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Coonskin, on 06 December 2014 - 07:22 AM, said:
Back when Bill Hobbs and myself were delving deeply into the way MSTS handled steam physics, we were both surprised at how close one could get to simulated performance using KNOWN values of prototype locomotives. Bill even developed a program in which prototype values could be entered, and the program would then calculate what values needed to be inserted into the MSTS eng file for the engine being replicated. Doing so resulted in the simulated model of an actual locomotive performing very closely to the known abilities of the prototype. Agreed: Not all MSTS eng files go to this extent and some are atrocious, but I feel it is a mistake to attribute such a bad performing eng file to a so-called "lack" of the MSTS steam physics abilities. OR will do well to even get CLOSE to what MSTS is capable of in the capable hands of a steam eng file guru.
I want to acknowledge the great work that has been done in getting some locomotives to very closely simulate real life locomoitivesl in MSTS, and as such I agree that MSTS could provide a good simulation of the locomotive in question.
The reason that I was suggesting that MSTS should not be used as the benchmark, was more around your last comment about the accuracy of MSTS ENG files. This is were it could be misleading to use the performance in MSTS as the "reality check". However unless one is confident that the ENG file has been well set up, I still believe that MSTS should not be used as the yardstick for locomotive performance.
Coonskin, on 06 December 2014 - 07:22 AM, said:
That's all well and good IF one has access to an operable example of said engine. It is often rare for such basic things as tonnage ratings on a given grade to be known/published on an engine, more so the older the prototype engine was. Therefore, the calculating theory of the OR steam physics will need to be able to extrapolate from known data to produce an acceptably realistic result, such as was the case with MSTS.
I agree that this type of info is difficult to find, but regardless of whether it is MSTS or OR, this info still needs to be found or extrapolated or guessed to achieve the best outcome.However the basics usually are available, and my understanding in regard to the spreadsheets was that they used basic input info and extrapolated the rest to achieve an optimal simulation. OR uses a similar principle.
