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!

It’s been a while since I posted a proper, really meaty update, but now I finally have something to show and there’s going to be a lot of it! I spent the last few months purely on the graphical aspect of the sim. It’s fun to see the physics work, but putting these graphics in is really making the sim (slowly) come to life! Let’s see if you’ll agree!

These pictures are directly from the sim. They are not renderings! This includes the outside scenery, which isn’t completely ready yet so it’ll be featured in a different update. But keep in mind that many of the features I want to show may be very subtle, so you’ll definitely have to click on the pictures to see the enlarged version. Also, when a picture gets resized smaller it will appear darker as it loses pixels, so I’ve only brought up the bright levels in these pictures to compensate, otherwise these are raw sim images!

Let’s start with the main view, above. Here’s your new office: the engine’s cab! In here, every valve, lever, and switch have distinct function that affect the performance or behavior of the engine. And they’re all represented here in the sim. Everything works. Even the gauge lamps will draw an appropriate amount of current from the battery… and eventually drain it if the generator isn’t running. And all these controls may look daunting but soon enough you’ll learn what every valve wheel in the cab does, and where each pipe start and end. (The cab today has even more valves and pipes though, due to numerous modifications through many years). I’m sure once you’re familiar with the sim, you’ll be able to talk like you’re part of the crew on your next tender ride.

Now, let’s take the left seat… the fireman’s side:

This is a hard working machine! She’ll be out of the roundhouse for up to 20 hours on some days, and it shows here! Every surface has distinct wear and tear on it. If it’s a bright work, it’ll have received some dulling from constant contact with heat and oil, as well as repeated wiping. In the picture above, you can see the dirt and water stains that the forward windows have picked up.

Now let’s get even closer: the hydrostatic lubricator has traces of oil and fingerprints. The oil glass is almost opaque from the thick oil inside. The steam pipes here get a covering of fabric material to protect the crew because they get really hot. You wouldn’t want your arm to graze it when reaching for the blowdown valve!

The electrical duplex box still has a little bit of shine on it, but repeated wiping and contact with grease is taking its toil on the stainless steel finish.

Down below by your feet is the fire door, which is fully operable in the sim with a locking latch/handle. Here is where the hardware is exposed to the greatest amount of heat, so the metal around it has lost their luster and finish a long time ago. We can see the burns that have formed on the inside of the door as well as rust forming around the opening. The concentric circles around the door are the head of the boiler stay bolts. (What are stay bolts? I talked about them previously here and here. These two posts also give you a great section view to see how the stay bolts work).

Right above the fire door is an oil shelve… where you see all the oil stain build ups. The crew put their lubrication oil here on this shelve because the oil is too thick to flow freely at room temperature.

The running boards, which become the seating platform for the crew has also dulled out from use. You can see little bits of grime and dirty oil build ups near the raised pattern.

For the next part of the tour, let’s move over to what you’ve been waiting for… the right seat! Here’s the engineer’s view of driving the CK Holliday. Note that I’ve opened the forward window and the side sliding window. You can see the water stains from the rain that has built up on the outside of the window.

From the engineer’s seat you get a commanding view of the tracks ahead, as well as the few gauges adorning the cab. The speedometer is mounted right above the right forward window. Let’s take a closer look at the other gauges for now…

The main gauge is the boiler pressure, and to the right is the air brake system gauge, that you as the engineer will use to stop the train. The gauges are rendered in 3D per their respective manufacturer’s specifications. You can even see the three screws, 2 pan heads at the bottom and a flushed flat head at the middle top, that mount the gauge’s face to its body. The faces have been faithfully reproduced, right now to their specification fine prints! And of course the gauges’ have a covering glass, which you can see in the sim with real time dynamic lighting and reflections. There are some smudges and grimes at the edges of the glass where yet more dust and grease have collected.

In the above picture you can see the controls on the engineer’s side. Again, each control shows its wear and tear from constant use. But that doesn’t mean the engine isn’t well taken cared for! You can see that some surfaces still retain their shine, like the brass air brake handle glowing when the sun hits it just right.

Now, back to the speedometer. It’s the green box mounted above the right forward window. It’s been reproduced in the sim right down to the individual graduation and the “SF & D RR” marking. You can also see that the speedometer reads in feet per second.

Okay, let’s show off some of that dynamic real time lighting and shadows I’ve been talking about.

Now the sun is setting to the left. The lighting color has grown warmer, and it’s casting a very graceful shadow from the Johnson bar across the right seat.

This is probably one of my favorite time in the sim (and real life, too!). The shadows are now much softer and even landing on the boiler gauge’s face. All those controls cast their shadows on the cab’s side panel. The sky has turned pastel…

… so it’s about time to hit the lights! As the dark evening sets in, we can hit the lights to illuminate the gauges. We can see the lamp casting shadows onto the pipes as well as the bright highlights from the brass gauge stand. The speedometer at the top of the picture also lights up from its internal lamp, activated from the same switch.

Similarly, there is a lamp for the water glass, also controlled from the same switch. The way the light casts the shadows from the water glass’ geometry and the bolts really give a feeling of depth to the scene. There’s even very subtle hints of bevels in the sight glass itself.

But with all good things we have to take bit of caution here. The real time dynamic shadows can be very costly to the sim’s performance—you’ll need a fairly strong computer to run all these features well. There will be an option to turn off these shadows to help with the performance on your computer, but it still looks great and very convincing even without these shadows. There will be several options like this in the sim purely for you to tune the sim’s performance, of course at the cost of losing some eye candy.

This might be hard to see (make sure you check out the enlarged picture), but the other light in the cab is of course the fire! Here I’ve lit a very low fire, and its warm red hue glows dimly on the foot plate. What you can’t see in the picture is the flickering of the light. It’s very cozy and I could just sit there and watch it for hours like a real fire.

I hope this next one shows up okay. Well, just because the whole cab is painted doesn’t mean there’s no surface details! Here, if you look closely enough you’ll see slight variation in the paint due to the wood grains beneath the paint. The shininess of the paint even follows the wood grain! These wood grains were hand-placed following the correct orientation of each piece. For example, a post will have vertical grain while a panel might have horizontal grains. You’ll be able to see all of this. Check this out in the side panel, or the panel in front where the edge of a panel gets hit by the sun beam.

And while we’re here check out the try-cock funnel too! There are variation in the shininess again because it had been used before, and the brass is wearing dull.

Let’s take a closer look…

Ahh ha! The back of the boiler jacket has received its share of wearing also. A part of the jacket’s bright coat has dulled away from the heat and constant use and contact with the crew. There’s even water stains on the jacket, perhaps from the try-cock or even from the dripping of water/steam from all the pipes around it.

Here’s another closer look at the wear on the boiler jacket. The area around the throttle packing has received considerable wearing and is much duller than the area around. This is because the throttle packing gets disassembled and reassembled quite often as part of routine maintenance. The boiler’s ID plate right above the throttle has also been faithfully reproduced here in the sim.

And finally, if you prefer the natural state of things, you can have the cab without the paint, exposing the ash wood underneath all that green paint!

What do you think? In my opinion, it looks much warmer and bigger than the painted green. But hey… the green is proto typical and it does help cover up all the oil and grease.

I hope you enjoyed this update. There’s still a lot more work left (as always!) but you can see that it’s actually coming together. You’ll be able to have your very own CK Holliday soon!