Smokebox - 4000 Series

[ozinoz]

Oh yes. These will be my go to versions...

[FanRailer]

Smoke deflectors didn't really work on the 4000s because of the way the running boards are tapered at the smokebox to meet the clearance envelope. This meant that the plane of the smoke deflectors would be on a slight angle with respect to the line of vision out of the cab, and were therefore more of an unnecessary obstruction to forward visibility than an effective tool to lift the exhaust.

[mrennie]

Smoke deflectors didn't really work on the 4000s because of the way the running boards are tapered at the smokebox to meet the clearance envelope. This meant that the plane of the smoke deflectors would be on a slight angle with respect to the line of vision out of the cab, and were therefore more of an unnecessary obstruction to forward visibility than an effective tool to lift the exhaust.

They actually had extension running boards that were fitted on top of the existing front runboards to allow the smoke deflectors to be mounted on them.

Something else that was fitted on the early versions to try to deal with smoke was the "smoke lifter", which was basically an extra blower that took steam from the turret just head of the cab and fed it into the left side of the smoke stack, operated with a large "wingnut" style valve handle above the fireman's gauge cluster. That's in the model too :)

[ozinoz]

Who has been a Dirty Boy

Dirty Boy.jpg

[mrennie]

By special request, here's the "factory fresh" version with silver trim.

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[ozinoz]

"Testing a mile long 6,100 ton consist of assorted boxcars downhill on the Wasatch Grade, seen here a few miles north of Castle Rock, with a 16 pounds set on the train brakes to hold a steady 27 mph." - Mike Rennie

1 Mile.jpg

[AmericanSteam]

[ozinoz]

One question I haven't seen resolved, is the included rollingstock. Michael is reworking a lot of his steam era rollingstock as part of the package, but I cant find where it has been answered as to whether these will just be generic, or generic with the ability to "road name" them, or they will come ready to run with road names, other than UP.

Some of us are starting to get a little green, if you know what I mean




oops, nearly forgot

[mrennie]

All the included rolling stock will be for UP, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if reskins start appearing here and elsewhere in short order :)

The Wasatch Grade route also has a lot of its own rolling stock, with various road names, so you can use those too, but be aware that they have different drag coefficients, different sounds and a brake setup that isn't fully compatible with the locomotive. In order to get properly realistic performance, it's advisable to use only the rolling stock included with my Big Boy, unless you're running consists that are well below the maximum tonnages. I've been doing a lot of tests (not just me but my experienced beta testers too) to compare the model's performance with real world data and it's pretty much nailed it in terms of the tonnages it can handle, braking, evaporation rates, coal consumption and speeds, but that's using the rolling stock GreatNorthener has made for me which I've subsequently tweaked in various ways. I can't guarantee what will happen with other rolling stock (it'll work ok, but the performance will probably be less accurate).

[ozinoz]

Cheers mate, beautifully clarified...

[mrennie]

Wind Wings (yes, that's the official name given to them by Union Pacific)

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[FanRailer]

Contrary to the name of the appliance, it did not grant the 4019 the ability of flight. What a bummer

[mrennie]

Contrary to the name of the appliance, it did not grant the 4019 the ability of flight. What a bummer

[ozinoz]

Great to see, with the requisite amount of grime too

Barely there - no wonder they proved unsatisfactory. I think they would have been better served mounted a bit further forward to capture more air, given the locomotives relative speeds.

[FanRailer]

Great to see, with the requisite amount of grime too

Barely there - no wonder they proved unsatisfactory. I think they would have been better served mounted a bit further forward to capture more air, given the locomotives relative speeds.

The blower and smoke lifter would have been used during drifting action anyway, so it was found that the wings were unnecessary on 4019.