I've encountered an interesting situation. The "out of the box" physics settings for SLI's ethanol train release for Open Rails still seem a little off. If I place that trainset, using the provided consist, and use it on the Sherman Hill route, I seem to be unable to ever get that train moving on the upgrade when starting the train anywhere on the 0.8% uphill grade of Track 3, the low grade line via Harriman.
Of course trains that size should be able to start from a dead stop on a 0.8% grade without any rear-end shove - that happens all the time. In real life, coupler breaks would only happen from sloppy train handling or engineer-induced slack yanks and jerks.
In explorer mode, starting at Harriman, and heading towards Dale Jct, it requires the 5th notch just to keep the train from rolling away backwards. But even if I stay in the 5th notch, doing this no-win battle against gravity, after about a minute, the coupler knuckles between 2 cars somewhere in the train will break. If I go to the 6th notch earlier, knuckles will break immediately.
While I applaud the effort to bring this kind of train handling physics to Open Rails content, something seems a little brittle in the chosen values. Either that, or the rolling friction is too heavy.
The only changes I made to any files were to correct the MaxPower value which was incorrect (it was too low) on the GE's. I never touched the car physics settings in any way.
The reason I chose Sherman Hill was because not all routes are laid with consistent gradient, especially when trying to replicate modern construction of lines built in the mid 20th century as opposed to late-19th century, but this route was built right.
Of course trains that size should be able to start from a dead stop on a 0.8% grade without any rear-end shove - that happens all the time. In real life, coupler breaks would only happen from sloppy train handling or engineer-induced slack yanks and jerks.
In explorer mode, starting at Harriman, and heading towards Dale Jct, it requires the 5th notch just to keep the train from rolling away backwards. But even if I stay in the 5th notch, doing this no-win battle against gravity, after about a minute, the coupler knuckles between 2 cars somewhere in the train will break. If I go to the 6th notch earlier, knuckles will break immediately.
While I applaud the effort to bring this kind of train handling physics to Open Rails content, something seems a little brittle in the chosen values. Either that, or the rolling friction is too heavy.
The only changes I made to any files were to correct the MaxPower value which was incorrect (it was too low) on the GE's. I never touched the car physics settings in any way.
The reason I chose Sherman Hill was because not all routes are laid with consistent gradient, especially when trying to replicate modern construction of lines built in the mid 20th century as opposed to late-19th century, but this route was built right.
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