Category: Steam Engine Simulator

In the last few updates you’ve seen the engine simulations and physics coming along—really close to getting polished. So now I’m moving on to work on the scenery. You’ve seen plenty of my fictional testing ranch (which I plan on expanding further still!) but there will also be a Disneyland layout of sort.

Through out my research to recreate the old Disneyland tracks, I learn that it’s pretty difficult to exactly recreate the park, because the park changed so often! A picture from early 1956 can be drastically be different from a photo taken in middle or late in the same year! More on this later.

So far, there’s nothing exciting in the park to show yet, but I’ll at least leave you with these teaser images. I took the first picture to specifically show off the new tracks rendering…

…notice the much closer (and more realistic) track ties spacing, the oil and grease stains on the ties and gravel, and the natural fringe of the gravel edges. This was taken at the bend around the Rivers of America, looking back.

Another teaser picture. I’m sure you’ll recognize this structure right away…

Yes, notice on the bridge: the dual tracks of the old SF&D days! You’ll be able to operate the switches to run on either the siding or the pass-by tracks at both stations. Check out the landscaping around the stations. The foliage really gives a sense of scale, and the point of view from the cab pulling into Main Street Station is quite breathtaking… but I’ll save that for another day!

Where do you go when you need the best information on Disneyland Railroad and steam engine operations? North Carolina, of course!

This month, I visited an accomplished author and good friend, Steve DeGaetano. Steve has four published books on the history of the Disneyland Railroad. Most of you have probably talked to him on the Burnsland forums, so his authority on the subject is quite established. He is now currently a fireman and engineer at the New Hope Valley Railroad, a volunteer-run organization, in North Carolina. I had an opportunity to spend a day with his unique little 0-4-0 engine, and try my hands at pulling the levers and turning the valves to see how these controls really feel. And they really feel different than what I had imagined! So you can bet that I’ll be finding a way to mimic these feelings in the simulator.

We also dove under and climbed over the engine to get a good look at rarely seen mechanisms, like the burner, the blowdown pipe, and even the link block and eccentric rods in motion when the Johnson bar is shifted! Steve also explained how many of the components on the engine work, and how the engine operates, all of which are very similar to the Disney engines.

Here’s a quick tour of the little engine, and a taste of what will be integrated into the sim:

Thanks again to Steve for the opportunity. I left with a lot of great ideas for the sim, and you’ll surely see another update coming. Soon, you’ll also get to feel what it’s like to be at the controls of one of these. (Hint: in a word, it’s exhausting!)

Happy New Year!

It’s 2016, and the Disneyland Railroad Steam Locomotive Simulator now enters its 3rd year of development! 😀

Let’s kick off the new year with a new preview video… and let’s make it over an hour long so we can really get into the meat of the sim. In this video, we’ll look at the fine 3D model from the exterior of the train and the cab. Then, we’ll fire up the Holliday, and take her out for a quick trip around the test track ranch.

I’ll also try to point out some of the interesting sights and sounds on the engine and in the sim, as well as explaining the procedure and process of operating the engine. So, let’s get right into the video, and I’ll let the footage speak for itself.

I didn’t get a chance to really explain the function of each appliance and each option in the menu this time. I’ll make another video for those, and I also to point out some of the finer details. (Did you notice that when the engine is moving, there was a short, audible `beep’ from the water alarm, due to the sloshing water in the boiler? It’s at 43:48).

Meanwhile, enjoy the first, in-depth look at the sim, coming to your desktop in the near future!

I intended to release a long, narrated video preview of the sim for the Thanksgiving weekend. I recorded it, but in the replay I found out that my mic died! So that video is getting delayed.

Meanwhile, I made a smaller preview video showing the CK Holliday pulling out of a station. For the first time, you can finally see and hear the engine in motion!

I have to write this disclaimer again that the sim is still in alpha. Which means that the features to see in the video are subject to change, and the quality of the game is not final. Anyway, a few things to point out:

• The two bell at the beginning of the video is the cab bell. You can simulate whether to have a conductor or not. If so, the conductor will ring two bells after a certain amount of time, signaling the train to proceed forward. Occasionally (rarely), the conductor will ring the bell one time when the train is in motion to signal an emergency stop.
• I opened the throttle very slowly, so it took a while for the engine to pick up speed. A generally safe way to open the throttle is to open it just a little bit at a time. When the throttle is pulled, the D valve opens a little bit, then steam somewhat slowly enters the dry pipe and the cylinders. The steam will eventually build up and equalizes in the cylinders. It’s not instantaneous! It’s a bit like “do this, then wait and see, and react, then repeat.” This nature of the steam engine is simulated.
• How easily or difficult it is to start moving depends on how long the train’s been running… why?
• Once the train is moving at a reasonable speed, I opened the throttle up a bit more, because it was unlikely that the engine will slip now.
• Half way in the video you can hear a loud hiss. That’s the injectors kicking in, operated by the automatic/AI fireman. He’s not much of an “intelligent” fireman though. You’ll still have to adjust the firing valves and keep the pressure. He’ll only add water, and only when there’s sufficient pressures to do so.

I’ll expand on these features at a later preview. For now, enjoy the (short) sights and sounds of the Disneyland Railroad Simulator!

It’s been about a year, maybe over, since I first announced the CK Holliday simulator, which now has become the Santa Fe & Disneyland Railroad simulator! I’d like to thank you guys for sticking around, especially if you came from my CK Holliday computer build blog over five years ago! 😀

Building something of this scale and detail takes a long time. And it’s taking a little bit longer now that I’m finding myself playing with the simulator more than working on it! Sorry! 😛 But that means the sim is definitely running well!

(I love testing when the sun is setting. It’s great when I find the sweet spot on the throttle and the reverser hooked up just right: she coasts herself down the tracks, holding steady pace; the fire is holding well and the pressure is rock solid–just gotta remember to add water once in a while! The engine vibrates a little from the road, her brass glows in the low sun. Watch the sky turn deep purple, and listen to the soundtrack of the clickety clack, her soft huffing from the stack, the wind whooshing by the window, and the soft roar of the fire!)

They say that the hardest part of releasing a game is that you have to stop playing with it and actually release it…

I’m working on polishing up some aspects, and then I’ll release a LONG, narrated video preview. This time, I promise I’ll actually run the engine!

Meanwhile, enjoy these images right from the sim. They’re not in any particular order, and I don’t have much comments on these this time. As always, these are development images and features are incomplete.

Most people that know steam engines tend to describe them as a “living thing”. That’s because a steam engine is a very dynamic machine, and its crew has to know the engine intimately to keep her firing and running just right!

I recorded one of my “firing” tests, and thought it was a good opportunity to point out how the engine can “talk” to you… but only if you listen carefully! For instant, how can you tell if the atomizer pressure is just slightly too much? Or if the fuel in the firebox isn’t burning completely? Or if there’s too much draft?

You might miss all the signs if you don’t know what to look for. But once you know the engine, she’ll speak to you as clear as a bell!

There are many more signs, but I’ll save those to show later. For now, you can watch the short preview/demo of tending the fire below. I annotated the video to point out the engine’s signs. Here was a simple test of building a small fire (just enough to hold the pressure steady) to a larger fire to raise the boiler pressure.

About one year ago I introduced the “CK Holliday Simulator”. I wanted to make a sim that will show the public how a steam engine really lives and breathes. I picked my favorite steam engine as the platform.

Well, if you’ve been following the progress on the blog you probably notice that the scope of the sim has grown quite a bit! And lately, I just felt that the sim would be incomplete if the CK Holliday didn’t come along with her sister, the EP Ripley. So, indeed, I’m happy to announce that the sim will feature the first two engines of the Disneyland Railroad.

It won’t be just a “skin” make over. Though they were built from the same plan, the engines do have their own personalities and that too will be featured in the sim.

You can see that although the cab layout is the same, the subtle difference in the boiler jacket color, the window sizes, the side panel planking, and the cab’s shape does give it a different atmosphere.

A sizable group of DRR fans do say that the number 2 is their favorite engine. Perhaps because it was Walt’s favorite? When he was at the throttle, it was always on the Ripley. So, which engine will be your workhorse in the sim?

It’s another test day at the ranch! This is a fictional “railroad ranch” that I created for the purpose of building and testing the engine. It has over two miles of winding tracks that cut through the greens and the hills, some sidings, and few structures. Most importantly, it has left turns!

The ranch is coming along nicely as well, and it makes the countless amount of testings much more pleasant than pulling the engine around on an empty terrain.

Yes, countless amount of testing! Everything has to be tested, so that’s firing up the engine, pull it around for a while, take notes, fix the problems, and start over.

Here are some pictures from a recent test on a day that we were testing the air brakes. We wanted to know if the engine was stopping at a proper distance for a given brake pressure and train mass. In the picture, we’ve come to a stop to check the temperature on the brake shoes. If those shoes get too hot the brakes become ineffective. And while we’re checking the numbers, the engine gets a chance to rest while basking in the warm afternoon light, and her front is slightly masked by the escaping steam from cylinders. Her polished brass is surely bright!

Let’s take a look at the classic paint job! Her new paint is bright but there are signs that she’s a hard worker. There are subtle worn marks to the anti-slip coating on the top of the tender, diesel stains near the fuel hatch, and small pools of water near the water hatch.

On that day we were running with water a bit high in the boiler, so she was drawing the water into the cylinders quite a bit more than usual. Normally, when the engine is at speed the small bits of water should be expelled out through the smokestack along with the exhaust, so water collection is not a problem. But in this case we left the cylinder drains open to make sure that all the water gets out. There’s a small penalty to us as more steam is loss through the drains; but, water collection in the cylinders can be a real problem, and can make the engine come to a stop, cause catastrophic damages, or even injuries…

…however, on that day all was well and, after a few hours of adjustments, she passed her tests. So, at least the steam out of her cylinders make for a cool picture! 🙂

It can get really atmospheric in here… I’ll just show you the pics and let you see for yourself!