Performance data for UP FEF-3s

[Pendolino]

I need some help from our fellow U.S. Trainzers. I finally figured - with the invaluable help of Billegulla's spreadsheets - how to make decent enginespecs for TS2010 steam locomotives, so I should be able to update all our steam engines to TS2010/TS12 standards.

I decided to start with the FEFs and so far it runs smoothlessy, but during the test runs with ten coaches (UP Pullmans by mcguirel) the maximum constant speed I managed to reach is 72 MPH (with steady boiler pressure at 294-295 PSI and 75% water level).

I have spent many hours on the Internet, but so far I have been unable to find much hard data about the performance of these magnificent machines. I would like to find some data about their real hauling capabilities, something like "X cars at Y MPH".

I only found a reference, repeated on several sites, stating that FEFs were capable of hauling 26 passenger cars at 100 MPH. The type of cars, heavyweights or lighweight streamliners, is not specified, but it looks anyway a very high figure for a locomotive rated at 4,500 HP.

Is there anybody who can provide me with the data I need to make a realistic enginespec for the UP 844 and 836?

Thanks in advance!

 

[RPearson]

One thing to check since TC3 or TS09 is the maxspeed tag value in the enginespec. This used to have no effect on steam or diesel locos in cab mode but it's not true anymore for steam locos. The game restricts steam locos in cab mode to 110% of the tag value. I consider it a new bug but probably done intentionaly. So check that this isn't restricting the max speed you're getting with the espec from Bill's spreadsheet.

If absolutely necessary I would have preferred to have a new tag do this rather than reuse the one the dcc and AI use. Diesels are not effected by it and I don't see why steam locos should be - but we're stuck with what Auran/N3V give us.

I can't comment now about the locos performance as I don't have any actual data on it but I do have a program that can estimate it both in real world conditions and in Trainz. If you come up short I could make a stab at it.

Normally that's the approach I take - use the program to determine the real life performance of the steam loco and set up the espec to generally try and match it.

Bob Pearson