[steamer_ctn]

Hi Brandon,

 ATSF3751, on 08 September 2019 - 06:50 AM, said:

I am still willing to help you out if you would like and I am going to try and convert a few more steam locomotives to Open Rails physics for you so we can do some testing. My Milwaukee Road 261 steam locomotive is dead on when it comes to performance in Open Rails and is the most accurate locomotive I have so far when it comes to comparing it to the real locomotives performance.

Thanks for the feedback, and encouragement.

When you are ready to do another locomotive, send me an email, and let me know.

[Traindude]

 darwins, on 01 July 2019 - 05:49 AM, said:

In addition to steam particles OR should also try to model the behaviour of water particles.

This would be useful for filling tenders and for tender overflow.

At present TenderWaterOverflowFX The splashing and spilling water is behaving like steam - it is drifting upwards - very noticeable if you go over a trough slowly. This is okay for WaterScoopFX as the fine spray from this looks good like the photographs and videos. However it is not good for the more liquid water that comes out from TenderWaterOverflowFX. Overflowing water that is moving downwards needs to run or gush downwards (with some bounce or splash if it hits the ground). For faster moving trains where the water is forced out through the water filler then this needs to go up in the air and down again in a parabolic or projectile fashion like a fountain.

The same might also be used for water dripping from water hoses on water towers, or the dribble of water running from injector drains.

Roadmap link

How about the effect of water being ejected out the stack and cylinder cocks while priming? Is that something worth simulating?

[RAILROAD1942]

I have a question is there a decent violent wheelslip effect?.

[scottb613]

 RAILROAD1942, on 08 February 2022 - 08:23 PM, said:

I have a question is there a decent violent wheelslip effect?.

Hi...

While there is wheel slip - the visual effect is pretty poor. Once the drivers start to slip - they immediately go to a thousand miles per hour - like there's absolutely no resistance. The respective sounds - unrealistically do the same. I've watched many videos of real world steam locomotives slipping - and that's not how it works.

ORTS needs some mechanism to retard the driver animation once a wheel starts to slip.

We don’t have - this:
https://youtu.be/5J91kqASNO4

Regards,
Scott

[Jonatan]

Scott, I've managed to get locos to do that partial slip, it seems to depend on the power of the loco, though.



How about snifter valve steam effects? A brief puff from the valves when the regulator is opened? I've seen it on alot of locomotives, including those I work with. They can also issue steam when stationary if the throttle valve leaks as it takes some pressure to close them.

The injector overflow pipe realy only shoots steam before the injector picks up, when the water flow is too low or if water flow is interupted. You can see it here and some water pouring here. Maybe different sounds to acompany wether the injector is picking up or not could be implemented sometime?

An injector randomly failing to pick up could be a fun addition to the operation, requiring it to be restarted. It happens with lifting injectors when the tender water level is too low or if the water gets too hot.

I can record sounds from both snifters closing and injectors to use in a demo model.

[Traindude]

 Jonatan, on 27 February 2023 - 03:50 PM, said:

How about snifter valve steam effects? A brief puff from the valves when the regulator is opened? I've seen it on alot of locomotives, including those I work with. They can also issue steam when stationary if the throttle valve leaks as it takes some pressure to close them.

I agree. Especially if the cylinders are hydrostatically lubricated. The hydrostatic lubricator uses steam to push oil into the cylinders, much like how an injector pushes water into the boiler. So even if the throttle is fully closed there will be some steam coming out of the snifters (and the cylinder cocks if they're open) at all times (and also why the cylinder cocks must be opened at all times while the loco sits idle).

[darwins]

 Traindude, on 27 February 2023 - 06:00 PM, said:

I agree. Especially if the cylinders are hydrostatically lubricated. The hydrostatic lubricator uses steam to push oil into the cylinders, much like how an injector pushes water into the boiler. So even if the throttle is fully closed there will be some steam coming out of the snifters (and the cylinder cocks if they're open) at all times (and also why the cylinder cocks must be opened at all times while the loco sits idle).

This is where variation kicks in. For most (or all) locos in UK there is no steam delivered when the regulator is closed. For those superheated locos with hydrostatic lubricators the driver needed to leave the regulator cracked open to provide steam when the train was moving.When it comes to regulators, we have only the US type of regulator anyway - not the British twin port type with a pilot valve - and certainly not the MR / LMS type that worked differently for opening and closing.
Snifting valves would need to be an option of course as many locomotives did not have them - especially older design.

[Laci1959]

It would be nice if the steam effects worked on the AI locomotives as well.
On a passenger train, I can hear the compressor filling the main air tank at the front, but there is no steam effect.
The main air tank was needed for the own air horn and to release the brake.

[Traindude]

Another thing that popped into my mind about not only steam engine emitters, but diesel and rolling stock FX emitters as well. Currently, the parameters for FX emitters in ORTS assume the outlet the effect is emanating from is perfectly round, and only one "radius" parameter is given. However, this is not always the case, as the outlets for steam/smoke/exhaust/etc., can be any shape--oblong, square, or rectangular.

Obviously, here in the United States, most if not all steam locomotive smokestacks are round in overhead views, but diesel exhaust stacks/ports are usually oblong, rectangular or square. On the other hand, some steam locomotives in the UK and Europe have oblong stacks (or funnels, chimneys or whatever term you wish to use), such as the famous Giesl ejectors.

Also, an improvement to safety valve emitters: In ORTS it is possible to define multiple safety valve emitters, just like in the real world, but the problem is that, contrary to reality, they all turn on and off at the same time. In the real world each safety valve is set to go off at successively higher pressures, exemplified by 49 CFR Part 230, section 230.48, paragraph A...:

Quote

"Every boiler shall be equipped with at least two safety relief valves, suitable for the service intended, that are capable of preventing an accumulation of pressure greater than 6 percent above the MAWP (Maximum Allowable Working Pressure) under any conditions of service. An FRA inspector may require verification of sufficient safety valve relieving capacity."

...and section 230.49, paragraph B.:

Quote

"At least one safety relief valve shall be set to open at a pressure not exceeding the MAWP. Safety relief valves shall be set to open at pressures not exceeding 6 psi above the MAWP."

So finding a way to specify the number of safety valves on a locomotive, their steam usage rates, and the pressures each one is to go off at would be beneficial.

[Jonatan]

According to the expanded HUD, the safety valves are shown as multiplied by x amounts depending on boiler volume, which again is weird because their number and size is according to specification and not asumption.

Regardless, the steam consumption value will double the safety valve steam usage in steps until it's sufficient to dump enough heat (should mainly dump pressure with heat as a by-product) and then close when the pressure is back to normal. So simulation-wise the additional safety valves are already present, it's only the visual effect that's not yet been tied to this function.

In most cases on most locomotives, one safety valve opening is more than enough unless you've done something realy crazy to the fire.



Another thing that could be an interesting aspect is atleast one safety valve have a manual release, in my experience these are tested by pulling on a rod and they're sprung to close once the rod is let go. Not realy useful in operation other than emergencies where the valve fails to open on its own or pressure vent is immediately nessecery. So no real reason to add it to OR other than as a "gimick".