LMS Steam & Freight Add-On

By Nels Anderson (27 March 2002)

The LMS Steam & Freight CD from 3D Train Stuff gives the fan of British railways the chance to do some realistic freight operating. This is a nice complement to the default passenger equipment for use on the Settle & Carlisle route. Though little noticed while zooming past in the Flying Scotsman, the route does have quite a number of sidings and industrial tracks making it quite suitable for freight operations. Now it's possible to recreate operations as they might have been during the steam era of the 20th century.

The highlight of the add-on is the three different steam locomotives from the London Midland & Scottish Railways past. The exterior on each is very nicely detailed, as you can see in the screen shots. Each includes a different custom cab as well as custom sounds. Little details are included, such as a realistic looking engineer and fireman in each locomotive. You'll see them peering out in several of the screen shots.

I've never seen nor heard the real life versions of these steamers, so I cannot judge the accuracy, but there's no doubt that they do sound and look nice.

Included locomotives are:

Kitson Dock Shunter

This saddle tank locomotive features a very short wheel base that made it ideal for switching, or shunting as they call it in the U.K. The version included here is Mersey Docks & Harbour Board No. 2. These 0-4-0ST locomotives were used from 1932 to 1966.

Fowler 0-6-0T Tank Locomotive

This mid-sized (for this collection anyway) locomotive is London Midland & Scottish Railways No. 16687 Fowler Tank locomotive, painted in 1930's LMS livery. It was developed from earlier Midland Railway designs and was introduced in 1924. These locomotives were used for shunting and light freight. During British Railways days they were sometimes found outside the Midland Region.

Fowler 4F

The included locomotive is London Midland & Scottish Railway's No. 3910 Fowler Goods locomotive, painted in 1930's LMS livery. This is the largest locomotive included in this add-on. It's an 0-6-0 with tender that was introduced in 1911 by Sir Henry Fowler. These were used for both freight and passenger service until 1940, with some 772 of them seeing service.

In addition to the locomotives, a nice collection of authentic period freight cars is included. These small four wheel cars looks quite different from what I'm used to seeing on American railroads! All of them are nicely detailed though and a sufficient variety is included so that interesting consists can be made up.

Amoung the car types are 12 ton open wagons (some with covered loads), 12 ton vans (what we'd call a box car in the U.S.), 12 and 20 ton tanker wagons, 12 ton coal wagons and 20 ton brake vans ("caboose" in U.S. terminology). Most come in several liveries. All in all, a nice variety of the common equipment types. As with the locomotives, the level of detail on all these cars is very nice.

I really cannot judge the accuracy of the operating characteristics, having never driven a real steam locomotive, but there are no obvious operating flaws in any of the three locomotives. I used each one for switching and main line operating and they all seemed to operate as one would expect.

For the rest, I'll let the screen shots tell the story...

In conclusion, this is a great way for British railfans to immediately gain a nice variety of steam era equipment. The different types of locomotives allow for any type of freight operation and the variety of freight cars keeps the consists interesting. It's quite apparent that a lot of careful work went into this add-on, and the team at 3D Train Stuff is to be commended for it. The one thing I felt was missing was some activities, but I'm told there will soon be several available for free download from the 3D Train Stuff web site. I'm looking forward to them.

Nels Anderson
nels@train-sim.com

Visit 3D Train Stuff's web site.

[ Review Menu | Home ]