LNER J21 (NER Class C): Pre-orders opening soon

With the J21 pre-orders just around the corner at Steam Sounds Supreme we wanted to give a quick final update of everything that comes with the pack.

From the manual:

• Simple, Standard and Advanced driving modes
• Xbox controller support SIMPLE AND STANDARD MODES

• LNER J21 (NER Class C) Locomotive
• Liveries include Compound, Saturated and Superheated engine variants as appropriate to the eras
• NER Green Livery
• NER Lined Black Livery
• NER Unlined Black Livery
• LNER Early Unlined Black livery
• LNER Late Unlined Black livery
• LNER Post-War Black Livery
• British Railways 1948-50 Livery
• Clean and Dirty
• British Railways 1950-56 Livery
• Clean and Dirty
• British Railways 1956-67 Livery
• Clean and Dirty
• Preserved NER Livery
• Numerous optional parts and fittings covering 70 years of service
• Custom sound sets inside and out from the experts at Steam Sounds Supreme
• Realistic cab with multiple views, including dual “head out” and fully modelled firebox and coal
• Realistic wheel slip physics and effects ADVANCED MODE
• Simulated steam chest ADVANCED MODE
• Realistic types of braking including; steam, air, vacuum and combined ADVANCED MODE
• Cylinder cock management  ADVANCED MODE
• Boiler management with priming possible ADVANCED MODE 
• Realistic injector control ADVANCED MODE 
• Realistic “by the shovel” stoking with synchronised sound ADVANCED MODE
• 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

• NER Clerestory Coaches
• Composite
• NER Plum
• LNER Teak
• Brake 3rd
• NER Plum
• LNER Teak
• All coaches have dynamic lamps

• 6 Scenarios for the Weardale & Teesdale Network Route Add-on
• 52 Quick Drive consists with appropriate stock
• More scenarios will be released at a later date and free of charge using the upcoming Stainmore, Shap and Eden Valley Route from Steam Sounds Supreme

We will post in the usual places once pre-orders are available and we very much hope that you will enjoy our latest locomotive and rolling stock pack.

Train Simulator 10th Anniversary Sale

Well how time flies! 10 years ago Kuju Rail Simulator was given a much needed overhaul (including finally adding steam engine chuffs!), renamed Railworks and released on the Steam store. Since then it became Train Simulator, and Train Simulator 20xx, TSX graphics were added, lots of script functions added allowing more and more advanced locomotives to be created - our very own 56xx being the first advanced steam engine in Railworks having been inspired by seeing the advanced diesels that were being built in those early days.

So to celebrate an amazing 10 years of train simming fun, let's have that rarest of things - A SALE! Huzzah!
The sale runs from today until May 20th.

The Peppercorn K1, GWR Small Prairies and Stroudley A1/A1X Terriers are 60% off, the other packs listed are 50% off including the enormous USATC S160 pack and the gas turbine powered oddity GT3 Prototype that drives like nothing else available in Train Simulator to date.

Click this link to see all of our DLC on Steam or click on an image below to view a particular pack or
click this link to see all of our DLC on the Dovetail Store which provides a Steam key you can add to your account but without us having to pay Steam any fees!


GWR 1000 County Class - 50% off

LNER Peppercorn K1 - 60% off

GWR Small Prairies - 60% off

LNER Raven Q6 - 50% off

Stroudley A1/A1X Class 'Terrier' - 60% off

USATC S160 - 50% off

GT3 Gas Turbine Prototype - 50% off

GWR Steam Railmotor - 50% off

Southern Bulleid Q1 - 50% off

LNER J21 (NER Class C): British Railways Livery, In Game

This week we take a final look at the J21 liveries under British Railways.
82 of the J21's became owned by BR in 1948 when they were renumbered by adding 60000 to their existing LNER numbers.
The original livery was a simple "British Railways" in plain text on the tender.

In 1950 the famous "cycling lion" emblem was introduced.

Although a new BR emblem was rolled out in 1956 only 1 of the J21's, No. 65033, ever carried it after pulling a rail tour in 1960. The other remaining engines kept the 1956 emblem and were left to fall into a poor state.

And this is the appearance in the following images. Still working hard but with none of the daily care and polish given to locomotives in years past the J21's (like many others in the twilight era of British steam engines) became dull, rusty and their numbers and logos barely visible. I always think that it must have been a sad time for those who worked with them when it happened but since then it has become one of the most popular eras to recreate, especially in railway modelling.

Finally we have the preserved livery sported by No. 65033, as No. 876, in the early 1970's with the overly large NER logo on the tender and the cab site plate strangely off-centre.

We are delighted that Steam Sounds Supreme are currently working on one of their incredible sound sets for the engines and work is also nearing completion on the accompanying coaches. More news soon.

LNER J21 (NER Class C): LNER Livery, In Game

This week we are taking a look at the NER Class C, or as it became the LNER J21 under the London & North Eastern Railway.

But first off a quick update from last week. As spotted by Daniel Chambers the version we showed in NER Green was actually the 1970's preserved version of No. 876 and the original version differed from this in a few ways. So here is the corrected version of the NER Green livery - and of course the preserved version will also be included separately.

Our thanks to Daniel for bringing this to our attention and working with us to track down the specific differences.

So, onto the LNER. The first LNER livery was a simple unlined black with the engine number on the tender below the company initials.

Later this was changed with the loco number moving to the side of the cab replacing the small plaque and just the lettering on the tender (We imagine this made it much easier to swap tenders between engines as they didn't require repainting every time!)

From 1941 to 1945 the tender lettering was simplified to NE (a war time cost/time cutting measure?) and the buffers were painted black.

After the war and until British Railways took over the details on tender, cab side and buffer beam were replaced with the much simpler single colour lettering but the black buffers remained.

And that takes us all the way to 1948. Next week we will look at the final years of the J21's during their service under British Railways.