[Lindsayts]

For various reasons I have the Otten Heisler Tender set up with a dummy eng file, the loco itself dimensioned to produce all the TE. For some reason using the latest build of OR the tender is producing large anounts of TE. The TE geneated by the loco appears to be correct and the tender will correctly slip when its TE gets to high.

Now I used a dummy eng file, the engine section of which is given below, as with a wagon file the side rods would not animate correctly. The tenders eng file below.....

Engine ( Otten_Tender
        comment( Heisler 80-12-38 Ashes tender )
        Wagon ( Otten_Tender )
        Type ( Steam )
        MaxPower ( 1kW )
        MaxForce ( 1lbf )
        MaxVelocity ( 15mph )
        IsTenderRequired( -1 )
        WheelRadius ( 0.475m )
        Sanding ( 1e9mph )
        NumWheels ( 2 )
        Name ( "Otten Lumber Heisler tender" )
        Description ("By Okrasa Ghia\n (okrasaghia@yahoo.com)")


)

Could it be in the absence of parameters from the engine section OR is assuming (ie having a guess) at what should be there. In the engines eng file the new gearing parameters are being used.

Lindsay

[copperpen]

In a word, yes. If parameters are missing OR will take a guess at what they should be. However, there is no need to make it an eng file, it works with animation as a tender, but does need a tweak to the animation speed, either within the s file, or change the wheel radius in the wag file.

[Lindsayts]

copperpen, on 29 November 2014 - 03:34 AM, said:

In a word, yes. If parameters are missing OR will take a guess at what they should be. However, there is no need to make it an eng file, it works with animation as a tender, but does need a tweak to the animation speed, either within the s file, or change the wheel radius in the wag file.

I will give the tender wag file another go, last time I tried it (a long time ago) changing the wheel radius did not effect anything.

Lindsay

[copperpen]

Been fiddling with it today since my previous post, and I agree, the wheel radius does zilch. I have decompressed the s file and changed the animation, currently at 36 90 which is visually almost the same as the main engine. I will do some more tweaking tomorrow.

[Lindsayts]

copperpen, on 29 November 2014 - 10:15 AM, said:

Been fiddling with it today since my previous post, and I agree, the wheel radius does zilch. I have decompressed the s file and changed the animation, currently at 36 90 which is visually almost the same as the main engine. I will do some more tweaking tomorrow.

Be interesting to hear what one finds, tried the wag tender just now same as before the animation of the wheel rotation is very slow and radius has no effect. The 80 ton heisler though performs very well had not the slightest difficulty pulling a 300 ton trailing load up a 1 in 25, a load well within the capability of the real machine.

Lindsay

[steamer_ctn]

This locomotive has an interesting physics setup with 3 ENG files (locomotive + each bogie).

To the best of my knowledge, neither OR or MSTS easily supported articulated locomotives.

With the new OR code for gearing, I would suggest that this locomotive be combined into a single unit for use in OR (if possible by the original modeller).

In terms of the animation, the steam code does not directly impact the animation rate of the wheels. I suspect that it is somehow related to the locomotive speed.

I will be interested to see the final outcome for this discussion.

Cheers

[copperpen]

The Otten Lumber heisler only has two parts, engine and tender. So, only two eng files are supplied. The problem here was a technically non boilered eng file has had the missing bits added by the steam code and is producing HP where none is needed. The obvious method in this case would be construct two eng files, one with two thirds of the power and one with a third of the power.

However, as the eng has the total power in this case, the sensible way forward is to make the tender a wag with no power. Problem then is, the animation is far too slow. Following this path, I have got the engine and tender in close synch with the animation, but not exact. The tender will run the animation slower or faster than the engine depending on how the anim frames are set in the s file.

The closest I have got so far is with the engine anim set at 9 29, the tender anim at 9 87 and the engine wheel radius set to 0.485m. With further tuning of the wheel radius it should be possible to get both units in perfect synch.

[Lindsayts]

steamer_ctn, on 30 November 2014 - 01:33 AM, said:

This locomotive has an interesting physics setup with 3 ENG files (locomotive + each bogie).

To the best of my knowledge, neither OR or MSTS easily supported articulated locomotives.

With the new OR code for gearing, I would suggest that this locomotive be combined into a single unit for use in OR (if possible by the original modeller).

In terms of the animation, the steam code does not directly impact the animation rate of the wheels. I suspect that it is somehow related to the locomotive speed.

I will be interested to see the final outcome for this discussion.

Cheers

You only require a single eng file for the loco, as there is only a single engine. OR success uses the whole weight on both bogies correctly. The big problem using an eng file for the tender is two sets of exhuast beats. That REALLY does not sound right for single eng articulateds.

Lindsay

[steamer_ctn]

copperpen, on 30 November 2014 - 03:46 AM, said:

The Otten Lumber heisler only has two parts, engine and tender. So, only two eng files are supplied.

Oops, you are correct, I had the incorrect locomotive. I now have the correct one.

copperpen, on 30 November 2014 - 03:46 AM, said:

The problem here was a technically non boilered eng file has had the missing bits added by the steam code and is producing HP where none is needed.

I suspect that it is a parameter initialisation issue. As most of the parameters are missing from the file, when OR goes to do calculations, it uses whatever is in the memory at that time and location. It is not good practice to use a "blank file" or partially blank ENG file.

copperpen, on 30 November 2014 - 03:46 AM, said:

However, as the eng has the total power in this case, the sensible way forward is to make the tender a wag with no power. Problem then is, the animation is far too slow.

I agree that this is the best way to configure the locomotive.

Cheers

[steamer_ctn]

copperpen, on 30 November 2014 - 03:46 AM, said:

However, as the eng has the total power in this case, the sensible way forward is to make the tender a wag with no power. Problem then is, the animation is far too slow. Following this path, I have got the engine and tender in close synch with the animation, but not exact. The tender will run the animation slower or faster than the engine depending on how the anim frames are set in the s file.

The closest I have got so far is with the engine anim set at 9 29, the tender anim at 9 87 and the engine wheel radius set to 0.485m. With further tuning of the wheel radius it should be possible to get both units in perfect synch.

I have added the Heisler as an example to my test site.

It performs reasonably well physically by hauling the correct load up a gradient, however as described, the animation between the tender and the loco is a bit out. I have also noticed that the advanced adhesion needs to be turned off, as this is better suited to diesels.