep the throttle to 35% and reverser to 30%

doesn't matter if I keep the dampers on or off, doesn't matter if I keep the injectors on or off I always loose boiler level from time to time, as you know this is a very long scenario so you need to refill boiler level from time to time, I will try this again on autofireman using your suggested settings and let you know. Thanks.

edit : yeah I know about the reverser control issue ,

hey you like cricket too, I always support Austrailian Cricket team even though i'm from PK

[orangzeb]

yup using autofireman I was able to reach frost low tracks and still have 0.73 boiler level , my throttle was mostly on 60%, and reverser was always on 17%, Thanks

[orangzeb]

my next objective is go via summit track 1 but my max speed is now 2.0 with full throttle... 1.5% upward gradient, what the heck?

[transadelaide]

my next objective is go via summit track 1 but my max speed is now 2.0 with full throttle... 1.5% upward gradient, what the heck?

The reverser (also called "cutoff") is like the inverse of the gearbox in your car. A higher setting gives you more tractive effort (like shifting into a lower gear when driving uphill on the road) while a lower setting gives you less tractive effort and better economy (like cruising in 5th gear).

If you're still running on 17% then it's probably the case that not

You may also need to check what 17% you're referring to. The value shown on the HUD is the true value from -75% to +75% (because a real reverser is not capable of 100%) while the value shown in the F5 data display is as a fraction of that range. 17% on the F5 data is a real value of 13%. Either way, whether the real reverser position is 17% or 13% you're not getting enough effort down, it's like trying to drive up a 10% gradient in fifth gear, so move the reverser forward and don't be afraid to use some steam.