We start off with a quick re-visit to the WW2 black livery. In Part 1 we saw the original black livery as used all over the world but some information came to light on some specific country liveries based on this.
Firstly we have the French 140U - used during and after WW2. Essentially a standard USATC Black S160 with a hook coupling and air brakes but with the added French depot name painted at the bottom of the cab side.
We've provided 30 of these depot names to choose from and a big thank you goes to Olivier (cerbere22 on the UKTS forums) for compiling the list for us.
Similarly Poland had it's own version of the S160, named Tr201. 75 of these were provided during WW2 and had their own numbering style.
Another 500 S160's named Tr203 were provided to Poland after the war and together with the Tr201's they were repainted in a more specific national livery. We are doing this livery and it's variations and these will be shown in a later blog post.
200 S160's were also sent to Russia to help during war time. Specifically built to run on 1520mm gauge track they were named Ша (or ShA) and nicknamed "Шарик" ("Sharik" meaning balloon).
For Train Simulator we are providing both standard gauge and 1520mm gauge options for all ShA locomotives, tenders and associated rolling stock.
After the war many of these locomotives went into full time service and were rebuilt and repainted into the national livery. This included the locomotive number, the emblem of the Soviet railway authority and the name of the locomotive's area - we have included 6 areas to select from.
They were fitted with many additional parts (available as options on the TS locos) including fire hoses, full electrical systems, spotlights, Russian cab dials, some had radios and they all had a very specific speedometer/tachometer installed.
As well as measuring speed and distance travelled it also has a speeding alarm (at 65kph, the locomotives maximum rated speed) and a 24 hour clock. Other interesting features are the notched mechanism that operated the speedometer, meaning that it moves in 2.5kph clicks, and the constant clicking sound that it makes when the locomotive is in motion. All of these can be enjoyed as part of the Train Simulator version.
We also need to give a huge thank you to Артём and to his colleagues on the Russian Train Sim forums. Артём and I have been in communication for nearly a year now and he has been essential in getting us details on every aspect of the ShA, providing critique as we've been modelling and in his translation skills to make sure we didn't cause an international incident my mistyping something (or printing it backwards which we definitely did not do, at all!).
It sounds cliché but without him the ShA variant really would not have been possible.
That's it for today. Next time we'll be heading across the Atlantic (or the Bering Sea if you go the other way!) to the USA where the S160's were born.
