Coal consumption

[gotopcs]

I've been trying the KGX to York route on Trainz 2010 using Mallard, a V2 and Flying Scotsman. All are showing very high coal consumption. Bear in mind that 9T of coal in an A4 scheduled at 50+mph should last to Edinburgh!
I tried running at about 60mph to York but ran out of coal before Doncaster. Normally I drive with full regulator and about 20-25% cutoff. The amount of water consumed seemed very small (about 5000 litres). I've tried running with a lower firebox fill (70%) but that made little difference.
Another thing which concerns me is "brewing up" time which I've seen quoted at 15 mins elsewhere. When starting the game, the A4 sits at 126psi. Normal operating pressure for an A4 is 220-250psi. So, I hit the "O" key to stop the injector and hit the "N" key to get the blower going. I timed it yesterday as 1hr 26mins to get up to 246psi, and it cost over 1 ton of coal.

Am I being stupid, or is there something wildly wrong here?
All hints and tips greatly appreciated.

 

[AndrewH]

You mention that your problem as being in TS2010 but your post shows Trainz alongside your name. Have you registered your copy of 2010?

 

[gotopcs]

You mention that your problem as being in TS2010 but your post shows Trainz alongside your name. Have you registered your copy of 2010?

I couldn't remember, so I went to MyTrainz and my 2006? and 2009 serials are registered there. 2010 seemed to appear with downloading upgrades as far as build 44653.

On a separate tack, I would find it really good if there was some way of indicating how much blower is in use.

 

[AndrewH]

Concerning your point on knowing how much the blower is on you are limited to counting the times you hit N or Shift N unless you are inside the cab where there is a visible indication from the position of the Blower Valve Control.

I am not conversant with the Gresley locos in TS2010 but I can confirm realistic coal and water consumptions operating Paulhobbs's LMS engines in TS2012. For example a 7F O-8-0 with 593t behind the tender over a mostly uphill journey of 32 miles with a 1% ruling gradient consumed 4635lb of coal in a journey time of 91 minutes. This equates to 145lb/ mile or 3000lb/hr. Water consumption was 1200 imp galls or 37.5 galls/mile.

The 7F started fairly close to max. boiler pressure and the blower was never required. Coal in the firebox was kept close to 100%. Full regulator was used almost throughout and cutoff was mostly 30 to 40%. Each depression of the Space Bar delivers 34lb of coal into the firebox so I limited the firing rate to once every 40 seconds. That is similar to the rate of 3000lb/hr previously mentioned which is about the limit for continuous hand firing. Excessive firing rates would lead to super performance but also excessive coal consumption.

 

[gotopcs]

Andrew,
Thankyou for your advice. I'll do some more accurate consumption figures next time that I get a chance and post these. I'll also try to find the blower valve!

 

[edh6]

What versions of these locos are you using? If they are the old ones from the early versions of Trainz you are unlikely to get realistic consumption as the steam physics engine was overhauled for TC3. This means a different espec is required for versions after this to get realistic performance.

 

[gotopcs]

Ha! Now you may have it! The engine specs are old (2009 or earlier). However, I've done a bit of logging and have come up with some figures for the Mallard model between KGX and Huntington.
1. It took 50 minutes to get from 125psi to 209psi prior to departure using 496lb coal and 3 notches of blower.
2. During the journey (Mallard towing 399T) the average speed was close to 60mph. This consumed 2821lb coal and 2152ltrs water. This equates to roughly 3327lb coal/hour and 54lb coal/mile.
The biggest goof was Ctrl rt click on the tender which showed 9000 coal and 22500 water. water was metric of course, but coal (I assumed) would be the same seeing as the capacity of the tender is supposed to be 9T, but was in fact 9000lb of coal, i.e. less than half full!
I guess I'll have to try downloading more up-to-date engine models and try again.

 

[Bill69]

You will probably never get the amount of coal and water used to equal the amount subtracted from the tender load, they just don't equate.

Also the amount used can be changed in the engine spec by changing the burn rate tag for coal and the boiler efficency tags for water.

Note: I do know "efficency" is spelt wrong, but that is how it is in e-psecs.

Every thing in Trainz is in metric units, the water will be litres but not sure whether the coal is in Kg or Trainz units.

Cheers,
Bill69

 

[p-dehnert]

Bulk (like coal) and liquid loads are both measured in liters.

Peter