LocoRoller wrote:Also, did the UP Class actually have as much horsepower as this version has been given?
Yes and No.. It depends on its speed...
There is a huge difference in physics between a Steam Locomotive and a Diesel locomotive in real life.
A diesel locomotive is Constant HP with Variable Torque machine. A geep7 (or F7) is always 1500HP at its entire effective speed range.
A Diesel Has extremely high torque at stall conditions. Like from a dead start for example.
It can just put more amps into the traction motors. this gives it extremely high torque (Tractive Effort) to get it moving from a dead stop. of course there is still the drawbar pull limit where it wont move no matter what your TE is.
The steam locomotive is the exact opposite due to the way the steam pistons, side rods and the crank pin works.
It is a constant Torque (Tractive Effort), Variable Horse Power machine.
A Steam Locomotive has poor HP at start up and the faster if goes, the more theoretical HP it gains.
Once a steam engine can brute force a train to start with Just its Tractive Effort, it starts to gain HP to move the train up to basically unlimited speed. this is really limited by how big the balls are on the engineer (and at what point the Steam Engine will start to break apart or derail).
So yes. a locomotive Like The Niagara CAN generate 6000HP once it is rolling at speed.(and is rated at 6000HP at speed. BUT.. it is a small fraction of that at start-up).. That is way over powered for locomotion. (funny that it is close to a big boys theoretical 7000HP. but, the BB has much higher TE).
Stream Engines in the world of "steam engineers" tend to be rated on Tractive Effort and Drawbar Pull, not HP since its variable. (modern people quote steamers in HP because most people don't understand TE and the formula to get there and how to compare it to a diesel [especially since we mentioned diesel locomotives are variable TE]). the game is clueless what that TE is. only HP [that is not coded correctly on a hill sprite in the game]. I have nerfed all the other steam engines to try and make them fit into the game (as did Chris Sayer if you look at his Steamer stats with the real counterpart). Basically, I take a guess of how it should perform in locomotion.
The niagara was one that got away from me from the beta days when we created the steamers for locomotion.
(this is one reason my NG steamers never were released. the hill sprite "single unit" weight + total weight + HP calculation issue. A NG steamer will stall and then slide down the hill when given correct stats even without any cars in tow... )
once you throw boiler size, steam pressure and driver diameter into the mix.. it is a nightmare..
I'm not trying to overwhelm you. I am just pointing out the game is quite stupid when it comes to steamers.. its all an educated guess.. that i often miss guess..
Edit:
As pointed out by SD89Mac.. a Niagara could outperform an E7 A-B-A set. but the back end costs were much greater in the end....
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