top of page
Search

Updated: Jun 24, 2024

check out the improvements and fixes present in this update

If you already have the "ICRR 1923 Lima Mikados & Freight Fleet" package installed on your Train Simulator Classic, just download and install this update as usual. If you don't already own this package, the product is already updated in our store.


What has been updated?


•Fixed the gap between the smoke box cover

•Improved the pivot of the driving axles

•Fixed tender fuel volume (coal and water) in HUD F4

•Fixed tender water level from 13.0 to 13000 gallons (update B)

•Improved the transition of chuff sounds at low speed


This is a small but very important update to make this locomotive even more confident to operate.


Click on the link below to download the update, via Drive:

Update - Download via GoogleDrive - MR ICRR 1923 Lima Mikados Update


We appreciate everyone's feedback, and we hope to make your experience with our products even better.


Enjoy!

1,105 views9 comments

Available now for Train Simulator Classic!

After 5 long months of very hard work, we proudly present to everyone our newest release; a great Illinois Central Railroad Steam Era bundle that makes up a complete series of Mikado locomotives and over 10 different types of freight cars. Check below what is included in this bundle:


I.C.R.R. • 1923 Lima Locomotive Works "Mikados"

Two versions of the locomotive are available in the package, the version with the front of the original Lima smokebox door (as delivered) and another with the door modified by ICRR itself. During research, we noticed a very large difference in the numbering of the locomotives, where all units would have been renumbered and consequently many have undergone modifications; and this was one such modification that we have chosen to represent here.

The two versions side by side. 1500 as delivered and 1518 modified.



I.C.R.R. The Freight Fleet

We are not particularly pioneering in railcar manufacturing, but recently we have had the opportunity to work on the passenger cars for our 1893 No.999 & Empire State Express Bundle and now on a fleet of freight cars and a Caboose to make up the ICRR bundle.


If we spent 4 continuous months working on just the locomotive, another whole month (maybe a little more) was dedicated just to building this fleet of freight cars and the Caboose; check out all these cars that complete this bundle below:


Cabooses

The team invested many hours of modeling and texturing on this Caboose, where many small details were added to the model such as the presence of the entire 3D structure of the external wood that surrounds the entire Caboose, another external detail that can be seen in operation is the belt-driven dynamo connected to one of the axles of the rear bogie.


On the inside, all the most important components for the Caboose were added, plus many other small details that can be seen throughout the interior. And to make this easier we have added some internal camera points so that you can enjoy all these details in the dome, kitchen, main hallway and even in the bathroom.








Hoppers

6 different versions are available for the Hoppers cars in this package. This includes three levels of paint livery and two load types: ballast and coal.



Boxcar

Perhaps the Boxcars are the simplest of this bundle, but they are certainly one of the most important freight car! Has only one version.

Gondolas

Three versions for the Gondolas, three levels of weathered paint, and three different loads: Logs, coal and stones.



Flatcars

4 types of Flatcars are available for your train, you can choose between the version with stakes (piles) on the sides or without the stakes (piles), two versions of the 2-axle trailer and an exclusive version loaded with brand new tractors!




Tanks

Three other versions for the Tanks are also available, with three levels of paint aging.



Reefers

Only 1 version available for refrigerated cars

All freight cars have loading add-ons, so you can manually add loading through Editor Mode just by checking the cargo box, or pass with the train at a point and load. The wagons that have rivets use Lods system for best performance, where the rivets "disappear" after a certain distance, this will not affect your field of view, the rivets will still be visible in front of the camera.


Core Performance and Limitations

It is very important for us to say about the performance of this package specifically on your Train Simulator Classic. We are all aware of the frequent updates the game has received in the last months and this has directly affected all additional content to TSC, whether created by third parties or not. Machine Rail™ prides itself on developing new features and adding more detail to its products with each new release, but everything has a limit; and with this package we are sure we have reached those limits, which is mainly about performance.


The steam machines we create for TSC respect as much detail as possible using references from a real-life specimen, from their aesthetic details to their running specifications in running order. Even during its 3D mesh construction, we are careful not to exceed the limits supported by TSC, which we all know is a dated but still very authentic simulator. The ICRR 1923 Lima Mikados of this package has something around 680K full 3D mesh polygons and vertices, externally and internally; this is a high number but we know it is within the limits of TSC (these numbers can easily pass 1.5M depending on the size of the locomotive and the details added to the model and TSC core is still able to support it).


For all the types of cars created for TSC, the limit of polygons and vertices for 3D mesh is much smaller than a locomotive, because these are models that will be added to the game in large numbers, for example: "2 locos + 60 coal cars + caboose" we already know that the units that will demand more from your PC are the locomotives and the caboose. But this tends to change according to the evolution of available hardware, automatically new 3D models are created with much more detail making them even more beautiful and realistic, of course this will reflect on performance.


We would like to make available to everyone, the informative data from Machine Rail™'s internal testing of this product on one of our PC's:


• Train Simulator Classic (Steam Version - last updated)

• B&O Sub Division Route - Quick Drive Mode

• ICRR Reefer Express | Doubleheader + 40 Cars + Caboose + Helper (average 20-30 FPS)

• ICRR Mixed Freight | 1 Loco + 30 Cars + Caboose (average 35-50 FPS)

• ICRR Coal Train | Doubleheader + 35 Cars + Caboose (average 35-40 FPS)


Hardware Specifications:

• Processor: Intel Core I5 10400 - CPU 2.90GHz

• RAM Memory: 32GB

• Video Card: AMD Radeon RX 5500XT 8GB VRAM

The Illinois Central Railroad - 1923 Lima Mikados & Great Freight Fleet

IS AVAILABLE IN OUR STORE NOW!


After installing this product on your TSC, don't forget to access the Operations Manual included in the download, there you will find a lot of important and essential information for the correct use of this DLC in your Train Simulator Classic.


Like and follow us on Facebook:


We'll be back soon with more news.


Enjoy.



1,007 views0 comments

Updated: May 17, 2023

Hello everyone, we hope everyone is doing well these last few months of absence and without any significant updates from our team. Our last official post here was on January 3rd and we announce all the projects we are working on in the coming months/years. And as many already know, Machine Rail is working on three major commissions that assemble the ICRR Lima Mikados, Pere Marquette N-1 Class and the FRISCO T-54 Class. Finally, we are halfway through May and getting close to completing the first of these commissions:


I.C.R.R. 1923 LIMA MIKADO SERIES


We have been working on this project since the beginning of January and only now is the locomotive close to completion. This Commission request includes not only the locomotive but also 7 other ICRR Freight Cars that correspond to the era of the locomotive, which we are currently working on.

It has been a great challenge to understand the history of these beautiful Mikados in ICRR, as there were many units and many of them went through numerous changes throughout their careers. Initially, we thought to run the job over the entire 1500 series, but later we found out that these Mikados made by Baldwin and Lima were renumbered, mixing it up! So it was decided at the last minute to represent the series built in 1923 by Lima after they were renumbered, so we have 189 units in total, but numbered in series only from #1396 to #1470 and #1908 to #1982. The remaining units correspond to 15XX, 16XX, 17XX, and 18XX in smaller quantities. These are the 1923 ICRR Lima Mikados renumbered. (The internal folders of this TSC product are named "Illinois Central 1500 Class" created in January. As we recently discovered the numbering history there is no more time to change these folders, we would spend at least weeks changing these names, but the good news is that none of these names will be visible in TSC, they are just folders that make up the product and will only be visible in the Editor mode in the Machine Rail product list.)

This model required a little more time and skill from our 3D artist especially when it comes to creating the textures. Using the same technique as always, but with a touch of small additional details to achieve a slightly more realistic result on the surface of certain parts, such as cast iron, wrought iron, smooth or porous plates, among countless texture files created to achieve such a result.



Screenshots in real time in Train Simulator Classic. Time adjusted to 07:00AM in Summer


This locomotive presents new features thanks to the help of our partner and friend DSGDDR with a new application of scripts developed especially for our current locomotives. These new features mainly employ new visual, particle and sound effects which also made the simulation of our locomotives even more enjoyable; but not that complicated to operate. This is one of the main characteristics of our locomotives.

White Class Lights

Green Class Lights

Red Class Lights


You can turn on the ranking lights via a switch in the cab or by pressing Y on your keyboard. To switch colors you will always use U and SHIFT+U on your keyboard. In the cab you will find switches to operate all of the locomotive lights: Headlights, Tender Lights, Class Lights, Cab Lights, Task Lights and Gauge lights. In the locomotive's Operation Manual you will find all these functionalities and many others, in addition to the available keyboard shortcuts.

Task Lights on the sides of the locomotive

Task Lights on the back of cab

Cab Lights

Tender Headlight


We are very proud to be close to completing yet another Commission project. We will be back with a new post about this product with more images soon when all the ICRR freight cars are finished. For now we would like to thank our friend and client Daniel, the official commissioner of the ICRR 1923 Lima Mikados Series. Thank you very much for trusting your time in our work.


OTHER WORKS IN PROGRESS

With the completion of this major ICRR project, we are preparing to start work on the Pere Marquette N-1 Class:

All our projects start the same way: With a lot of research on all the structural dimensions of the locomotive (those red boxes show these dimensions) and some values ​​require several calculations until arriving at the exact measurement and with that done, a 2D drawing of a from the sides of the locomotive is created; within the measure of what we call the "1:1 Digital World Scale", where our 3D software is configured according to TSC's needs. Yes, this is a lot of work! If something goes wrong at this stage, the end result will be devastating and frustrating for everyone, to say the least. At the moment we don't have any significant 3D progress on the construction of the PM N-1 Class, but we will soon and will post more frequently on our Facebook Page. We only use this Blog for updates and an overview of what's going on.


The same applies to the FRISCO T-54 Class, this project is waiting for its turn according to the order of acceptance of our commissions, but it is already a project that we have everything in hand to start! And it shouldn't be long before we see the 2D design at the same stage as the PM N-1 Class.

Another project that is on hold for now is our Western Maryland I-2 Class:

The locomotive looks the same as it has since it was last run in December 2022. The exterior work looks complete, just missing a good detailed look at all the exposed parts and adding those small, finer details.

But the WM I-2 Class still needs many hours of 3D modeling inside the cab. We try to work on this in parallel with another project but it's impossible; when we start a project, our focus needs to be on it from start to finish. And we also have a life outside the computer screen. So we're certainly going to get serious about the WM I-2 Class when we finalize the remaining commissions which are the Pere Marquette N-1 Class and FRISCO T-54 Class. With those finished, we can turn our eyes entirely to the WM I-2 Class. (we'll talk about future commissions in a dedicated post).


We'll be back with a new post soon to announce the ICRR 1923 Lima Mikado Series release date, and any new updates.


Thank's for your time.


Best regards,

Carlos.



1,555 views3 comments
Copyright 2024 – Machine Rail™
bottom of page