Throttle Settings For Various Loco's

[rlbomber]

It seems that on the few loco's that I've used (Horseshoe Curve, Donner Pass & Sherman Hill) the throttle settings are in large increments. Meaning that they will only go from 0 - 13 - 25 - 38 and such. I cannot set the throttle to somewhere in between these settings and let go of the mouse.

Now, i have found that if I set the throttle to something other than the presets and hit F2 to bring up the save button, hit cancel the throttle will stay wherever I set it to.

I've looked in the manual and the settings and don't see anything on this.

Rlbomber

[mrennie]

North American diesels have notched throttles, meaning they don't have completely variable ranges from 0% to 100% but instead settle into one of 8 notches (and idle makes 9).

[Ericmopar]

North American diesels have notched throttles, meaning they don't have completely variable ranges from 0% to 100% but instead settle into one of 8 notches (and idle makes 9).

True, but because of the way the core game treats it, those throttles don't put out power in appropriate increments. I do believe a real American loco won't go over 12mph in notch one for instance. (on level ground)
I've wondered about some of the U.K. stock and what appears to be 3 notch throttles. Is that accurate Mike?
If so, do they just hold the throttle wherever they need it? How does something like that work?

[Rich_S]

North American diesels have notched throttles, meaning they don't have completely variable ranges from 0% to 100% but instead settle into one of 8 notches (and idle makes 9).

True, but because of the way the core game treats it, those throttles don't put out power in appropriate increments. I do believe a real American loco won't go over 12mph in notch one for instance. (on level ground)
I've wondered about some of the U.K. stock and what appears to be 3 notch throttles. Is that accurate Mike?
If so, do they just hold the throttle wherever they need it? How does something like that work?

Yes, this is true for most locomotive, because the throttle controls engine RPM and not Alternator (Generator) output. Since the Alternator is directly coupled to the diesel engine, each RPM setting will generate a specific voltage and amperage output. On newer locomotives things are a little different and full RPM's are reached at a lower throttle setting, but these locomotives also have choppers (gated SCR's) to control the alternator output, based on load, so you could have the throttle set to notch 8, but because of a issue detected by the computer, the chopper could have the alternator scaled back to a notch one voltage and amperage output. Just a FYI, this is not a new issues with this game or any of the previous games. Every game originally written by Kuju has this issue. Like mentioned above, on the prototype you cannot accelerate from a dead stop to 70 mph on straight and level track, leaving the throttle in notch one.

[Ericmopar]

North American diesels have notched throttles, meaning they don't have completely variable ranges from 0% to 100% but instead settle into one of 8 notches (and idle makes 9).

True, but because of the way the core game treats it, those throttles don't put out power in appropriate increments. I do believe a real American loco won't go over 12mph in notch one for instance. (on level ground)
I've wondered about some of the U.K. stock and what appears to be 3 notch throttles. Is that accurate Mike?
If so, do they just hold the throttle wherever they need it? How does something like that work?

Yes, this is true for most locomotive, because the throttle controls engine RPM and not Alternator (Generator) output. Since the Alternator is directly coupled to the diesel engine, each RPM setting will generate a specific voltage and amperage output. On newer locomotives things are a little different and full RPM's are reached at a lower throttle setting, but these locomotives also have choppers (gated SCR's) to control the alternator output, based on load, so you could have the throttle set to notch 8, but because of a issue detected by the computer, the chopper could have the alternator scaled back to a notch one voltage and amperage output. Just a FYI, this is not a new issues with this game or any of the previous games. Every game originally written by Kuju has this issue. Like mentioned above, on the prototype you cannot accelerate from a dead stop to 70 mph on straight and level track, leaving the throttle in notch one.

Yep. On some locos the notch 1 power problem is so severe, that I've thought of going into the bins and changing the notched setting to False.