Powder River Basin

[AmericanSteam]

I can concur the drag speed of ~14mph. Makes me remember all the videos of first gen SD9s and their low drags in Run8 but still reliable enough to do it for 60+ years now. Glad to see their spiritual successor getting to stretch their legs. I admit, I kept forgetting about how long it takes the air to release once applied so I was having fun with that. Can't wait to see what more brilliance you bring to this Tomcat, whether that be route additions or new scenarios.

It does take a bit of finesse on these long drags. Allowing for air release time. I remember reading that that 20 CFM is considered released, is that correct? At the first stop I had been traveling slow enough that the other train had passed and the signal was green. But needed to stop to complete the first marker. Is there any way to write the script that if it is green okay not to stop?
I did not think that the SS SD40-2s worked as DP. Am I incorrect in this?

[Tomcat]

I can concur the drag speed of ~14mph. Makes me remember all the videos of first gen SD9s and their low drags in Run8 but still reliable enough to do it for 60+ years now. Glad to see their spiritual successor getting to stretch their legs. I admit, I kept forgetting about how long it takes the air to release once applied so I was having fun with that. Can't wait to see what more brilliance you bring to this Tomcat, whether that be route additions or new scenarios.

Scenery and scenarios are what I'll be working on. Scenarios for a bit longer before I go back full-bore on scenery. One good thing for any route builder to do is create scenarios, if nothing else it shows you that whatever you thought was a good number of track markers is not enough. The route has somewhere near 1800 track markers but when I was creating the Donkey Creek to Cordero scenario I had to add 7 or 8 new markers around Donkey Creek Junction just to get the AI to play nice.

It does take a bit of finesse on these long drags. Allowing for air release time. I remember reading that that 20 CFM is considered released, is that correct? At the first stop I had been traveling slow enough that the other train had passed and the signal was green. But needed to stop to complete the first marker. Is there any way to write the script that if it is green okay not to stop?
I did not think that the SS SD40-2s worked as DP. Am I incorrect in this?

I'm a freshly minted scenario writer so I'm not sure about skipping the 'Stop At' if the AI has cleared the path. My first reaction would be to say no but I'll have to look into it. I could remove the Stop I suppose or I could just have the AI start 1 or 2 minutes later so that it would be blocking the path. Maybe an experienced scenario writer could chime in?

If you set up each loco before moving they should be pushing. From the manual:

Pusher engines
Locomotives placed at the rear-end of your train will only respond to input from the lead
locomotive if the rolling stock is supplied by Searchlight Simulations/JointedRail and with
the isolation switch set in “RUN”, engine run and fuel pump switches in the “UP” position.

So what I do is set up the lead loco first then hit CTRL = to switch to another cab and do the above, engine run and fuel pump up and isolation to RUN - repeat till you are back in the lead engine and then release the brakes. All the engines smoke and throttle up in response to input in the lead engine so I assumed they were all working correctly. One note is that you may not hear any sound from the rear engines or passing AI but the sound from the front is enough for me - SD40-2's in notch 8 is a beautiful sound.

[AmericanSteam]

Thanks for the feedback. So much nicer than using old KUJU stock.

[Tomcat]

...So much nicer than using old KUJU stock.

Speaking of which, here is the default version of the previous scenario;

*REMOVED*

You will still need JOINTEDRAIL - 100 TON HOPPERS - NS/CR @ https://www.store.searchlight-simulatio ... pers-cr-ns (freeware)

I was about to give up on this but decided to try swapping out the default coal hoppers for the SS/JR ones and things turned out much better. This scenario uses six default SD-40-2's and about 110 coal hoppers. Slowest speed up Logan Hill was a more realistic 17.8 mph.

[Tomcat]

Here are all the standard and free roam scenarios for the PRB created so far in one package so you don't have to hunt them down;

*REMOVED*

In addition to the scenarios that were included with the last route release this includes the scenarios have been created since then that were listed individually.

[Caffeine]

This route, and all the contribution of the people involved, has evolved a lot.
A must have now!

[princerupert0528]

hey all

I'm trying to change engines for scenarios (the Worm)

it's still show dash 9 engine
tryed edit the scenarios it shoe no engines/rolling stock then crash (out of memory)


any help

[AmericanSteam]

try using TS_tools or Loco Swap to change your consist.

[Tomcat]

I've been busy with non-train related things of late but have managed to squeeze in some sessions here and there to work on scenery.

Extreme Southeast portion of the route at Bridgeport on the Angora subdivision.

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[Tomcat]

... and working on a scenario from Hemingford to Alliance.

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[chrisreb]

Oh lovely!!

[_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha]

Keep up the work, but don't wear yourself out on those endless square miles of scenery under that Wyoming Big Blue sky.

Like with Minerman's and many of the UK and Germany freeware routes, this is already a superb route and will only get better over time.

[nebraska2001]

What a superb work . Thanks for sharing it with the community.

[Tomcat]

WIP shots of Scottsbluff, Nebraska. 2 months into Bridgeport/Gering/Scottsbluff scenery and will need another 2 months to finish up these towns, so, end of summer for release of a scenery update.

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[Tomcat]

An overview of the Scottsbluff/Gering/Terrytown area. Union Pacific South Morrill subdivision approximately 1.5 miles South of the BNSF Valley subdivision. This is the largest built up area on the PRB and I'll glad to have this in my rear view mirror.

ScottsbluffGering.jpg