Happy Labor Day to All!!!!!! I was running a test of an activity I'm working on and noticed that I was having difficulty getting up the grade from Elam to Zinc City with the Shay pulling two loaded flats (one lumber, one timber). I went into the files and checked the weight (mass) of the flats in question (OzarkN_Flat_2_SLSF_timber, and OzarkN_Flat_1_ArkRN_timber) and noted that in both, the loaded mass given in the comment section and the one in the mass section were different.
e.g.: ON Flat 2 SLSF Loaded weight in comment = 22.72 ton, under "MASS" 29.72 ton, a 7 ton difference! Is this intentional to simulate overloading? I've also checked several other cars and noticed the same discrepancy some with as much as 10 tons!!!!!!!! HELP !!!!! Thanks, Mike.

Hi Mike:

I'm forwarding a link to this to Bill Hobbs, the chap that helped with the physics.

I'm sure we'll hear from him shortly.

Okay, I've done a bit of poking around and it looks like it was a self-induced error.

Ol' Bill Hobbs is free and clear.

Apparently there are a few wag files that need to be tweaked.

My free time is committed for the short term, I will return to this and try to address it as soon as I can.

Sorry for the OOOOPS!

Thanks for the quick responce Andre. If all that needs to be done is to make the weights match, I got that but if there is more involved let me know. Thanks, Mike the Yank

The weights are not the problem. The braking is not correct for the ON. The ON uses 70psi brake lines; the cars are set for 90psi. This means the brakes are always nearly fully set even when the train-line is fully charged. (90psi lines are set for max brake force at about 64psi).
A quick history on how ON equipment was gotten ready. Jon Davis did the art work and sent the equipment with a rudimentary wag file to Andre who would normally forward the equipment to me for physics settings. I would do the couplers, braking, sound, and check everything and return to Andre. Somehow this group of cars never made it to me. Given that there were so many groups of cars (Jon is very prolific) over a couple of year period, a mistake here and there is not a surprize. My first set of cars dates back to 2006!
Andre and I have isolated the cars involved and now it is a question of going in and making the needed changes, testing, and packaging.
Bill Hobbs

Hi Bill, Thanks for the information. However that still dose not explain why in the comment section, the bit that is in parentheses, the empty weights of all the cars match the weight given under the " Mass" heading but the loaded weights do not match, some being off by as much as 10 tons. Please don't take this the wrong way. I LOVE this stuff and really do understand the time and the commitment it takes to produce a high end quality product like the Ozark Northern and all the rolling stock. I'm just curious. ( I know all about the cat I don't think you'll kill me. ) Thanks again, Mike the Yank

I think Jon put the empty and load weight comment lines in. When reviewing the cars, I often changed them to be closer to values I saw in John White's book on freight cars. I tried to insure that the loaded weight reflected both the weight of the load and the empty car weight. The loaded weight is usually intended as the maximum weight, even though cars might not always be loaded to the maximum.
This is not always the case, particularly on the cars I didn't see. Some loaded weights are just the weight of the load itself. If there is a higher weight on those cars, it is probably Andre adding load to the cars. None of the weights I have seen is out of range for these cars.
A freight car whose tare weight is 1/2 its loaded weight isn't a very good car. Even in wooden car days the ratio was better than that. 3 to 1 is still not great. You can see the value of steel cars with 4 to 1 or better ratios.

Bill

Thanks again Bill. I'll sit back and wait for the update. Mike

Quick update:

I received a zip containing fixed/updated wags from Bill. Unfortunately, when I get home from work this evening, I'm leaving and will be gone for the weekend.

I will attend to this upon my return!

The good news is:

As stated above, the updated wags are on my hard drive.

The bad news is:

Alas, will be leaving for out of town again. I will attend to this as soon as practical upon my return.



(Life is kind of nuts right now. )

Thanks for the update Andre. I went in and changed the brake pipe values on the cars in question and have made it "up the grade" to Zinc City. Hang in there guys, this activity is not a phantom. It's 99.9% complete. I just want to run it from beginning to end, which takes about two and a half (2.5) hours, and we all know how hard it is to get that block of time. Thanks again to Bill for the fix. Waiting patiently, Mike

Hello Mike!

I haven't forgotten this. Just got back from using the last of my vacation days. (See the "Road Trip" thread for some details.)

Anyhoo...

I'll be off to check on my widowed mother this afternoon after church. I hope to begin addressing this beginning on Monday evening.

Thanks for your patience!