Microsoft Train Simulator Steam Series
Part II

FastCounter by bCentral

By Chris Lee

---

    I hope you have enjoyed reading part I, if you haven't looked at it you can find it here.

        Steam Series part I

     So lets start Part II,

    Well, in Pt I we learned about how the steam is made in the locomotive, where the steam went and how the locomotive was run. We also learned about what the worst thing you can do when running a steam locomotive which is not having enough water in the boiler. The things that we are going to talk about right now are the accessories that come on the steam locos, I'll talk about the ones in Train simulator first and then move on to the stuff that they don't have modeled in the game, you basically need to use all this stuff and the right combination to get the loco to release its max output.
    The Firebox (f to open, Shift+f to close)
        This is the place where the coal is thrown in, its like the name says, a large box. Under it is a grate and an ash pan were the burned ash from the coal goes (not modeled in Train Simulator). Before starting the day you would clean the ash pan and fill the tender with coal and water. As for running the loco in Train Simulator, the firebox needs to be open 100 % in order to shovel coal in the game. It is always good to have it open because it supplies a lot of air to the fire, which makes the coal burn more efficiently. Don't keep the firebox open in the tunnel or you will get a fatal blow back and your day will come to an end.
    Shovel Coal(r to start, Shift+R to turn off)
        This is the part that puts the coal into the firebox. The more coal that you put in, the larger the fire mass will be. Now for each engine there is a ideal fire Mass as stated in the ENG file, this is the mass of the fire where the loco makes the most amount of steam(Note- the Water level will have to be at One for this to occur). You want to keep the fire mass around that number because that's when you will make the most steam, don't put to much coal in the fire at once because it will sharply drop the fire temperature. The ideal shoving job would be when you are around the ideal fire mass, with a fire temperature of 1000 and you can adjust the shoveling rate in small increments. A note about the percentages you see in the HUD when shoveling, these percentages have to do with how much coal is thrown into the fire at once. It is stated in the  ENG file how much is thrown in with one shovel, if it was 10LBS and you had the shovel rate to 100 % then it would throw 10 LBS of coal in every shovel, I figure that the time for each shovel is about 5 seconds so plan accordingly. Note- there is a large error that occurs in Train Simulator that I have come across, when shoveling at more than 20% for more than a few seconds Train Simulator starts to throw large amounts of coal in at once and it sharply drops the fire temperature but greatly increases the fire mass, be aware of this when firing.
    Blower(N,Shift+n)
        This is yet another way to supply air to the fire, although it is not as good as having the firebox doors open. You want to keep this on when stopped and when going through a tunnel because the fire needs the most air then and because the firebox isn't really helping at those times. Its your preference to keep it on when running but the more air the better the fire will burn, the coal will burn more efficiently and the temperature will rise faster.
    Dampers(m,Shift+m)
        This is another way to get air to the fire, there are usually more than one damper on a loco but only one is modeled in Train Simulator. You should always keep this open at 100 %.
    Cylinder Cocks (C to toggle on and off)
        I talked about these in part I but will go over them again. These allow water that has made its way to the cylinder to drain out, you want to keep these on when coming to a stop, when sitting somewhere and also when just starting up. You should close these after the first few or last few rotations of the wheels, not only does it let water drain out but it also lets steam get out of the cylinders, when the cylinder cocks are opened it causes a drop of about 25 PSI in the cylinders. You should also open these when the last line on the HUD which is priming says more that 0%. You might also have to reduce the throttle when that happens to, the cylinder cocks don't always cure the problem fully.
    The Injectors(I and O to turn on, Shift+i and o to turn off)
        These might be the most important accessory on the steam locomotive. The injectors do what the name says, they inject water into the boiler, only two are modeled in Train Simulator but a locomotive can have more. The injectors are either turned on fully(I and O) or off fully(shift+i and shift+o) however  the amount of water injected can be controlled by K and L and turned off by Shift K and Shift L. You always want to have a good amount of water in the boiler but not too much because too much causes priming. You want to keep the what level on steady ground between .85 and 1.1. The ideal level would be 1 and that's the right amount of water in the boiler. When running most main line locos such as the Empire State Express  would keep one injector on at all times, you would just regulate the flow with K or L(speaking in MSTS terms). You would use the other injector only when needed, this is your preference though, which ever way that you like it is the way that you should do it. There are two different types of injectors modeled in Train Simulator, they are live steam and exhaust injectors. The live steam injector is powered with regular(live) steam like steam that is going to the cylinders, this one is not as efficient because it is using live steam and is taking it away from the cylinders and is taking away steam that could be used to power the locomotive.  The exhaust injector is  powered by exhaust steam which is steam that has been used already, the exhaust injector is much more efficient because it uses steam that has already been used and doesn't take away steam that could power the locos
    Small Ejector/Compressor (toggle on and Off with J)
        This is just another accessory on the steam loco, this is many used for pumping up the air on the train line so that it will apply and release, you should keep this on to recharge the train line faster.
    Water Scoop (y)
        This is another way to pick up water, it doesn't even make the train stop. You just lower this down into the water trough and it will pick up water manually, there is only one water trough however and it is on the Settle & Carlisle route . You can't go too slow or too fast because then it won't pick up enough water and don't try to lower it at the wrong time or you will break it and the mechanical people will send you a nice fat bill.
    Reverser(cutoff) (raise with W and lower with S)
        This is a very important way of controlling steam locomotives. It monitors how much piston stoke there is, .75 which is the most on most of the locos. You can use .65 to .75 when starting the train, the higher the reverser number the less efficient the engine and the more steam is wasted. Once you get up to around 20 MPH you should cut back the reverser to about 50 and then for about every 7-8 mph you should cut it back 5 notches. The key is that as you gain speed you want the loco to become more efficient and use less steam so you can just coast along, when going up or down a grade you should work the reveser to keep your speed and keep the throttle at a constant level.
    Throttle(regulator) (Add more with D, less with A)
        This is another important item as you are starting a train but not so much when you are coasting. When starting out you should open this to about 25 % to stretch the train out and then, once you get movement you can open it up more until you have it maxed out. You will probably have to add some Sand as the some locos are very slippery, you can also stop the slipping by backing down the throttle. The idea is not to add to much throttle at one time to make the locomotive slip, you want to apply it in small increments so you have a nice smooth start and ride.  Once up to a speed you want to coast so you should have the reveser at around 10 and the throttle  at around 5 %. You can then control your speed with the reverser, when going up some bumps you should add some reverser by pushing it up to 25 maybe but when going down hills you should have the reverser at 0.