Cylinder Cocks - Manual vs. Automatic

[PortLineParker]

Hi all,

Welcome back to the forums, good to see everyone posting again and talking all things Trainz!

Just a quick one, I wondered if anyone had any insight into this - some models use manual cylinder cocks, much like the real thing, wherein the driver has to manually open them and close them. Other models (I've found these tend to be older models but not exclusively) I have seen have 'automatic' cocks, that is where they open below a certain speed, say 0-7mph. While this is fine, I prefer the manual method as it allows for more realistic operation and, on routes where slow speed is required, you end up driving along with the cocks open the entire journey.

It also means that, with some locos even when stopped, steam is being expelled from the cocks; even when the reverser is in neutral so the cocks are always open and expelling steam! On most of the models I've seen this doesn't occur with the manually operated cocks and steam is only expelled when in motion.

My question is, is there something in the config that can be changed to enable manual operation or is it hard scripted into the loco itself and would need the author to change? I'm hoping I can change some of them across but I don't know if it's possible for the end user to do.

Hopefully that all makes sense, but I tend to ramble and lose my point sometimes so if you need me to clarify let me know!

Cheers,

PLP

 

[ZecMurphy]

Hi PortLineParker
To make the drain cocks manually operated, you will need to use attachment points named 'a.drain#' (where # is a number starting at 0).

As to when the steam effects themselves operate, even with the manual operation, this depends on the configuration in the 'smoke' containers for those effects. They could be configured to always produce steam, or they could be configured to be speed dependent.

To change an existing loco, you could make a new mesh (such as with attachment maker) to add the 'a.drain#' attachments. You then remove the smoke container entries for the old drain effects, and add in new entries for your preferred configuration.

Hope this helps
Regards

 

[PortLineParker]

Hi Zec, thanks for your reply. Good to hear there's a solution, I'll have a play around with some of them and see what I can come up with!

Cheers,

PLP

 

[johnarran]

Hi Zec, thanks for your reply. Good to hear there's a solution, I'll have a play around with some of them and see what I can come up with!

Cheers,

PLP

Very interesting. I have wondered about this for a long time. PLP, please keep us informed if you make any headway on this.

Regards

John