Hi Aidyn
There's a bit more to fully releasing R711 now. The model is, put simply, getting tired. It was a very basic repaint/edit of Bill's R class, and has multiple errors in it. It's also quite inefficient, and in general needs a lot of work before I'd be happy to actually release it. It's something on my mind, but I'd just want to bring them up to current standard (which would involve fixing issues, adding more detail, and then making it more efficient as well).
As I noted, I'm considering the A2's (probably next year, but really, who knows), and I wouldn't mind doing a new K (have much better reference material now lol). And a new J, R, S. As well as a multitude of rolling stock for various periods, and a few diesels, and various other things as well. Unfortunately, time is always going to limit just how much I do
Like Azza, I work on what I feel like/want at the time. At the moment, I want to work on a nice little tank loco (M class) to trundle along with 'suburban' style trains, along with a nice 2-8-0 compound (V class) for hauling freights. And some more DD class locos at some point lol
I've thought about the driver experience, but these days I just plan to work my way up to being qualified as a driver. Need to actually start doing engine cleaning, then work my way up to fireman (I'd be happy there TBH). At least I've got my boiler attendant qualification, that's the most important bit (apart from a 'safe working' qualification
). It's great fun to operate the stationary boiler at PBR's museum though, hard work if you need to run it 'hard', but a lot of fun!
As to whistle, this can be a multitude of factors. When it was built, who built it, how it was tuned, boiler pressure at the time, how warm/hot the whistle is, and how clean it is. I believe 549 runs with an 'odd' whistle, but it's difficult to confirm as they normally weren't stamped (being able to be changed between locos). There were a few different variants on the VR, with all newport built locos using the same basic design, whilst those built elsewhere were often slightly different designs.
Regards