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My comments on Train Simulator game

Steam locomotive working

Diesel-Electric locomotive working

My add-ons for Train Simulator

My comments on train simulator

This article reflects my personal feeling about Microsoft/Kuju Train Simulator (MSTS for short) PC game. It is not meant to be an introduction of the game.

Train Simulator is the best game I have ever played on PC. It is really magnificent. It is not a game in conventional sense. You don't race with anyone or don't solve a puzzle. Rather you enjoy riding (I rather say driving) a train with realistic constraints. It is estimated that 500,000 people in the world regularly play this game (and the number is increasing). This game is basically a simulation. You drive a train of your dream. You can become a passenger also (but that's not much fun anyway). Earlier I played Flight Simulator. That was wonderful but I never fell in love with that as I did in Train Simulator. Manoeuvring a plane is a challenge, but once you take it to the skies, there is not much to see around you! Where as in MSTS, you drive a train along real (or fictitious) routes. The lush green meadows, Victorian style stations, hanging bridges and much more can be seen on your way. Your view is not just confined to the driver's cab. You can view the entire train (and surrounding scenery) in full 3D from any angle. That is an astonishing phenomenon. The physics behind MSTS is not 100% accurate but I must say it is really appreciable. The whistle of locomotives is scintillating. In real life, I don't like steam locomotives, but in MSTS I like to play (read drive) them most. The movement of wheels and pistons can be seen, which sparkles the engineer in every man's heart! (Women don't get too much fun from train driving - they prefer more to watch trains running as screen saver).

I learnt a lot about railways from MSTS. I am always fascinated about rails from my childhood. I enjoyed (and still do) Hornby/Lima OO scale model railways. But MSTS gave me the true feeling of driving a real train! This game is very informative. Most trains have been decorated to the extent of real life train. The hissing sound of air brake release gives a feeling that now you can roll this 1500 ton train! Though I have never driven a real life train but now I can at least say that I can learn it driving in no time. I got so entangled with the game I started to delve the Internet to find out how electric motors, air brakes, power control etc work I had many doubts from childhood about trains. Most of them got answered by playing the game itself. In fact, my dad was also started driving trains once I installed the game to his computer (so far he used to play with Solitaire only).

In university, I had a course on transportation engineering. There I read bit of railway engineering. Sadly, the course was designed to make us get the pass mark in exam rather than imparting any real knowledge of train operations. I believe in some advanced Railway/Transport engineering courses a lot of traffic simulation is done. However, I don't know if any university uses MSTS to do that. In MSTS, one is not limited to play with the engine-coach-freight stock supplied. You can download virtually any loco, coach, freight car etc. from internet and make your own consist (rake).

I did some extensive studying on train operations. There from I got a good knowledge of train traction (factors affecting them), braking force, optimum steam generation rate, wheel slip etc. After that I modified a lot of locomotives' eng files (which contains the physical info on locomotives) to reflect more realistic behaviour. In fact, some people did very commendable research on this game and highlighted how it differs from real life trains. They have suggested all the formulas, which will make MSTS, behave more like real trains.

Then I did repaints of some famous locomotives and coaches in Indian Railways liveries (download information is shown towards end of this page). Unfortunately, MSTS is still not very popular in India (compared to Europe/America/Australia). This is because of the comparative high price of the game. However, it is a really good game people of all ages should enjoy it. If you can't afford buying it, check if your friend has a copy and install it from there. (Patch 1.2 of MSTS does not require original CDs in the drive during playing - which means you can simply install it from any copied version).

MSTS has an open architecture. Which means anyone can create add-ons for it. You can create your own locomotives, coaches, wagons and even complete routes! However, these tasks are sometimes pretty complicated (especially creation of routes) and time consuming.

Indian Railways fan club web site is at www.irfca.org

Working of Steam locomotive

Diesel-Electric locomotive working

The advantage of the diesel engine over the petrol engine is that it has a higher thermal capacity (it gets more work out of the fuel), the fuel is cheaper because it is less refined than petrol and it can do heavy work under extended periods of overload. It can however, in a high speed form, be sensitive to maintenance and noisy, which is why it is still not popular for passenger cars. Also, because of their inherent characteristics, diesel engines produce more torque than petrol engines.

The maximum rotational speed of the engine when producing full power will be about 1000 RPM and the engine will idle at about 400 RPM. These relatively low speeds mean that the engine design is heavy, as opposed to a high speed, lightweight engine. However, some high speed diesel engine has a speed of 1,500 RPM and this is regarded as high speed in the railway diesel engine category. The slow, heavy engine used in railway locomotives will give low maintenance requirements and an extended life.

The definition of tractive effort (TE) is simply the force exerted at the wheel rim of the locomotive and is usually expressed in Newtons.

By the time the tractive effort is transmitted to the coupling between the locomotive and the train, the drawbar pull, as it is called will have reduced because of the friction of the mechanical parts of the drive and some wind resistance.

One thing worth remembering is that the power produced by the diesel engine is not all available for traction. In a 2600 HP diesel electric locomotive, some 450 HP is lost to on-board equipment like blowers, radiator fans, air compressors and "hotel power" for the train.

Diesel-electric locomotives come in three varieties, according to the period in which they were designed. These three are:

DC - DC (DC generator supplying DC traction motors);
AC - DC (AC alternator output rectified to supply DC motors) and
AC - DC - AC (AC alternator output rectified to DC and then inverted to 3-phase AC for the traction motors).

The DC - DC type has a generator supplying the DC traction motors through a resistance control system, the AC - DC type has an alternator producing AC current which is rectified to DC and then supplied to the DC traction motors and, finally, the most modern has the AC alternator output being rectified to DC and then converted to AC (3-phase) so that it can power the 3-phase AC traction motors. Although this last system might seem the most complex, the gains from using AC motors far outweigh the apparent complexity of the system. In reality, most of the equipment uses solid state power electronics with microprocessor-based controls. For more details on AC and DC traction, see the Electronic Power Page on this site.

Since the diesel-electric locomotive uses electric transmission, traction motors are provided on the axles to give the final drive. These motors were traditionally DC but the development of modern power and control electronics has led to the introduction of 3-phase AC motors. For a description of how this technology works, go to the Electronic Power Page on this site. There are between four and six motors on most diesel-electric locomotives. A modern AC motor with air blowing can provide up to 1,000 HP.

Characteristics of motors

Power transmission

Usually DC motors take current from third rail and AC motors take current from overhead wire (catenary).

Power loss is much less in AC transmission compared to DC transmission over long distances. That's why long distance electric trains use AC power transmission.

DC motors

High starting torque - in fact torque is more or less constant with varying speed as magnetic flux is constant.
Speed can be changed very easily.
Motor shaft can be rotated in reverse easily (just by changing polarity of current)
Easy to control under varying loads

Commutator and carbon brushes are liable to be damaged.
A overloaded DC motor (having current without/very slowly turning) will burn out. So, most DC motors have a min. continuous speed.

Power in DC circuit = Voltage x Current = Watt
Mechanical power output Po = Torque x 2 x pi x n where n = rotation per second
Electrical power input Pi = Voltage (V) x Current (A)
Efficiency Po/Pi

AC motors

Does not have commutator and brushes - thus less wear prone. Also, it helps to produce low speed high throttle (i.e. ampere) power.

An AC motor's speed is usually dependant on its design, but it may be controlled by varying the frequency of the input voltage.

Power control in AC motors is bit complicated. So, in locomotives often a 3 phase AC traction motors system is used.

diesel engine -> alternator -> rectifier (AC converted to DC & power control takes place with varying voltage & frequency) -> DC link -> inverter -> AC traction motors

Power is AC circuit a complicated calculation! But in brief, the power developed in an AC motor is related to the magnitude of the voltage, the current, and the internal resistance of the motor, and the frequency of the AC applied to the motor, because the frequency will change the phase angle.

Economy

Initial investment on electric locos and laying out electrified track is very expensive! So, it offers advantage only in the long run and with very heavy traffic.

source: www.crisny.org/not-for-profit/railroad/en_info.htm

My add-ons of train simulator

Note: You can't download them from here. They are available at www.train-sim.com web site. This site holds world's largest freeware collection of MSTS related downloads. You need to register with them first (free). Then you can download whatever you want from there.

I included the actual filenames for the add-ons so that you can easily find them in the www.train-sim.com site.

Indian Railways WDM3A Diesel-electric locomotive

The most ubiquitous diesel loco in India

Filename: irwdm3.zip