Union Pacific FEF-3 4-8-4 Northern type steam locomotive, by Smokebox

[mrennie]

Hey Mike, would I "break" anything on the locomotive if I increased the starting water level in the tender from 19,567 gallons to 23,500 (the actual max water capacity of the tender)? I found myself running low on water after about 3.5 hours of hard steaming on the Pacific Surfliner route (which doesn't have any water towers that I'm aware of lol) and the extra 4000 gallons would provide for about an extra hour of high speed steaming.

I had brought this up during the beta. The unit of measurement in the game supposedly is imperial gallons.

Exactly. Imperial gallons, Imperial tons ... ah, the Empire!

[HHP8660]

I decided to pull the trigger on the FEF-3 4-8-4 as I was on my way home from work and Holy mother of Mary this locomotive is not for the faint of heart to operate even with the supplied expert fireman working in tandem with you. This locomotive requires so much from you that if you don't maintain a perfect balance such as with steam usage, generation, boiler pressure, and water levels you'll be struggling to get up to track speed or worse. With that being said I am definitely enjoying learning how to operate this beast over Sherman Hill without the use of a helper locomotive and it makes a fine addition to my US steam locomotive fleet right alongside the UP steam locomotives that have been released. Over a year later and I can say it has been worth following the development with the end result being fantastic. Thank you Smokebox for building this fine locomotive and I hope that your next project will have just as much thought and care put into it.

[mrennie]

I decided to pull the trigger on the FEF-3 4-8-4 as I was on my way home from work and Holy mother of Mary this locomotive is not for the faint of heart to operate even with the supplied expert fireman working in tandem with you. This locomotive requires so much from you that if you don't maintain a perfect balance such as with steam usage, generation, boiler pressure, and water levels you'll be struggling to get up to track speed or worse. With that being said I am definitely enjoying learning how to operate this beast over Sherman Hill without the use of a helper locomotive and it makes a fine addition to my US steam locomotive fleet right alongside the UP steam locomotives that have been released. Over a year later and I can say it has been worth following the development with the end result being fantastic. Thank you Smokebox for building this fine locomotive and I hope that your next project will have just as much thought and care put into it.

Thank you!

I tend to spend more time with the expert auto fireman on than off, but that's just so that I can go outside now and then and take pictures. If I fire manually, there's no time for any of that

[mrennie]

Talking of firing manually, once people have had enough time to get used to it, I was thinking about posing a challenge:

Do the Advanced career scenario, firing manually at least 99% of the time, and at the end post your career score and a screenshot of the performance report that comes up when you click on the noticeboard in the cab. The experts will then judge the overall performance based on the two and decide who is king of the road. You'll have to achieve 1000 points career score (no penalties) and after that, it'll be determined by how well you fired the locomotive, absence of wheelskid, etc.

Good idea?

[FanRailer]

Hey Mike, would I "break" anything on the locomotive if I increased the starting water level in the tender from 19,567 gallons to 23,500 (the actual max water capacity of the tender)? I found myself running low on water after about 3.5 hours of hard steaming on the Pacific Surfliner route (which doesn't have any water towers that I'm aware of lol) and the extra 4000 gallons would provide for about an extra hour of high speed steaming.

I had brought this up during the beta. The unit of measurement in the game supposedly is imperial gallons.

Exactly. Imperial gallons, Imperial tons ... ah, the Empire!

Ahh, I see.

[BNSF650]

How does one run this with simple controls?

[mrennie]

How does one run this with simple controls?

Choose a HUD version, turn off the default auto-fireman and set the driving mode to simple.

[UP3985]

I've run it over Sherman twice now (once at night) and it's awesome!!! Do the outside running gear lights work?I didn't see anything about them but they'd be handy for night driving.

[FanRailer]

How fast have you gotten UP 844 to go? Here's my standing record (no mods) :P

[evafan002]

How fast have you gotten UP 844 to go? Here's my standing record (no mods) :P

my best was 65mph with 2500 tons in 83 cars behind the tender

[mrennie]

How fast have you gotten UP 844 to go? Here's my standing record (no mods) :P

my best was 65mph with 2500 tons in 83 cars behind the tender

Try 16 of the lightweight passenger cars (the ones included in the FEF-3 package). Each one weighs 67.72 US tons, so 16 makes 1003.52 US tons. An FEF-3 should be able to reach 100mph with that weight of consist. I got to just over 101mph, firing manually

[gtw5812]

Mike,

I know I won one of these "stand alone", but I couldn't wait, and pulled the trigger the night it came out! GREAT work my friend! I fire locomotives, and this, along with the "Connie", are my two most favorite models. You should not have to "freebee" me, with all the work that goes into this type of model! Maybe you can send a "grey ghost" one my way sometime! LOL! Or have you thought about the original six axle tender? These locomotives open up endless possibilities with Sherman Hill.... and they will separate the "railroaders" from the "I wanna just drive a train" guys.... By the way....we run trains....not "drive" them! :) Thanks again! GREAT WORK!!

Best Regards,

Galen Witham

[mrennie]

IMPORTANT NOTICE!

I've discovered that the wrong version of the FEF-3 package has been put on the beta branch of TS2015 (48.9a). So, if you are experiencing the problem of the missing tender truck journal box (along with some other problems), please revert back to the "live" version (48.0), uninstall the FEF-3 and reinstall it (in other words, make sure that Steam downloads and installs the FEF-3 again). Thanks!

[plicpriest1]

IMPORTANT NOTICE!

I've discovered that the wrong version of the FEF-3 package has been put on the beta branch of TS2015 (48.9a). So, if you are experiencing the problem of the missing tender truck journal box (along with some other problems), please revert back to the "live" version (48.0), uninstall the FEF-3 and reinstall it (in other words, make sure that Steam downloads and installs the FEF-3 again). Thanks!

I havnt noticed problems, but just so there are no suprises, how can I tell which version(48.9 vs 48.0) I have?

Thanx
Brian

[mrennie]

IMPORTANT NOTICE!

I've discovered that the wrong version of the FEF-3 package has been put on the beta branch of TS2015 (48.9a). So, if you are experiencing the problem of the missing tender truck journal box (along with some other problems), please revert back to the "live" version (48.0), uninstall the FEF-3 and reinstall it (in other words, make sure that Steam downloads and installs the FEF-3 again). Thanks!

I havnt noticed problems, but just so there are no suprises, how can I tell which version(48.9 vs 48.0) I have?

Thanx
Brian

The version appears on the TS2015 loading screen, near the bottom, I think. Or maybe just above the big menu icons, I can't remember exactly.