Raven (LNER) Q6: Features and Contents

With the release of the Q6 closing in we thought we would provide our usual features and contents list so you know exactly what to expect from our latest DLC.

Taken from the manual..

• Simple, standard and advanced driving modes
• Xbox controller support SIMPLE AND STANDARD MODES ONLY

• Raven Q6 (NER Class T2) Locomotive
• NER Early Lined Livery (Small number plate)
• NER Late Lined Livery (Large number plate)
• LNER Black livery
• LNER Wartime Black Livery
• LNER Post-War Black Livery
• British Railways 1948-49 Livery
• Clean and Dirty
• British Railways 1950-56 Livery
• Clean and Dirty
• British Railways 1956-67 Livery
• Clean and Dirty
• Preserved NER Lined Livery
• Preserved British Railways Livery
• Optional parts and fittings including steam heat dial, external vacuum brake pipe, 5 types of piston cap, overhead warning labels and more
• Custom sound sets inside and out
• Realistic cab with multiple views, including dual “head out” and fully modelled firebox and coal
• Realistic wheel slip physics and effects ADVANCED MODE ONLY
• Simulated steam chest ADVANCED MODE ONLY
• Proportional engine brake
  
• Realistic train pipe and reservoir vacuum braking (preserved version) ADVANCED MODE ONLY
• Cylinder cock management  ADVANCED MODE ONLY
• Boiler management with priming possible ADVANCED MODE ONLY
• Realistic injector control ADVANCED MODE ONLY
• Realistic “by the shovel” stoking with synchronised sound ADVANCED MODE ONLY
• Dynamic steam and smoke colour and quantity
• Realistic boiler water gauges effected by gradient, acceleration and speed and with blow down test
• Opening windows (with rain effects) and roof hatch
• Dynamic lamp setting
• Cab light effects including flickering firebox glow
• Atmospheric AI effects

• Rolling stock
• BR Conflat S
• Empty
• Dry ice containers
• White
• White with tarpaulin
• Wood
• Wood with tarpaulin
• NER 20 ton Hopper
• NER Grey
• Empty
• Coal
• Coal Dust
• BR Grey
• Empty
• Coal
• BR Unpainted
• Empty
• Coal
• NER 12 ton 6 Plank Wagon
• NE Grey (Unfitted)
• Empty
• Heavy load with tarpaulin
• Light load with tarpaulin
• Ceramic pipes
• Sacks
• NE Oxide (Fitted)
• Empty
• Heavy load with tarpaulin
• Light load with tarpaulin
• Ceramic pipes
• Sacks
• Carboys
• BR Grey (Unfitted)
• Empty
• Heavy load with tarpaulin
• Light load with tarpaulin
• Ceramic pipes
• Sacks
• BR Bauxite (Fitted)
• Empty
• Heavy load with tarpaulin
• Light load with tarpaulin
• Ceramic pipes
• Sacks
• Carboys
• NER 13 ton Steel Wagon
• NE Grey (Unfitted)
• Empty
• Heavy load with tarpaulin
• Light load with tarpaulin
• Ceramic pipes
• Sacks
• NE Oxide (Fitted)
• Empty
• Heavy load with tarpaulin
• Light load with tarpaulin
• Ceramic pipes
• Sacks
• BR Grey (Unfitted)
• Empty
• Heavy load with tarpaulin
• Light load with tarpaulin
• Ceramic pipes
• Sacks
• BR Bauxite (Fitted)
• Empty
• Heavy load with tarpaulin
• Light load with tarpaulin
• Ceramic pipes
• Sacks
• LNER/BR Brake Van
• Dynamic lamps

• 6 scenarios for the Weardale & Teesdale Network Route Add-on
• 30 Quick Drive consists with appropriate stock

Work continues apace on the GWR Late County and we will start showing pictures of our progress very soon. But it seems fitting to finish with one of our favourite images of the Q6 from one of the included scenarios which reflects the current weather for much of the country.

Raven (LNER) Q6: Rolling Stock, Part 2

Today we have the last of the Raven Q6 blog posts before its release showing the rest of the included rolling stock.
Continuing the trend of heavy freight the next item of stock is the NER 20 ton coal hopper wagon. These were being built in huge numbers from 1903 and in total there were over 17,000 of them on the network.

This particular version was to Diagram 12 of which 7,000 were built and they were used on heavy coal trains from the numerous pits in the North East of England.
We have provided these hoppers as empty (seen above), full...

.. and also as a coal dust carrier. Coal dust was surprisingly useful (being effectively a "left over" product from all the coal for fires) and was used extensively by power stations. Carried in these hoppers a tarpaulin would be securely placed over the filled wagon to stop rain turning it into 20 tons of coal paste!

These hoppers became part of BR stock in 1948 and were so useful that there are reports of them still being seen working as late as 1968. We have provided these in a worn BR grey and also as they later appeared, with all of the paint worn off and the metal fittings suitably rusted.

These are both supplied as empty and full versions.
And it would not be a Victory Works product without an option so mixed into the authentic numbering is the choice of the original wooden or later metal end supports seen below on the BR versions (both types are available for all NER and BR liveries).

Interestingly the wooden end supports would have originally extended downwards below the frames by about a foot to form drop buffers for use against chaldron wagons but the LNER decided to saw them off from 1925.

Finally we have everyones favourite container mover, the conflat. We have built conflats before for various products as they are extremely versatile and can be used to depict many loads but we are pretty sure that this type is new to Train Simulator (it certainly is for us) - the BR Conflat S, seen below in it's unloaded state.

We chose to build this one after coming across pictures of Q6's under British Railways being used on long freight trains carrying a specific item we had not seen in Train Simulator before...

Cardice, solid CO2 or as it's also known.. dry ice. Loaded in these large insulated containers (2 to a conflat) it was used heavily in the food industry but also in manufacturing and a large amount of it was produced at a plant in Billingham and as well as being used locally was carried all over the Northern network by the railways.

We have seen these crates uncovered as seen above, covered with a tarpaulin and have also seen some unpainted instances all within a single train. We have provided all of these (along with the empty conflat) so you can create a nice mix of consists.

And that brings us to the end of the Raven (LNER) Q6. We hope you have liked what you have seen and we are expecting that it will available to purchase very soon.

Meanwhile there is no rest for us and we are straight into our next project, the GWR (1000) County class. We had a little play earlier in the week with a new idea and now we need to build an engine to attach them to!

Raven (LNER) Q6: Rolling Stock, Part 1

Today we have Part 1 of the rolling stock that is included with the Raven Q6 DLC. We'll have Part 2 next week as there are a lot of images.

We start with the humble open wagon. This one is wood, built from 1932 with a 10ft wheelbase and able to carry 12 tons. These 6 plank wagons were mass produced and there were 15,000 unfitted examples by the 1940's.

Seen here empty we have added various loads all set with the correct weights, including...

... heavy loads, often minerals that needed to be kept dry (the heavy weight meant that the wagon was not completely full and the tarpaulins would dip down into the wagon...

... light loads (the opposite of above, a light load would stick out of the wagon and be secured with the tarpaulin)...

... ceramic pipes, needing no covering they were packed in with wood and straw...

... sacks, mostly root vegetables or goods that would not become spoiled travelling in damp sacks.

This wagon was also produced in a fitted version, numbering 6,000 units.
Here we see one filled with 5 gallon Carboys, a glass container with a thin neck often used in the brewing process.

The fitted versions also have other appropriate loads available, seen here is the heavy loaded tarpaulin.

Many of these wagons survived into British Railways service and were used all over the northern network. These come with various loads as above, with just a small sample shown below.

All numbering is dynamic covering thousands of each type of wagon and the tarpaulin numbers are unique as well.


Next we have another stalwart of freight movements but this time made from steel. These also had a 10ft wheelbase and could carry 13 tons of goods. The type seen here is unfitted and with wooden side doors.

Again there are plenty of loads to choose from to create unique and varied consists.

500 were also produced as fitted wagons but having metal side doors.

And as with the wooden wagons many of these were taken into British Railways service and used up to and beyond the end of steam.

Again, there are many optional loads for each type of wagon with correct weight values and all numbering is dynamic, as are the tarpaulin numbers.

Next week we'll take a look at the rest of the rolling stock which includes a large mineral wagon and an unusual conflat load.

Steam Lunar Sale 2018

The moon is in the sky! So that must mean it's time for a sale or something?!
Yes it's Steam sale time again because goodness knows it's been far too long since the last one. So grab yourself some more great deals.

Click this link to see all of our DLC on Steam or click on an image below to view a particular DLC.

GWR Large Prairies - 30% off

GWR Large Prairies Lined Liveries (Requires GWR Large Prairies Pack)

Stroudley A1/A1X Class 'Terrier' - 30% off

GWR Saint Class & Travelling Post Office - 30% off

BR Saint & Travelling Post Office Livery (Requires GWR Saint Pack) - 50% off

USATC S160 - 30% off

GWR 14xx - 30% off

LNER Peppercorn K1 - 50% off

GWR Small Prairies - 30% off

GWR 56xx - 50% off

GT3 Gas Turbine Prototype - 50% off

GWR Steam Railmotor - 50% off

Southern Bulleid Q1 - 50% off

Raven (LNER) Q6: On the Footplate

Today we take a close look at the Q6's footplate where you'll likely be spending most of your driving life. The Q6 was a freight workhorse and so lacked many of the comforts of other LNER designs - our minds turned to the particularly comfy looking seats we built for the Peppercorn K1 when we were fitting out the cab this time.

Here we see the NER/LNER style cab. Note the lack of the familiar duplex vacuum brake gauge - the Q6 has no need of this as it only has an engine brake (the whole class being built for use on unfitted freight trains), controlled by the brass lever on the right hand side - being proportional the brakes are applied to the amount that the lever is pulled so no gauge is required.

The Q6 does feature a steam powered reverser (last seen on our Bullied Q1 class) although this one works a little differently.
In basic mode we have simplified it, so pulling or pushing on the black lever (with the white painted end) will increase or decrease the reverser, the cut off setting being shown on the brass gauge set into the right hand bench for both modes.

However in advanced mode the engine uses the realistic system where the black lever applies steam to the reverser and the lever mounted to the side of the bench dictates whether the reverser is increased or decreased based on it's direction (this can be toggled using the E key for those who prefer keyboard controls).

As always we have outside cab views for the driver and fireman positions and also a view into the 3D firebox for checking that all important fire level.

The Q6 tender carries plenty of coal and water for the long freight runs and has working controls for water shutoffs, handbrake and water scoop, and uses the shovel to control how much coal is put onto the fire with each throw.

Under British Railways a repaint to some of the cab areas was the only significant change. For this model we have used the new texturing technique used on the outer model in all of the cabs as well creating a much more realistic "in use" appearance that is especially well suited to these hard working engines.

Next we have the cab for the BR filthy version which, as the exterior model, shows a large amount of neglect and many months with only the essential working parts being maintained and cleaned.

Finally we have the modern day preserved cab which has the addition of a vacuum brake (with gauge) and steam heat so that it can pull passenger services.

Friday we will show off all of the freight stock that is coming with the Q6 pack - although the keen eyed amongst you have already started to spot bits of it in the recent Dovetail Games teaser
https://train-simulator.com/ravens-mineral-worker/