Buying the MASSIVE Heisler Gear Train Engine to Conquer the Mountain in Railroads Online! 

As someone who literally works on a full sized steam locomotive, the generator also known as a dynamo is a turbine driven by steam that spins a small generator and makes electricity for lights on the train, you can also see this on the locomotive in game when you turn on the generator it turns on the headlights.

I don't have a computer that can run this game, so I'm not sure exactly how stuff is implemented, but I do drive a real life Climax geared loco from time to time, so I'll try to explain a few things to clear up some confusion if possible. *Generator;* this is to create electricity for lights, radios, etc... and in a properly running loco should have zero effect on the power or speed, just using slightly more steam. I think people are confusing it with a forced induction blower, which you would use to build boiler pressure when then engine is not moving, but does not appear to be present in this game. *Compressor;* this is for air breaks on locos and cars, if you are running a light engine (engine by itself with no cars) then you can leave this off and use the reverse to stop. *Cylinder..... ;* not sure if I can type this in a comment, but you open these whenever you are starting from a stop to clear condensation from the cylinders. *Brakes;* not much to say here, other than that breaking a link or pin by breaking too hard is totally realistic, I've done it myself in a locomotive smaller than Betsy, but thankfully there was a guy with a loader downhill to catch the runaway cars and keep them from derailing into the woods. Old link and pin stuff is scary and I cannot imagine using it all day every day on a working railroad. *Regulator;* This effectively controls the pressure of the steam going to the cylinders, and when starting any real train you start off veerrryyyy slowly, pulling full throttle on any steam loco would at best spin the wheels in place and wear notches into the track, and at worse blow apart cylinders and rods and wreck stuff. It is quite possible that in some conditions you would never be able to use full power without wheel slip, but it would not be a consistent number, so I'm gonna go with the current Heisler wheel slip problem being a bug, but to be realistic there should be way more wheel slip with a locomotives when starting. *Reverser;* this one is the tricky one, while a car's transmission is a good analog, it's not entirely accurate because this does not affect the top speed of the locomotive. It controls the valve timing, which affects the amount and direction of steam that is fed into the cylinders. When starting you set it all the way forward or back, and then once moving you can move it towards the middle, which will reduce the amount of steam used and make your wood and water go further, it will also in theory reduce your torque output, which should make wheel slip less likely. When you hit a hill you would move it back towards the full position to get more power, then on a flat you can move towards the middle to save steam. on a downhill you can actually set the regulator to a low value, and then move the reverser to the opposite direction you are going to slow the train down, unlike a car, powering a steam locomotive in reverse will not damage it and is a common technique used to slow a train. Hopefully some of this was interesting and informative, and if anyone wants to chime in with specifics of how this stuff is implemented in the game I'd be happy to hear it.

the best way to operate the heisler is reg at 59% and reverser at whatever. the reason it cannot go past 60% reg is because of the physics engine. Dev's are fixing it

kAN, the devs have said that the wheelslip from the Climax and Heisler is because of a problem in the physics engine that they're (hopefully) fixing Also the generator is for electric lights

Last Hope is such an awesome name for an engine. And it feels like something that a tired and frustrated rail company trying to fight through the mountains might actually call an engine.

The Generator is for electrical systems the Heisler uses the generator for the lights since they use bulbs

Try this train configuration: 10 beams cars (total of 30 beams), 5 planks cars (total of 30 planks) and 3 irons cars (total of 30 iron). For a total of 18 cars witch is feasible. You go to the mine with 30 beams and 30 planks and come back with 30 irons that you drop at the smelter. An all in one trip!

If I was running my own railway in Railroad Online, I'd have the specific locos stationed at certain points as opposed to taking them all the way from Point A to Point C. So for example in your Railway world, I'd have the Gear Trains by the Sawmill to take the load to the Iron Mine. Probably save time as well as get more usage of the other locos.

Generator is steam driven and is used for generating electrical power for the lamp. It will use up a relatively small amount of steam, if modelled correctly.

Btw it’s pronounced ”high-sler”. Fantastic video thumbnail! A loop does fit at the iron mine, so no reversing needed. Fwiw, I love running the Mogul with 1 hopper and 12 cars to the iron and coal mines. Quick and powerful and no wheel slip. You are right on the generator. Just like the compressor gives you brakes on air brake engines, the generator gives electricity for the engines with light bulb (vs oil lamp) lanterns as you saw. I’d love to see a day night cycle with them.

Congrats on getting a geared loco! You shouldn't need to run it over 40% reg in my experience and all the generator does is run it's lights, usually have mine set to 50% for a nice soft glow from the lights

The Heisler is, from what I hear, the MOST buggy loco in game. You go above 60% regulator and you hit that perpetual wheel slip until you drop it back to 0.

25:00 That moment felt so good when it went over the top

"There is controversy about what the generator does" like bro you can literally see the electric lights come on when you turn the generator on :-D

The Hesler will not move any faster on the rails beyond 40% on the regulator at full forward on the Reverser on a flat run so it's just a waste of steam power unless your climbing a hill and need a tiny bit more actual power so anything above 55% is pushing your luck on wheel spin. Generator is for the bulb lights only does nothing else. The smaller version of the geared engines is slower than the Hesler but has tons of power so a great switching engine but not good for long trips due to it's lack of speed.

Kan’s commitment to the train madness is pretty great. It just reminds me of trying to run Factorio trains, which are just such a nightmare to get working properly

I'd like a second line to the iron mine below a certain gradient, when they patch the physics engine for the high traction trains. To see if that's faster than the current route post patch. Great content as always kAN!

If you add sand, and turn it on, you can set Regulator to 100% with no wheel slip. Also, when u reload a game, the sand domes are empty, so will need to refill every re-load. The sand house was not close enough to the tracks, when the sand dome is full, its to the top of the sand dome.

I love these videos so much, please carry on making them.

I just bought this game. A young friend of mine turned me on to you and your videos on Scrap Mac. So when I saw your feed with this game I had to watch. You and your friends have fun and help old noobs like me.

The ore and coal cars are extremely heavy you need to keep them by your engine. This will prevent your trains from pulling off on turns.

I found you about a year ago and I’ve been watching you consistently ever since, keep up the great work, we really love your videos Kan

I love how the Heisler and the Shay and the Climax are designed. They don't directly rely on piston power straight to driving wheels. The Heisler has a driveshaft! Cool

The regulator limits the duration in which steam is injected before reversing the cycle Cutting back on the reverser slowly to 1/3 of the full extension when you are up to speed should be more energy effeicent At least in reality it works that way In one of the older Train Simulators you could only reach the top speed by cutting back on the regulator

neat fact for you kAN, geared locomotives such as the Shay, Climax, and Heisler were built for logging and mining railroads to be able to move materials up and down steep grades. Some of the railroads around my home in New England ran at an average of 6.5% grade but some lines throughout the US could get as steep as 11%. The gear reduction in those three locomotives sacrificed speed for the sake of increased torque, since you were screwed if you were moving fast down those grades lol. The Heisler and the Class 70 2-8-0 have nearly the same amount of power but the Heisler will pull the same loaded train up tighter curves and steeper grades while the Class 70 will pull the train faster on ≤ 3% grades. Great content so far man! Looking forward to more and to seeing you and Dapper running trains to and from the mine together.

Kan I really like your videos about Railroads online. And just want to help you out with some questions you have had . On the Engineer drives the train the conductor takes care of the paperwork and handles turn outs a.k.a Switch tracks .also a locomotive in the middle on a consist a.k.a train is called A" DPU" a.k.a "Distributive Power Unit". And yes I believe that all the loading should be automatic lol. Thanks for all you do Woody

kan - glad to see this episode - love the world you made so far.

i think that they are called trucks instead of bogies if the game was perfectly realistic i think that the generator would decrece the power of the train because it vents the steam through whatever turbine that it uses to generate power and dumps the steam out the smaller steam exhaust. i think the trick to getting 100% reg is just to build it ip over time, like driving a car, you want to accelerate slowly.

First, yet again another excellent series. Second, I know you're planning a return loop but it seems to me that a temporary fix is a turntable where you can decouple the locomotive and spin it or even a tight curve that connects to the back so that you can couple with the last car and exit the iron mine without having to do it in reverse the entire way.

Someone in a previous episode said something along the lines of "geared trains are like honey badgers, you can throw whatever you want at them, they just don't care." I think you just proved that!

27:00 it is a piston engine of scrap mechanic. Nice engine, Good game. Amazing KAN Love you man

If you're confident in your track laying it seems like you could just push a cart of ore over the edge of the downhill portion and let it coast down to the smelter Tho I guess that would only really make sense if more people were playing

LMAO I cracked up SO much when you slammed the regulator all the way open and the engine went "I go now. ALL THE WHEELSPIN!!". I'm glad rail wear or damage isn't a mechanic in this game cos you would have absolutely SHREDDED those rails with that much wheelslip LOL

When you're in the train HUD you can use W and S to move regulator up and down by increments of 2%, It helps me a lot to control so figured it might help if you didn't know (haven't seen you control it like that in your videos) Love the videos man, Scrap Mechanic is my go to game, but Railroads online is starting to take the position

I'm building a decent shunting and reverse line out in that area as well as leaving a porter up there. I plan on making smaller supply runs, leaving tons of supplies up there for the iron and use the porter for the supply drops. I also built a shut yard right at the bottom of the big hill so loaded and empty can be moved up or down the mountain.

I am here to provide some information regarding the reverser. Reverser is a mechanical device that determines the length of steam injection into the cylinders. 100% means that fresh steam is let in for (almost) the entire cycle. A reduced reverser means steam is cut off at a given point throughout every cylinder stroke. This does reduce the tractive power, but lets the steam expand in the cylinder, passing more of it's internal energy to the cylinders. This results in a more efficient steam usage. The proper way of driving a steam locomotive is the follownig: 1. On each start, pull 100% reverser and adjust the regulator as needed. 2. As soon as the loco is chuggin' (has some momentum), start reducing the reverser load and open the reg further to match the power need. 3. When the regulator is fully open and more power is needed, increase the reverser load respectively. (usually 20% reverser does the trick everywhere)

To my understanding, regulator is like a gear box. You want to be in low gear (higher percentage) going up steep slopes. When going fast on flatter terrain, you can be in a higher gear (lower percentage)

For the record, the pronunciation is Hi-slur with the e being silent rather than the i being silent.

Hey there, also operated a steam engine in the past. With the reverser, the closer you are to zero, the less stroke you use in the cylinders. If you're at speed, you can bring it close to zero to be more efficient, but once there is enough load, you'll lose speed and would have to go full forward. It's a balancing act, kind of like trying to drive up a steep hill in 5th gear in your car. sometimes your engine can't keep up with load, so you drop a gear or two to make it up. Hopefully they incorporate full reverser capabilities soon!

Love the series, man!

Kan your doing great keep up the work i cant wait to see the next episode

hi Gary chase here the reverser cut off is only to conserve steam it shortens the valve travel in the cylinders and it's like changing gears in your car to find out how to do it best in the Hisler go to cab view and look at the Jonson bar (reviser) just use the first 2 Noches and if you really want pulling power try a 3-truck shay. fyi I build 7.5-gauge live steam locomotives I have also worked on full size engines. Also worked for DISNEY WORLD in the engine shed /back shop

When i watch these types of vids makes my day

Glad that I found this video on the Heisler... I did not know about the air break and had a hard time getting it to stop...

TWO railroads online videos in ONE weekend what a treat!

On wheel slip: The regulator controls the power to the cylinders. Power = Force x Speed. For a given regulator (Power) setting, if Speed is lower, the tractive Force will be higher. Wheel spin is caused by the tractive force exceeding the maximum static friction between wheel and rail. The answer is therefore that you can only open the regulator fully at higher speeds.

I did some digging on the reverser and it just determines how much steam is sent to the pistons. When beginning to move you want to have it high and if not climbing a gradient or just cruising along you can set it quite low to limit the steam flow and effectively increase your economy by quite a lot. So high speed cruising is high reg and low reverser. Edit: The reverser determines the timing of steam sent to the pistons. The regulator is like a throttle lever that determines how much steam goes in. So high reg and low reverser send high pressure steam but only for a short amount of time. Full reverser sends the steam for the full stroke of the piston. Therefore less reverser means less power but also less steam consumed (less loss of water level).

Ive seen comments about the physics engine being broken, but in the future when its patched, try getting up to speed at the 60% throttle first before going full 100%. Gotta remember that the friction between wheel and rail is really low, so applying 100% force at a standstill from such a powerful engine will completely over ride what little friction you have and cause wheelslip.

You should extend to the coal mine from the Iron mine, seeing they both need hoppers to get loads from there

Fun fact the heisler was designed in 1892 the V twin setup was designed to give power to all the trucks on the locomotive which is the reason for the weird designs there are 3 different types of designs of this locomotive

Kan, There is a regulator to break ratio that you have to find. When you do it moves up a lot more smoother and faster. My preferred one is 60:15 and when I bog down I take it up to 40:10 once it gets back to speed I take it back to 60:15.

Finally i been waiting for this

Man We got Derail Valley. Then we got this. I'd really love to see a game like this but set in like 1930s-1960s Britain Moving your way up from things like Fowler 4Fs up to the Class 9F

I like the Allman Brothers in the background!

Success! Oh, it's so good seeing your progress! Yes, I'm cheating by watching a year in the future, but dang!

Dropping the reverser is the same as shifting into a higher gear. It's great when you have a light train on level ground where you can run at speed. Any time you climb, you'll want the reverser at 100% which is basically running in first gear.

The wheel slip is pretty realistic, because my grandfather used to own and drive one of these.

I have it set up so that you go up on the other side, and you go down the side you were trying to go up. That way you can grab iron, go to the smelter, drop at smelter, go to sawmill, grab planks and lumber, then grab iron again

Best series this mans has ever had

This is only speculation but I think it might be a valve gear engine. That means the closer to 0 your reverser is the lower your power, but the higher your max speed (at zero load, there is always a perfect balance for every load that gets you max speed). So I suggest slowly ramping up the reverser along with the reg to not have it make too much power.

Another idea for turning around at the iron mine would be having a turntabe conected to a side track so all you have to do is run around your train after turning around

For the most part if you want torque out of the train at low speeds you want the reverser fairly high. If you were wanting to go faster without worrying about torque you lower the reverser. Also, some people call them "bogie" and others call them "Trucks". It depends where you are.

That wheel spin at the start is straight out of The General XD.

I think you have the option now to bring a double load to the mine, and leave half of the full wagons there for later. Come back to pick up ore, when the mine has consumed everything, and switch over to the loaded wagons to unload them.

I love these videos!

Exactly what I’ve been waiting for today a nother train video and I love these new tear train videos

I always use buttons 3 & 4 to regulate the throttle. You get finer control. (happy birthday to me :)

Cool video and this is a great video

This is the best series boiiiiiiis!!!!

Set up keybinds for the regulator. Set the regulator slider to about 45, then use the key bind to increase the regulator in small incriments. at about 59%regulator, turn on sand, you can get up to about 70% regulator if you do it slow enough. i usually dont run it over 65%. I can climb 8% grade with 16 loaded lumber cars using that method.

In my home town we have a park tha was built around one of theses styles of trains The mechanic brain in me geeks out on how everything works

The Heisler and the Climax were not built for speed. They were low geared for working in the mountains mostly for logging companies. They had to navigate steep grades and tight turns. There is a third type of these locomotives called the Shay. I really hope they include it into the game as we'll.

WOO MORE TRAINS!

Shay's, Climax, and Heisler's were designed for Mountain climbing, that wheel slip is the physics engine not knowing how to handle the torque. The biggest reason that they weren't used as much is well that torque comes at the cost of speed. But most loads were easily manned by these locos in mountains. Funny thing the grade you are going up, yeah the UK still has the steepest hill on a railway not using rack and pinion gears. It is known as the Lickey Incline and even unloaded it is hard to climb.

Now that you say it, it makes sense that if you put the reverser down and the regulator up you get more traction. Less wheel speed, more power going into the wheels. If I understand it correctly.

To be fully honest, I'd kinda like to see you do the other route to the iron mine. Instead of an A-B and B-A route just have a loop. It'd be cool to have what you already built be the return since it's so steep, and have a much smoother incline. It's just an idea.

That generator sound is actually accurate.

i don't know anything about trains but it would make sense to me if the reverser played more of a role on the geared trains. the others would be direct drive i would assume so 100% reverser wouldn't matter as much you would end up using as a cruise control instead. there again its early access

Btw @8:05 when filling the train, you filled the boiler but you left the tank empty, you can see the tank filling by looking into the water in hole, the water level in it slowly rises when the boiler is full, this tank will fill the boiler untill its empty (another 3-5k water)

“i built one of these in scrap mechanic a long time ago” old me, who remembers: *it feels like it just just last week*

guys the reverser and regulator are pretty simple to explain ... the regulator controlls the amount of steam thats going to the pistons and the reverser controlls how long of a stroke the piston is feed with steam ... so if the train comes up to speed you dont need the full travel of the piston to be feed with steam ... like 100% means the piston gets steam over it full piston travel ... 50% means it only gets half of its piston travel ... means only half of the steam is used for one stroke ... and of course you losing power if you if you back down on the reverser but you using only half as much fuel ... i hope this explains a bit what you see and feel in game when you play around with it

Keep up the series

If you load your planks in the middle and last cars you wont have to move as much at the iron mine, you also might be able to load beams and planks at the same time at the sawmill, and unload planks and beams at the same time at the iron mine. If it works out you have to make fewer moves with the train

Everyone: "trains can't do burnouts" Kan:

I love this so much

You should still do a last hope V.S Betsy because I think it would be satisfying to see Betsy being dragged kicking and screaming.

Geared locomotives were not built for speed, but for tractive effort since they were designed for operations on logging and mining railroads with very steep grades and sharper bends. This is the reason why the Heisler locomotive moves slower than the other locomotives like the Cooke mogul, or the 0-4-0 porter.

Every time the wheels were 100% I was Laughing my head off way to much. Its hilarious this train has such fast wheel slip.

The idea is that the regulator is the steam pressure, and the reverser is the steam volume and direction. (how large, and in what order to open the valves) Too high of pressure (reg) will blow out the traction on the wheels and cause wheelspin. Too much steam (rev) bogs down the speed that the cylinders can come back up in the stroke, reducing pulling power and stalling the engine.

steam trains with generators typically have whats called a dynamo, its a little steam turbine with a generator inside.

Kan: Let's get this train moving. Train: BURNOUT REQUESTED. EXECUTING.

Never seen a train do burn-outs before

You should run a two track line from freight depot to smelter and iron mine, that way you can have someone running a train from iron mine to smelter and freight depot and another train running from lumber mill to saw mill to iron mine and you can pass eachother if need be

I think the reverser is like a clutch on a motorcycle or something. If your train is getting bogged down, lower the reverser so the motor doesn’t slow down, then you can increase the regulator without wheel spin. Idc I don’t have the game so sorry if it doesn’t work

if you want, build a wood depot at the iron mine, and use that extra 6 planks for fire wood.

The reverser down and max throttle up is for flat sections. It won't work on a grade because you're applying less power.

Generators are used to provide electricity to the headlights you’d need a booster to provide more power aside from the main drivers

the layout of a gear train is really the basis of a modern car

The generator is the steam powered dynamo that runs your lights and any other electrical devices on the locomotive.

Btw the Climax is geared down even more than the Heisler so it’s even more powerful and even slower it’s literally walking speed with the climax but it’s a beast it pulls everything