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.
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