SP Cab Forward unmodified refuelling problems - AFTERMARKET SOLVED!!

[HighBypass]

Hi there, my first post on here. I've had Train Sim for about 4 years now, but only recently put some hours into playing it, and being a Brit I've only been on the DTG & Steam forums. Be gentle with me - I do like US railroading!! To that end I've discovered a problem with the SP Cab Forward loco, or could it be the actual structures used in the route? Donner Pass. More on this further down my post...

I decided to try and refuel and replenish the water at the points in the Sparks Yard. The "coal" point looks like a set of portable soccer goalposts. The water point looks like a short squat grain silo.

I know that the stock Cab Forward is designed as a tank locomotive - the tender doesn't work. I know that there's a mod available to correct this behaviour and it modifies the physics and sounds (Fan Railer video on youtube).

However, back to the problem. No matter where I parked the locomotive, I could not get it to take on any coal (yes, it's an oil burner, but is set up to take coal as a fuel in the game). Similarly, I couldn't replenish the water.

Then I tried again at a different yard (Roseville I think) which had a different coaling station; the wedge shaped structure straddling the track. I stopped the loco underneath, clicked the refuelling icon and voila! A full load! Still no joy with the water station (squat grain silo structure) though.

Please help. I'd love to try a free roam along the full route with the Cab Forward doing what it was designed to do, including NOT running out of water

[AmericanSteam]

Mike Rennie (Smokebox) was kind enough to review the blueprints on this. He said that "According to the tender's blueprint, the trigger box for water is right in the middle of the tender and measures 2x2x2 metres. So you have to line up pretty accurately with the centre of the tender." Try again HiBypass and report back.

Enter in the world editor and set the tender water level to 70%. Save and reenter the scenario. The sweet spot for the fill is in between the first two forward
hatches. If the tender is full it will not activate the fill sequence.

[HighBypass]

Hi there, I've posted a reply in the thread in the main TS2021 forum. Should I revert to posting in here? Or perhaps one of the mods may decide

[AmericanSteam]

The second two pictures are of the Cab Forward on the BL&E showing it does work. In my opinion your issue is more route related. I tried to fill in the Truckee yard and at Roseville yard, first two pictures, and are typical of other water points on Donner Pass.There are no water stanchion to fill with so it is hard to align to something. Look for a water fill point with a stanchion or tower with a fill pipe and test. You can get Pennsylvania Steam (BL&E} as freeware here: https://railworksamerica.com/index.php/ ... collection Excellent steam route, lots of places to water up. I do not know how to add/modify a water point and make it animated.Maybe someone here could help.

[HighBypass]

Downloading that free route now, thank you! Only needs the asset DLCs (rather than 10 0thers + payware ) - EXCELLENT!

Your second pic at Roseville yard - that overhead coaling stage did work on a quick drive, but I parked the locomotive itself under the structure.

To clarify, you're saying that you DID manage to refill the water with the grain silo rather than the stanchion?

Regardless, thank you for the info. I guess I shall have to concoct a free roam from Norden to Roseville on Donner Pass to complete the journey At least I had a challenge getting the consist of boxcars to Norden in the first place!

[AmericanSteam]

I was NOT able to refill at any water point on Donner pass. You are welcome.

[HighBypass]

Cheers. I managed to find out a bit more - the structures are UNDERGROUND! I discovered someone out there on the internet was having trouble with a conventional steam loco on Sherman hill and someone said to look underground I cloned the free roam route so that I could use the world editor on it. I'm still rather confused by all the symbology etc. but did manage to call up the properties of the coaling station and reset its height below ground to zero.

See screenshot:



I was able to refuel by parking the loco as shown. I brought the water station up to ground level (the squat grain silo is actually a water tank on stilts! lol) However, again no matter where I parked the tender or indeed the loco was I able to refill the water.

It appears that the coaling structure needs to be above ground for it to work, but the water tank is still

[AmericanSteam]

Good find. I will work on this later tonight.
EDIT: Even lifting the water towers out of the ground there still are no water spouts.

[HighBypass]

I guess that an option might be to substitute a proper watering station (with a hose) at the location. I'll have to work out how what and when within the world editor (noob alert!)

I have some information for the guy who put together a mod pack for the Cab Forward (physics, sounds and tender working as it should) - Fan Railer on Youtube. He always edits in the coaling & water assets from the BLE route (Penn Steam) as they always work for him... I commented on one of his cab forward videos

[HighBypass]

Just placed a water stanchion, but still no joy No animation either (not sure if there should be anyway)

[HighBypass]

Oh, and thank you very much for the link to the Penn steam B&LE route. Installed it ok and then tried out the first scenario. I'm mainly a diesel guy, but my interest in steam locos is growing; what a lovely route!... and FREE! I can totally understand why it was previously payware.

[HighBypass]

To misquote the guys with the broken E-Type Jag in the Gumball Rally movie: "It's a handsome design","I wish it ran..." (Well it does run, but I wish it could add water on Donner pass)

[HighBypass]

I've replied to this thread rather than asking questions in a new one because they are relevant to what I'd like to try and do with this scenario on the DP route. Thank you for your patience, or would that be exasperation??

So I think I know how to place an object such as a water tower (don't know if it's full of water or not..) and I've discovered how to move to different locations within a route - flew over to Norden Yard, specifically. Is there a way of moving the player's consist from it's start position in a scenario to a new one?

Then again an issue might be the fact that when the scenario starts, the player can choose between two cab forward locos on separate sidings - one to couple to freight (reefers plus caboose) or the other to couple to the passenger cars.

[HighBypass]

First off - many thanks to all who researched and helped - yes, sadly, I've come to the conclusion that the stock loco appears to be broken in that it cannot take on water.
I have found the solution with the aftermarket physics mods via Fan Railer which among other things, turns the tender into a working one, at least as far as water usage and replenishment goes. I've not tried to coal her up, but that was not an issue with the stock loco.
I applied those mods to the Cab Forward and them swapped out a B&LE Santa Fe for the cab forward to try it; there's the works outing second part scenario where you have to reverse up the wye and then re-water the loco. SUCCESS - see below:





Next the Donner Pass test. Cloned the free roam from Sparks yard, placed the B&LE water tower at the yard's water point, dropped the tender's water quantity to less than half just tom make sure, then drove a Cab Forward under it: SUCCESS!!



Thank you for putting up with me! Now that I know the altered Cab Forward works as it should, I'm off to redo the Sparks free roam, taking the boxcars to Roseville.

[AmericanSteam]

Congratulations on your keep at it attitude. I will do the same.