Problems with tutorial 10

Franco64

New member
Hi all,
I'm new to Trainz. I started to make the tutorials. No problems with the first nine, but the number 10 (driving a steam loco) is a problem. I've passed two days with it, but I wasn't able to finish the path. The main problem is when the loco (and the freight cars) try to climb. No option works: in the midst of the most challenging climbs, the train stops.

How can I do? More in general: there is a comprehensive tutorial that shows me how to drive a steam loco?
 
I have found that the key to this tutorial is to make sure you have a really good head of steam up before you hit the grade. If you wait until you hit the grade before shoveling in coal and water, you actually COOL things down, and the train loses power. Get a good head of steam first and then maybe add small amounts as needed getting up the hill. I am due to go back and try this one again, as I have been trying them all just to refresh.
 
Problems also with slipping wheels

Hi,

I've tried to follow advices, but nothing changes. There are also a huge problem of slipping wheels...
 
Have you tried sanding? THere should be an icon or key control for sanding. I am not sure when I will have time to look at this, hopefully someone else can run it and check it out.
 
Franco64, I finally got around to trying Tutorial 10. There are admittedly some vague places in the tutorial. I managed to make it up the grades, but with some significant guessing.

- On the first grade it says to open the injectors, but it doesn't give a setting. I set mine at about 85%, and left it there the rest of the session.
- I ended up boosting the forwarder and the throttle both (or whatever the left two sliders are)on the grade as well, up to at least 75%, even though it did not say to do that. My speed dropped to single digits and I think I would have stopped if I had not.
- on the final grade it tells me to adjust the injectors to keep the water level at 70%. Unfortunately, I could find nothing that said it was the water level! Only one gauge has a label, or even appears to work, and that was not it. The left gauge in the box of two gauges was glued on 70, but I don't know that it was the right gauge, and it did not change. Some of the gauges did not appear to even work. N3V, you need to either label the water level gauge or tell us which one it is. Maybe another reader can tell us. At any rate, my strategy was coal about 80%, injectors 85%, brakes off, and if I started to slow down, I would boost the two left-most sliders. Hope it works for you....
 
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I didn't do anything with the first nine tutorials because they didn't have any locomotives in them, but the 10th one did. The instructions given in the tutorial for driving a steam locomotive were really strange as they made no use of expansive steam nor did they give any advice about how to use the blower. The white boxes with initials next to them are confusing as it's not clear what they mean and as for advising to adjust the various controls by tapping keys on the keyboard that was confusing too as it removes your attention from driving the locomotive while you look for the key. Use the sliders instead as it will give you more sense of control. Gauges that are just decoration in a cab or else are inaccurate are commonplace in Trainz so the HUD will be your best guide.

With injectors watch the water level rising and cut it back at around 80-90%. When the engine's climbing a grade you might need to adjust the setting to stay in the sweet spot. With coal it's the same with setting the firing rate. Most engines I've driven in Trainz don't like the coal crammed in to 100%. Usually 85-90% level works well if climbing a grade and drop the firing rate back when descending a grade so you don't have the safety valves lifting. Try and avoid taking the water level right up to 100% or else you'll have no room in the boiler to cool it down a bit if the safety valves do start to lift.

I drive by mostly leaving the regulator fully open and using the cut-off to control speed. That way is far more efficient as it makes use of the expansive properties of steam. When starting off and slowing down to a lower speed you'll need to close back the regulator though, but once the locomotive is back into its stride open the regulator to full and use the cut-off to control your speed. The Steam Chest pressure will give you a good guide as to how well you're doing.

Overall it was a nice loco to drive though a bit more of a big bruiser than I'm used to since I normally only drive 19th century steam engines.


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Thanks for the tips Ann! As I look at your screenshot, I see "WA 45" is the WAter level, as you indicate. I completely missed that in the heat of the action. I will give the tutorial another run through, as it will be good to take your tips and know somewhat what I am doing!
 
Glad I was able to help Forester. I haven't got a clue what some of the other numbers in the HUD boxes mean as they never seemed to matter much with the old 19th engines I drive. I mainly learned how to use the advanced steam controls from giving things a go as well as from reading books written by footplate men about their experiences on the job.
I find the TS2019 HUD to be not as easy to read as in the earlier versions of Trainz and it would be nice if there were better instructions as to what it all meant. No wonder new chums trying out the steam controls for the first time end up being confused.
 
After hunting about I found this N3V webpage that explains what all the controls and readouts are in the HUD in TS2019.

http://online.ts2009.com/mediaWiki/index.php/Help:TRS19_Driver_Controls_Steam

Most of the readouts I didn't know anything about were for continuous brake systems which is not surprising since the 19th century engines I drive don't have any of that.and only have handbrakes on either the locomotive or the tender.
 
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