Shantytown Climax 1203 "Patrick"

By Michael McReynolds (5 November 2001)

I'll be the first to admit that I'm more of a flight simulator person than a train simulator person. However, I do enjoy running a steam locomotive through mountains. It is a challenging, and relaxing hobby. That being said, I'm always on the look out for a good steam locomotive. I believe I have found a locomotive that is revolutionary in its design, and usefulness. The designer is a Kiwi chap named Barry Munro, from the Land of the Long White Cloud, who just prefers to be known as Captain Bazza. I am going to review his newest created locomotive, the Shantytown Climax #1203 "Patrick". In case you are scratching your head wondering where you've heard the name from, this locomotive is named after Patrick Scoble, son of Robert Scoble who founded the original MS TrainSimulatorFanSite.

There is a lot here to review, so I'm going to review it in sections, covering each section in detail. For performance's sake, I'm going to compare this locomotive with the Acela Express. I do this only to show the difference in frame rates, not in actually locomotive performance.

Cab

The cab is nothing extraordinary. It uses the default Flying Scotsman cab. However, it seems to get the job done. The boiler pressure gauge of the Scotsman is too high for the Climax, and if you do any hard steaming, don't be alarmed if the boiler pressure gauge drops. Normal boiler pressure for the Climax is about 135. If you get much lower than that, you will have problems. The overall feel of the cab is sufficient for the Climax, and it is as functional on this locomotive as the Flying Scotsman.

Performance

The Climax is a narrow gauge locomotive, so the standard gauge equipment are a bit heavy for it. Do not expect Patrick to make it over a steep grade. This lightweight locomotive is not Hercules no matter how you look at it. It is a small 3 foot 6 inch gauge locomotive, weighing in at 25.4 tonnes, and it runs off of wood, which robs it of even more power. This locomotive is better used as a yard switcher, or a short passenger train. The range is somewhat lacking as well, although, on a relatively flat grade, you could go for hours. If you plan to do hard steaming, expect it to last an hour or two without a refuel.

Visual Model

This is where this locomotive really excels. The visual model is outstanding, and it includes a bunch of goodies. For starters, if a part were to move on the real locomotive, it would move here. I'm not going to include a list of moving parts for two reasons, one, time, and two, I want you to enjoy finding them. The second thing you will notice is the crew in the cab. That's right, this locomotive has a fireman, and an engineer in the cab. They come with blue "cheapy" overall, and hair. The fireman is holding a fire stick into the boiler, and the engineer is looking thru the window, holding onto the controls. Currently, this crew has no animation, although they do jiggle around in the cab as the locomotive bounces.

That brings us to the next revolutionary item. The locomotive moves due to BazzaMotion, discovered by Captain Bazza. The locomotive rocks about its lateral axis. The faster you move, the more pronounced the rock becomes. In case you are wondering, most, if not all, of Barry's locomotives have BazzaMotion. They all rock differently, and it adds a new depth to the game. This has limitations though. The locomotives will not lean into, or away from, a turn, a feature that would require hard coding from Kuju. Also, the coaches/wagons do not have this feature.

Another visual plus are the cylinder cocks. When you blow steam, you actually blow steam. The steam from the cylinder cocks move away from the locomotive, instead of just back towards the cab in a cloud of steam.

When you run this locomotive, you will want to keep the headlights on (which is the law on US rails anyway). The glow of the headlight is a realistic orange, rather than the bright yellow of the defaults. This locomotive's headlight is just a lamp run by steam. Also, when you turn on the headlight, take a look into the cab. There you find a nice orange glow from the boiler. That glow happens to be your fire. This effect is a nice touch, especially at night. Also, when the headlights are on, you will see the same orange glow coming up from the smoke stack. This is also your fire, due to your fireman turning the blower on. However, the stack glow disappears completely from certain angles. The tender also contains a headlight facing backwards. This is helpful when backing up for yard work, or for running backwards.

The cab contains 3D gauges and controls. The texture of this locomotive is somewhat lacking, but hardly ugly. It contains the word Patrick on each side of the cab, and in front the "1203" of the locomotive on a red plaque. You can see various pipes and handles on the outside of the loco, adding to the effect.

Sounds

The sounds are average, but are better than the defaults. Bazza used the sound set from Meeko Lewerk for the general steam locomotive feel. There are a few bugs, but hardly enough to make you feel it worth changing them back. There is a slight moment when the sound of the "chug-chug" cuts out when looking out of the cab. Overall, this sound set matches what is actually going on much better than the default steam sounds. One thing worth noting is that when you turn the regulator off (as in generally anything below 5%) the chugging stops. Also the whistle sounds very nice, and rather satisfying. It is much more "in tune" with the space bar, and is nice and loud, the way steamers should have them. Be advised that this locomotive does have a bell, but there is no sound set for it. Bazza is working on getting one. Overall, the sound is very satisfying.

Game Speed

Now, it's time to take a look at the Acela Express. Now I ran the Climax and the Acela one after the other, in the same conditions. You may be surprised of the results. Firstly, I ran both of the locomotives on the NEC, starting at Philadelphia, in the rain. The time was 10 AM. Now, in case you don't know, the Acela has the highest number of polygons of the default locomotives. The poly count for the Acela is around 6000. Now, in comparison, the Climax has a whopping 12,000 polygons. This number is less if you just get the locomotive, and no tender. However, I don't recommend this (you'll miss out on a few very cool features.). So, the Climax will have an effect on your system.

However, considering the poly count, I consider this locomotive to be very smooth. You must realize that the numbers I'm going to give are the worst case scenario for my particular set-up. Rain makes a very large impact on the frame rates of the game. So with that said, here is the fps count for each scenario... In areas of heavy scenery (such as large cities) the Acela pulled about 15 fps when sitting in the cab. When outside the locomotive using either external view one or two, I got slightly less. Now, when in areas of sparse scenery (very few on the Corridor) the Acela got about 20 fps when in cab view. Using the external views, I got about 18. In comparison, when in the Climax I got about 10 fps when I was in cab view with my head out the window, and in the external views I got around 5. Now, when in sparse areas, I got about 20 fps when in cab view with my head out the window, and slightly less when in an external view. I find it important to note that I got much higher fps when in normal cab view in the Climax; 20 was the average in that view.

Conclusion

Despite the high poly count, and some minor bugs in sound, I find this locomotive to be a work of virtual art. The general look and feel is pleasing, plus, it has so many goodies that it's hard to imagine having anything less in you roster. I think that this locomotive is the beginning of a very cool trend. I have hopes that this locomotive will lead to many more discoveries, and even more wonderful locomotives like this one. My rating for this locomotive is 9 out of ten 10. However, I ask that you take a look at this locomotive and decide a rating for yourself. I guarantee you wont be disappointed.

I have an AMD Athlon 750 with 256 megs of RAM and a Voodoo 3 3000 video card. My settings for Microsoft Train Simulator are all default, except I have the resolution set to 1024 x 768.

By Michael McReynolds
pilot1316@aol.com

Barry Munro's Climax 0-4-4-0T locomotive is available in the file library under the file name CLMX1203.ZIP.

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