Friends of the Rail Forum

Decent steam engine smoke at long last - how long did this take!!!

Go to the train-sim.com file library, and do a file search on truesmok. Enjoy!

Well, it's grey smoke, not black, so the fireman is doing OK!

And no pixellated lumps pouring out of the stack!

I'm not sure what I'd do if I were firing and I discovered pixellated lumps in the coal....

You would use a filter to smooth them - if you had the memory of course to resolve (subtle this) the problem!

British steam locomotives carry a thing called a coal pick - basically a tool like a bigger and heavier geologist's hammer or ice axe - as British steam coal used to come with some house brick sized lumps in it which had to be broken up before being hoyed into the firebox. Would a coal pick help with pixellated lumps, perhaps?! It's all in line with the general adage that if it doesn't work, you hit it with a hammer. If it still doesn't work, you need a bigger hammer. You think I'm joking? Come down to Capital Park when there's a loco in steam, or some serious maintenance going on...