BR (LNER) Peppercorn K1: Locomotives, Part 3

This blog post is all about the driving seat.. and the fireman's seat! And the K1 has what look to be very comfy seats indeed.

We start with the clean BR livery.

The K1 features electric lighting, not just for the locomotive and tender lamps but also a cab light in the centre of the roof and an illuminated speedometer - seen above the AWS box. The switch panel for all of this is above the drivers window in the centre left of the picture and all the switches are clickable.

Here we can see more of the driving controls including the latched reverser, sander lever and the blow down test taps for the water sight glasses, all of which work.
We're very pleased with the new refraction effect for the water tube in the sight glasses.

Looking across the cab you can see the roof hatch has been opened (the windows, arm rests and the roof hatch all work) and that the cab light is currently on. The cylinder cocks lever is on the fireman's side and you can see the notation on the cab wall indicating which direction is open.

Looking back at the tender you can see the handles for the handbrake and water scoop, the water taps and a rather handy looking shovel. Wouldn't it be great if pulling that down into the coal pile operated the sim's stoking control? ;-)
And of course there are 2 brew cans on the back shelf, because no self-respecting footplate crew are going anywhere without plenty of tea.

As with all of our releases the 3D firebox is there giving visual feedback on the state of the fire for those who drive without the HUD.

And here we see the dirty BR cab. The same layout as the clean version but with plenty of grime and some steam leaking up through the gaps between the floor and the backhead.

And finally we come to the LNER cab.
The only significant difference is the extra pressure gauge. Although the engine itself doesn't have any air brake equipment this gauge is for the through-train air brake pipe which we're informed is used when preserved locomotives run with mainline trains. This can also be selected for the clean BR livery so it can be used for preserved locomotives.

We also really wanted to show a feature that lots of people have been requesting which is having a headout view as one of the cab views, meaning you can look back inside and operate the controls - something you can't do with the default headout view. This is of course part of all 3 liveries, not just the LNER version.

We're not sure people quite understand how much work it is to do this!
Cab models are usually just the cab interior itself and a little bit of the boiler you can see out of the front windows. Once you can put your head outside then the cab model needs to be everything you can see down one side of the loco as well. And dynamic numbering no longer works in cab views so you have to come up with clever ways to show the correct cab number on the side, and the wheels and lubricators don't animate automatically so you need to come up with some script to do that as well.
But you know what? I'm glad we're doing it now because it makes a world of difference to the driving experience and that's what we're all about at Victory Works.
And it also means you can move the rain deflector if you want to! :-)

Next time we'll start to look at the included rolling stock that will come with the add-on.

GT3 Gas Turbine: Demonstration Video

Video replay of last night's Dovetail Games Twitch Stream of the GT3 Gas Turbine Prototype

http://www.twitch.tv/dovetailgames/v/6616603?t=5m45s

This video appears to have expired so here is a replacement we found on YouTube of someone showing the start up sequence for the GT3 along with a little bit of driving.

BR (LNER) Peppercorn K1: Locomotives, Part 2

A short and sweet post today, here we have the LNER livery for the K1.

Although the locomotives were designed by the London and North Eastern Railway they were not built until after the LNER was merged into British Railways and therefore this livery was never used in actual service. However it has been very popular in preservation and we think it looks very smart indeed.

Also a thank you to those who pointed out that the BR smokebox numbering and plate were somewhat large. We got an actual measurement taken of a real one and have updated the model, as seen below. The changes have also been applied to the clean BR model.
If you do spot anything amiss with our models (especially during the work in progress phase) please let us know - sometimes you can stare at something so long you don't see an error that's glaringly obvious to a new set of eyes.

Next time we'll step into the cabs and take a look around.

BR (LNER) Peppercorn K1: Locomotives, Part 1

In a series of blog posts over the next few weeks we're going to reveal images and details of the upcoming Peppercorn K1 add-on and the included rolling stock.

Today let's start with the feature model, the locomotive itself.

First we have the clean British Railways version, fresh from the workshop or cleaners and very likely about to pull a passenger train - a duty that K1's performed on both stopping and express services.

Next we see them in their more familiar livery of British Railways dirt and filth! These locomotives were worked hard, primarily on heavy freight duties, and were not likely to be at the front of the queue for the cleaners or for a smart new repaint.
Although never mechanically neglected the outer appearance left something to be desired for those wanting to see a fine, polished iron horse on the railways.
Personally this is our favourite look for BR locos, the real work horses that moved Britain's goods around.

All 70 members of the class are available using the dynamic numbering system with options for every shed code and overhead electrics warning flashes (older red, modern yellow or none).
You can pre-set all the head code lamps and also change them during play.
We've also included 3 logos on the BR tenders and these can be set via the loco number but also can be changed during play - the reason for this is the use of Quick Drive, although good for jumping into any loco on any route removes the chance to edit the locomotive number and to customise it in any way. By adding a key to cycle through the logos you can easily choose the one that you prefer.

In the next blog posts we'll take a look at the LNER green livery and have a look inside the cabs.

Steam Summer Sale 2015

The Steam Summer Sale is here and all of Victory Works add-ons are included with 50% off until the 22nd of  June. That's half price!
Click on any picture below to go to the Steam page, or click here to see all Victory Works DLC on Steam.

BR (LNER) Peppercorn K1: First Look

Well time has got away from us yet again and we honestly have no idea where this week has gone!
But an announcement was promised and an announcement you shall have.

So we are very pleased to introduce the Peppercorn K1. Designed by the LNER (using a K4 to build a single prototype K1/1), but not actually built until BR had taken over the Big Four, when 70 locomotives were built between 1949 and 1950.

As you expect from Victory Works all 70 members will be included in their original BR livery of black with red/cream/grey lining, in a clean and also an utterly filthy state (just right to run on the upcoming Weardale and Teesdale Railway from Dovetail Games).
We are also including the LNER green livery with black/white lining. Although the K1's never actually carried this livery is has been very popular in preservation and frankly it looked too pretty not to give you it!
It has all of the usual features you want and expect from us in a new piece of DLC and also has some new features you've asked for (and some you haven't!) as well.
We'll shout about those in the next couple of weeks - not least as having not looked at it for 6 months while waiting for the route to be released we'd forgotten half the things we'd added!

We were also pleasantly surprised when we looked in the other folders and remembered that we built no less than 3 sidings worth of well-used BR/ex-LNER/ex-PO freight stock to go with it!

So all of that is to come in the next couple of weeks. For now we have some early model renders and we'll show you some in-game images just as soon as we find the time to do them!