I am building (have now built, pretty much) a 1921 Mack railbus for Trainz. I am now at the point of creating the cab details - and certain questions arise.
My working drawings include a layout of the controls, which include throttle, spark advance, reverser, and service brake (handle). The large "steering wheel" in the middle is, of course, the hand brake. I'm assuming this works pretty much like a Model T, which means the throttle lever (one side of the hand brake column) and spark (lever on the other side) start out all the way back and move forward (not synchronously) to accelerate.
The reversing lever is fortunate - that feature can be treated like a diesel (the Model T had a reversing *pedal*). Motion of the throttle and spark levers, though, is tricky: if it's like a Model T (from brief research) you put the spark where the motor ran smoothest for the present throttle, speed, grade, etc., not necessarily at once but when you had time to mess with it. It was only fully retarded when cranking (this prototype appears to lack a crank, might even have had an automatic starter!!) but I'd like to do at least a little something for this effect.
So... is there any way to have *two* throttle levers (one of which will actually be the spark advance) which move at different rates and in opposite directions? I can, of course, try simply having two in the config file, pointed at different meshes. Does this make sense, for those who have driven early Mack trucks?
Finally, the driver's station has three pull-down curtains, presumably to cut down on glare at night, avoid distractions, and give the passengers a little privacy. How should these be handled? They should be down at night, I'd think, and on long stretches between stations... any Greyhound drivers in the audience? They could be made to respond to the pantograph controls, since the prototype has no windshield wipers.
My working drawings include a layout of the controls, which include throttle, spark advance, reverser, and service brake (handle). The large "steering wheel" in the middle is, of course, the hand brake. I'm assuming this works pretty much like a Model T, which means the throttle lever (one side of the hand brake column) and spark (lever on the other side) start out all the way back and move forward (not synchronously) to accelerate.
The reversing lever is fortunate - that feature can be treated like a diesel (the Model T had a reversing *pedal*). Motion of the throttle and spark levers, though, is tricky: if it's like a Model T (from brief research) you put the spark where the motor ran smoothest for the present throttle, speed, grade, etc., not necessarily at once but when you had time to mess with it. It was only fully retarded when cranking (this prototype appears to lack a crank, might even have had an automatic starter!!) but I'd like to do at least a little something for this effect.
So... is there any way to have *two* throttle levers (one of which will actually be the spark advance) which move at different rates and in opposite directions? I can, of course, try simply having two in the config file, pointed at different meshes. Does this make sense, for those who have driven early Mack trucks?
Finally, the driver's station has three pull-down curtains, presumably to cut down on glare at night, avoid distractions, and give the passengers a little privacy. How should these be handled? They should be down at night, I'd think, and on long stretches between stations... any Greyhound drivers in the audience? They could be made to respond to the pantograph controls, since the prototype has no windshield wipers.