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(Not 0.7 ready yet) Heavy Steam Locomotive (Rail Engine)

This is a legacy blueprint as while this is still working, much better designs, some with over 3 times the pull force have been made. Please check them out:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1627701335
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1618289678

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Here is also a lighter version for your everyday use, check it out:

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1605185799

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May I proudly present:

Heavy Steam Locomotive Mk I

For a very long time I was bothered by the lack of a good solution for hauling heavy loads in Equinox's Rails Mod (other than the overpowered handcart, which is - well - overpowered) and also seeking for something looking at least a bit realistic (and engines with propellers do not). After many hours of frustration, failed prototypes and explosions I finally came up with a quite satisfaying design.

Why?

- Have you ever been in the need of moving an entire hill or forest? A single engine can pull (or push) over 180 tonns of cargo with reasonable speed up to 5-6 degree slopes. For the reference, thats 14 boxes full of dirt, 4 500 metal ingots or over 140 small stockpiles full of logs. It can go over bigger slopes, but with a bit less cargo of course.

- You like travelling fast, but you think teleporting is not very medieval? Now you can go up to 60 km/h (and even more downhill) with your medieval steam engine without any problems! (with no other load of course)

- You want the same engine for going fast and going heavy? Your wheels slip and the train wont move a bit? The Engine comes with a Dynamic Weighting System (TM): Chests are located between driving wheels, just throw in the heaviest stuff you got! And remember, the heavier the load, the more weighting u need to move the train.

- Uses special suspension system so your wheels always align with the track, no matter how curvy (with reason).

- Switches, turntables and other fancy rail-stuff is not your thing? You dont need to turn! My engine goes both directions, u even got an opposite chair, so you dont have to strain ur neck to much!

- Has the classic steam engine 4-10-4 look. You could even easily add a closed engine cab.

- Features a stylish cattle catcher for those nasty deer situations. Works even with barbarians!

- Easy setup, you just need to place a few ropes and delete some planks.

- Full Survival ready! (if u have the patience to build it from scratch)

How to setup:

1. Place blueprint over a straight piece of track. Be careful to not place it too low or explosions may happen.
2. Connect the driving wheels to the engine and wheels to themselves with ropes, as shown on the screenshot. The other side should look the same - its flipped, not mirrored. Also connect the bogie suspension to the chassis (as shown in the picture) That last point is not so crutial, but pulling really heavy loads makes the suspension catchblocks quite unhappy. This rope helps with that.
3. Remove the timbers blocking the engine shaft and the planks interconnecting the wheels (it is important to do it AFTER connecting all ropes for best alignment)
4. Fire up the engines and enjoy! Remember, the engines are placed in reverse relative to each other. It is important to change direction on one of them manually when powering them up first time (by holding F on the big wheel) or they are going to counteract each other and ur not gonna go anywhere. Generally, if everything works, but you dont move a bit, try reversing one of the engines.

Useful tips:

- If you experience wheel slips, try throttling down a little until the wheels catch on the rail again. It is especially important when going uphill, because extended wheel slipping may slow you down and eventually stop your train and make it unable to move, no matter how much throttle you give it. In that case you may need to back off a little and gain some momentum before trying again (just like real life).

- If the previous point does not help, you may need to further weight down your locomotive. From the tests i have done, the heaviest weighting you need (to pull 180t) is 2-3t in each of the four weighting chests. But remember, this is a tradeoff. The more you weight down the locomotive, the more it can pull without slipping, but the slower it will go.

- If you experience some clanging noises and/or occasional jumps/wiggling of the driving unit, do not worry. These are normal occurences while operating. Nothing should go wrong (even in multiplayer) up to 80-90 km/h unless you do something really stupid like run into a 25 deg curve with 70 km/h or go with 40 km/h into a wall.

- You may notice, the engine has no breaks. Normally you don't need them because of its own driving resistance. Just throttle down a bit and it should naturally slow down. If that doesn't happen though, you can just throttle in the opposite direction (just like the propeller engines). It works amazingly well.

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If you are looking for other designs, check out onca77's engine. He was the first (that I know of) who came up with a wheel based design:

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1595538304

And lastly, big thanks to all amazing mod creators who made this stuff even possible, especially Equinox, Peaceman, Wolfgar7474 and C3ntron.