[SP 0-6-0]

Things I would like to see in this new year for ORTS.

GE diesels flaming at the exhaust because of mechanical and electronic issues. My link

These events are not limited to GE diesels as EMD locomotives are known to have a similar pyrotechnic display under the right circumstances. As do Alco and most early first generation diesels.

For Flaming GE diesels and EMD, Alco.

Flames needs to be coded to work with the engine files and locomotive physics. The fire only happens if certain events take place within the locomotive. These being specific issues with the turbo charger, fuel system, and locomotive computer control system.

For it to work correctly would mean special coding so it can happen when an engine is simulating heavy pulling whether at low speed or track speed while having engine malfunctions or when being started up from dead cold.

English Electric Diesels- The usual starting on just one cylinder and breathing heavy whitish/gray exhaust which is a mix of unburned diesel vapors and engine exhaust gradually clearing as the engine cylinders warm up and begin normal firing.

My link 2

My link 3

My link 4

My link 5

Robert

[railguy]

While the exhaust behavior in OR is much superior to that in MSTS, the exhaust coding in OR still is not optimum. Until all that is addressed, "flaming at the stack" really can't be modeled very well. It should be noted that flaming at the stack is not exactly normal behavior in a prototypical diesel. It was very common in the early electronically fuel injected GE FDL prime movers until they got the programming right and then became much less frequent since then. It's almost non-existent in the GEVO prime movers, unless they are suffering a turbo failure. Similarly, flaming at the stack in a 645 or 710 2-cycle EMD is usually a sign of a blown turbo or severely leaking seals in the turbo. Typically EMD prime movers that flame at the stack aren't going to be running very long. Older GE's and Alcos usually flamed at the stack due to overfueling (from various causes) and/or turbo lag. So, it becomes a fair question as to whether the OR team should expend programming resources to emulate prototype behavior that, while somewhat common at different times, was usually abnormal prime mover behavior.

[ATW]

I say Developers have a challenge to make this flaming a possible trigger not just by engine temperatures as that's not the first key but if Power exceeds 105%. I have seen my units smoke all of a sudden give a thick plume of smoke in ORTS when 105% of HP was exceeded.

Ask me how? Well because I had poor parameters an opened throttle too fast instead of waiting for RPM to grow to a stand still an had over powered traction curves at certain speeds.

[SP 0-6-0]

If ORTS can simulate a blown traction motor than why not engine or main generator failures.

After all, The potential for some challenging activities is quite intriguing.

Robert

[Lindsayts]

Remember currently there is only a small handfull of developers for Openrails and the list of items people would like to see stretch for miles and anything that needs to be done MUST be in the interest and expertise of one of the current developers, this limits what can be done in the near to medium future. To research and start work on something outside your expertise takes forever. To get a proper handle how to do a an accurate world model, an area of geoscience and cartography, an area I had almost NO idea in took me nearly 12 months. So take care when applying any kind of pressure on the developers.

Lindsay

[SP 0-6-0]

Hi Lindsay, I understand what you are saying.

I would personally much rather have the working Transfer Tables. But, The expert who coded the turntable claims to have gotten his ideas from MSTS fragments for which there are none for how to do transfer tables in the Tsection.dat.

Robert

[Mike B]

Turbo 4-cycle diesels have always had smoke problems before the turbo spools up. The turbo is needed to provide enough air for complete combustion - too much fuel before it's on line produces smoke - lots of it. The true "honorary steam locomotive" towers of black smoke from Alcos, if you check the pictures carefully, were usually at startup from a stop or at very low speeds under heavy load - somebody not following instructions calling for notching out slowly.

Happened in truck and bus diesels too. Back in mechanical days there were dashpots and other devices to slow the opening of the fuel rack when the throttle was suddenly advanced, hopefully (not always) controlling the cloud of black smoke from overrich mixture, but those also of course slow the acceleration of the engine and therefore the vehicle so they were prime candidates for removal. Non-turbo 4-cycles also could briefly smoke when the throttle was opened quickly at low speed, and would typically lay down a smoke screen when on the governor (max speed - max power - max fuel - minimum air). Somebody from Mercedes was once heard to say that if it wasn't smoking, it wasn't making all the power it could. Ah, the bad old days (for breathing).

If OR had a way to tell what model of locomotive or what kind of diesel engine is modeled, beyond basic power output and the like, it might be possible to develop a map of throttle opening v. time v. load v. engine speed and from that determine the state of the turbo. Something like that already happens (though I don't know how) when notching up - puff of blacker smoke after increasing the throttle, which then fades into the normal stream. Main complaint I have about the current situation is that the normal diesel smoke makes everything look like an Alco PA or older turbo GE regardless of engine type and how it's operated; EMD smoke (if the engine was working correctly) generally wasn't as dark due to the way the 2-cycle engine works (few situations where there's not excess air).

Edit: Just curious, but how would OR handle for a diesel (or electric) throttle with more than 8 notches? Early GE U-boats had 16-notch throttles. Simply add more %-throttle lines in the .eng file?

[Jovet]

SP 0-6-0, on 03 January 2017 - 06:52 PM, said:

But, The expert who coded the turntable claims to have gotten his ideas from MSTS fragments for which there are none for how to do transfer tables in the Tsection.dat.

It's not a false claim. MSTS itself could have had working turntables, if they had just finished the feature that they started on. Imagine stringing a cable along the Atlantic Ccean floor and then not bothering to wire a plug on the end to be able to plug it in and finish it up. That's what Kuju did with turntables (and several other features) in MSTS. Deadlines are deadlines, I guess. Most of the thinking work was already implemented.... Carlo just finished what Kuju started. Transfer tables are another beast entirely–they would be a completely new and foreign feature, akin to adding trees that grow and sway in the breeze, real airline physics, car spawner traffic that obeys road signs and speed limits, and water that doesn't look like messy carpet. Designing the cable, deciding where it's going to lay on its 6000mi/10000km journey across the ocean, figuring out how to actually get it there, and then having the final luxury of hooking it up are what is involved here. And, of course, there's "no pressure" of not messing up any of those steps, because nobody wants the feature to have to be redesigned a year or three down the road when some nuance was found to be overlooked and the existing implementations have to be thrown out and re-done.

I am sure it will happen some day. Some smart and dedicated people, including but not just limited to Carlo can get it done. But it takes time and dedication, which is in finite supply.

[Hamza97]

Alco Smoke-Fire....

https://m.youtube.co...h?v=S5rjMrCISgY