Georgem2010,
Having seen the wonderful screenshots of your attempts at the Lickey, and having heard Annie talk about working the grade at Lickey with some of her engines, I finally decided that I needed to check the route out and "take the challenge," so to speak.
It is a wonderfully done route, and I really like the looks of it. The trees go a bit transparent for SP4 114800, but that can be fixed at another time, and the real draw to the route is the challenge for the driver.
So, I pulled up a consist of ten 5 plank LMS wagons and a brake van, and tossed on the Fowler 3F 0-6-0t (Jinty) at the head. I dutifully loaded the wagons at the coal mine and then headed off for the climb. The consist looks like it was rated at 167 tons fully loaded.
My first attempt got me about halfway before I stalled out. I slid backwards down to the station and sat for a while, working up some steam, but this next time I didn't get very far up the incline.
I decided to restage almost back at the coal loop and drive forward again, to build up steam on the way. I also remembered that I needed to cut in the sand when I got close. I am forever forgetting to start up the sand, and it surely would be needed here. I got to the 20mph zone and felt pretty good, so on I went. I had the blower going and a fair bit of steam in the SC and boiler pressure wasn't great but looked like it might work. So, partway up, I was huffing and puffing, down to my knees at 5 mph, but still moving. I was running maybe 70% on the cutoff and 40% on the throttle, but eventually I ended up stopping.
Undaunted, I jockeyed the cutoff back and forth with the throttle at about 15%, and I got her started up again. Amazing. I then gently adjusted the cutoff back to about 70% and slowly increased the throttle up about 2 or 3% at a time, listening to the engine to see when it shifted to a "lower gear," so to speak. I managed to increase my speed until I was seemingly comfortable at about 7mph, and made it past the upper two signals, but again I started to lose speed and stalled out right about where your screenshot was.
I started playing around again with the cutoff, moving it back from 75% to very low, maybe 2-3%, and holding the throttle at about 12-15%. This got enough steam going and I was able to turn the wheels over again, and suddenly I was at 1mph and moving. I also noticed that my SC and boiler pressure were very much higher, so I pushed the throttle up to 100% with the cutoff at 75%, and low-and-behold, she really opened up. From a standing start on that wicked grade, I accelerated quickly and rolled into Blackwell at 30mph.
What an amazing challenge. I'm still not sure how I would make it in one throw, without stalling out, but I'm thinking that a lot more boiler pressure and a higher steam chest at the start would make that happen. I'm guessing there was some kind of magic that I accidentally triggered to be able to start from the stall, twice!, but it worked and I made it up the grade with only the 3F pulling. Crazy!
Looking back at the screenshots, though, it looks like I wasn't using the same engine as you were, as mine was a tank engine and your's had a tender.
It appears that I will have to try this all over again, haha. Which engine was it you were using?
Thanks again, and to all, for getting my curiosity up about trying this wonderful route and the extra challenge of running trains up it. It is a lot of fun and a great challenge.
Regards,
Gary
