Check out our latest update on the progress of the Western Maryland I-2 Class!
Since the last 2 years when our WM I-2 Class project was started, it soon entered the waiting list until its turn finally came, due to new commission requests that arose from which we applied a priority. But finally and on schedule, we are proud to announce the release date of the latest Machine Rail™ DLC for Train Simulator Classic 2024!
From the last two months until now, we have been totally focused on this project until it was completely finished, where the locomotive and wagons were 100% complete, including 3D mesh modeling, textures, animations and all the resources required for this project.
Based on our research studies of the main coal trains operated by Western Maryland Railway, we believed in the idea of offering standardized 55ft Hopper cars for the giant Decapods to experience their maximum tractive effort.
A Caboose already known to all, it has undergone some subtle modifications to represent the actual Caboose used by the Western Maryland Railway in its representative years of operations between the mid-1940s and 1950s, thus making a perfect match with the Hoppers and Decapods during their glory, but already with their destinies sealed.
Visibly noticed and famous for this feature, the 1927 Decapods built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works for the Western Maryland Railway had one of the largest tenders for a steam locomotive! This temple carries around 22,000 gallons of water and 30 tons of coal to make long journeys feasible with this powerful machine; of course, a boiler and furnace of this size is very hungry, which ranked the consumption of these locomotives very high.
The interior of the I-2 Class cabin was very spacious, but the fact that the front wall of the cabin had to be tilted at an angle of 15º to the front in order to follow the external mirror of the furnace, made the arrangement of some controls a little complicated, making it necessary to mount the turret and valves outside the cabin. The important thing is that everything essential for operating the locomotive is inside.
55ft Hoppers available in two colors and with dynamic charcoal loading.
It's always very important to clarify that the models in this project are complex and highly detailed, which is why we work with LODs technology to guarantee acceptable performance during the simulation without a sharp drop in FPS. All interior and exterior lights work with Visual Effect Shadows, which is mainly responsible for the reduction in FPS. We recommend that you don't operate the locomotive with all the lights on at the same time.
Train Simulator, since the days of Railworks, has always demanded high processing performance from RAM, CPU and GPU, so if you still have a computer with a very outdated video card and processor or with little memory, you will certainly suffer a drop in FPS.
Normal Consist Tested:
1 Locomotive + 20 Loaded Hopper + 1 Locomotive + 20 Loaded Hopper + Caboose
- CPU - Intel Core i5 / 10th Generation / 2.90 GHz
- RAM - 32.0GB / DDR 4
- GPU and VRAM - Radeon RX 5500 XT / 8.0GB
- Operating System - Windows 10 Pro / 64 Bits
- Experienced Frame Rate: 20-35 FPS
Release date: December 20th!
I would like to take this opportunity to say a special thank you to everyone who has participated directly or indirectly in this project and to all our friends and clients.
Regards, Carlos.
