2-8-4 Berkshire Questions

[arop]

Nice work! BUT: Do you really intend ro paint "Lima Locomotive Works" on the tender instead of a number, a railway logo or a number plate. It think it will look strange with 10 or more of these locos in running condition, all avertising for the same locomotive factory. I would prefer a railway logo!

[Gumboots]

Ok mate, not a problem. Just because it's Christmas I'll make it with your favourite flying pig logo.

What I was planning was to use the Lima name on the tender, like the original demonstrator, and to symbolise a new tender straight from the factory that could have been shipped anywhere. The number on the loco and tender will be 1419, which was the actual number of one of the first A1 Berkshires (with Boston & Albany), and the mostly black with bare metal smokebox and ashpan colour scheme was that used by Boston & Maine, and by Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, on their A1's. So, it's not any particular Berkshire, just a generic early A series.

What was bugging me is that no matter which railway name or logo you use, it'll be wrong at least half the time. So that will look kinda silly anyway. Having a bunch of Berkshires running around Africa with "Boston & Albany" on the sides would look strange to me too. Whatever you do, it'll look strange to somebody some of the time, just because of the way the game works.

The best way out of it, if anyone can be bothered, is to have a bunch of PK4's that have a different logo/name in each one, and swap them around to suit the scenario. Not sure I can be bothered. I could make them easily enough (would only take ten minutes each) but my guess is that people wouldn't bother using them anyway. I probably wouldn't.

[Gumboots]

Here ya go.

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[arop]

I still believe that's better having, for instance just a number (or nothing) on side of the tender instead of having 30 Lima Works demonstrator locos fooling around. BUT anyway I'm pleased everytime a new (high quality) RRT3 loco shows up

[Gumboots]

Hmm. I'll think about it. Maybe I'll make a few different ones.

[Gumboots]

Ok, tell ya what I'm gonna do. I'm putting a railway name (initials only) on the side of the tender, with the company logo. The loco number will be on the cabin sides, and will be 2152. This should suit just about any scenario.

Picture is attached. People can change this stuff themselves if they want to.

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[AdmiralHalsey]

Hey Gumboots I need to ask you something. You plan on making the L&N M-1 "Big Emma" Berkshire once you finish with the A-1?

[Gumboots]

No. That would require rebuilding everything from scratch again (different driver size = different wheelbase + different boiler height, etc, etc, etc). I'm actually not planning on doing any more US locomotives for the foreseeable future, since the game is already full of US locomotives anyway. I want to get some more Euro/UK/world locomotives going.

TBH what I'm currently thinking of for the next project is an LMS Royal Scot class 4-6-0. In future I want to build the models from the ground up without relying on PopTop .3dp files at all, just to get better quality modelling without major dramas. That's a reasonably complex undertaking, although arguably no worse than reverse engineering then modifying PopTop files.

After pigging around in the depths of the H10/Berkshire files, I'm quite liking the idea of something nice and simple. The Royal Scot class is visually one of the simplest locomotives ever, which also makes it comparatively simple to model. It would be roughly half as much work as doing a Garratt. This means it would make a good test case for scratch building locomotives in RT3, and the various parts of it can be re-used for later models once their geometry is sorted. It looks good too, which is important if I'm going to put the work into it. So, I may do that next, with Garratts as a longer term project.

[Gumboots]

Change of plan. Next project is now a definite. I'm going to do the Southern Railways Schools class 4-4-0.

Why a stupid little 4-4-0? Because these ones weren't stupid. They were built in the late 1920's specifically to provide good express haulers for important lines which had short turntables. That's why they're 4-4-0. A 4-6-0 wouldn't fit on the turntables on the relevant lines. To make them good express haulers, Maunsell just gave them a small cab and the biggest firebox and boiler that would fit within the wheelbase and loading gauge. The idea seems to have been "Hey if we make this thing small and give it heaps of power, and four of the biggest wheels we can fit under it, it should go really fast".

It worked. They were the only 4-4-0 ever to be given a 5P power rating by British Railways and one of the class, "Stowe", was clocked at 95 mph hauling an actual express train. These things were rockets, and were apparently totally reliable. Nobody seems to have a bad word to say about them. They tried to improve the draughting in the late 30's, but it didn't make them go any better. They were just really good right from the start. They're even simpler than a Royal Scot too, so would have to be one of the easiest locos ever to model.

So that's sorted. I'm doing one of those next.

Now, back to the Berkshire...............

[Gumboots]

Have got the tender mostly skinned, and have created a separate left side so that text and icons are the right way around on both sides of the tender.

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Basic remapping of gfx like this isn't too bad, as long as you already have the points catalogued and bookmarked.

I did try adding four more narrow panels to add rolled-in higher sides to the coal bunker. That wasn't that big a deal either, but I wasn't happy with the proportions and don't want to spend a lot of time on it at the moment. I figure it's ok to release it with the standard USRA style tender. That's what the A1 demonstrator had, and there were plenty of such tenders in use with a range of companies. If someone wants to play with rolled tops later, I'm happy to show them how to do it.

[arop]

GREAT WORK!

[Gumboots]

Some people might be wondering what the company initials "B.T.R.D." stand for, and why the locomotive is going to be numbered "2152". I chose B.T.R.D. for the company name as it hasn't been in operation for more than a century now and is rather obscure. This means it wont be mentally associated with any particular location by most people, making it good for use in any location.

If you're running an express service in Britain, with lovely refreshments and fine china available, you can say it stands for "Biscuits, Tea, Royal Doulton".
If you're hauling freight around Africa, it can be "Botswana Transport, Rail Division".
If you're worried about the bad balance of the A1 Berkshire's small drivers and consequent hammer blow effects, it can be "Balance Trashed, Runty Drivers".
If you have a very long freight run in the desert it can be "Berkshire Tender Runs Dry".

You can make it mean whatever you like.

-------------------------------------------------

Special Christmas bonus offer

"BTRD" does have an actual meaning. So does the loco number of "2152".

The first person who can tell me what "BTRD" really stands for and why the loco is numbered "2152" can have a custom skin with company name, company logo and locomotive number of their choice.



Note that this will share the same gfx for all other items (ie: standard black ansd silver colour scheme, etc) as redoing the entire thing is more work than I want at Christmas.

[AdmiralHalsey]

Well BTRD stands for The Bloomberg Electronic Communications Network and the number i've found out was one of the N&W's Y6's.(I'm pretty sure that wasn't what you were looking for but I figured i's throw my hat in and see if it's right.)

[Gumboots]

No.

"The Bloomberg Electronic Communications Network" doesn't abbreviate to "BTRD". It'd be "BECN". The number "2152" is related to the real BTRD.

[AdmiralHalsey]

No.

"The Bloomberg Electronic Communications Network" doesn't abbreviate to "BTRD". It'd be "BECN". The number "2152" is related to the real BTRD.

Tell that to Google then.

[Gumboots]

Ay up. This is as far as I got before Christmas Day (Australian time). Tomorrow we're off to see some of the rellies and eat ridiculous amounts of food.

Berkshire is not quite finished yet, but is well on the way. I've remapped some chunks of the locomotive now and made a start on the skinning (still WIP). Numbers painted on either side of the cab will look the right way around now. Shots attached. Will do some more on it later. Should still be ready for beta testing just after Christmas, and finished by New Year.

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[Gumboots]

Ok, have decided to upload the loco and tender as they are, just so people can start playing with them for Christmas.

Note that these are currently only partially skinned, as per the photos. They do look quite reasonable already though. Any suggestions for improvements are welcome.

Merry Christmas.

ETA: Zip for beta version removed, now that finished version is available.

[arop]

I like it very much, and I will use it when Building new maps, when relevant. I like your idea about your plans about creating the British 4-4-0 scools class. To make maps about The British Isles I really miss more locos, such as the 0-6-0 DX goods (the existing was an attempt by someone, but it looks awful), the V2, one of the many British (or Australian) classes of 4-6-0's and a few tank engines of your choice. Any new steam locos are most welcome!

[Gumboots]

Spent some more time on it. Most of the remapping is done (a few small bits left to do) and most of the locomotive gfx is done. Still need to tweak colour balance across the whole skin, and make a new skin for the rear truck. The tender skinning isn't quite complete either. The worst of the whole deal is over now though, which is good, and from now on it's largely a matter of how far I want to take it.

The PSD for the locomotive is already up to 14 megabytes, and the tender one is a bit over 9. Lotsa luvverly layers.

Should be a good resource for future skinning, which is handy. Will definitely have it finalised by year's end. Maybe a bit sooner.

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[Gumboots]

Tender skinning is now sorted. I've also reduced the diameter of the throttle casing slightly, just to make it a bit less in your face.

Locomotive rear truck has been remapped on the image to match its new mesh dimensions, and I've tested it with a quick first stab at gfx. Looks halfway reasonable.

The only bit of remapping left to do is the sandbox (coz I nicked that from somewhere else too) which I'll knock off tonight. Once I've got that matching its dimensions on the PSD, I'll sort its gfx with the top hatches, etc it should have, and do a final check of gfx all over. After that, it'll be a finished model.


ETA: While I think of it, it has occurred to me that it would be fairly easy to revamp the geometry to get rid of the Elesco feedwater heater, and replace it with a coffin style feedwater heater. Some A1's were fitted with these, and making one out of the existing feedwater heater pipes wouldn't be difficult. That would free up some elements for other purposes too.

Don't know if there's any interest in having a second Berky with a coffin heater up front, but I thought I'd mention it.