TSW BR Class 86/2 & Mk2F Coaches

Welcome to the March Development update for the Class 86/2 and Mk2f Coaches. In our previous in-dev entry we showed the exterior of the Mk2f Coaches but now we have the key to the doors and are venturing inside and travelling First Class!

These latest images show the Mk2F FO, the First-Class variant, The Mk2f BSO, the Second-Class variant Passenger area and the Mk2f BSO Guard area.

You will see that the First-class coach seats, shown in brown, are slightly wider and comfier and that they include a pillow to rest your head on v/s the less luxurious blue versions that are used in the Second-class coaches.

As detailed in our previous in-dev entry the BSO has a split personality. One end of the coach houses the passenger seating area whilst the Guards area has the other. The split is pretty much 50/50 of the coach length.

The vestibule area is the same design on both the First- and Second-class coaches and was separated from the seating location by a door. The real-world Mk2fs were fitted with an automatic door operating system which was actioned by a pressure plate on the floor, however these proved to be somewhat unreliable and so there was also a conventional handle to use in case of the auto-system not working. In our version you will need to operate the handle to enter and exit the vestibule area due to the engineers reporting a lack of spare parts to make the auto system functional!

The vestibule areas also house a toilet which in the case of ours is already occupied and so cannot be entered.

Also, we reveal an additional livery for the Class 86/2! We have previously shown you two of the included liveries, but this one makes it three with the addition of the red buffer beams and the black Headcode box. The liveries we showed previously to this had either a yellow Headcode box or a split black/yellow one. These slight livery changes happened during the mid-1980’s. The livery featured here, which has the additional centre headlight and the TDM (Time Division Multiplex) cables fitted on the front, is a unique variant for the class that is featured in our pack and was named ‘City of Coventry’. In real life and not in the case of this simulation, the TDM cables were originally fitted for lighting control of the coaches. Later BR adapted them for driver/guard communication.

The City of Coventry locomotive also has the Brecknell Willis High Speed Pantograph which is different in design to the normal Stone-Faiveley AMBR type as shown in the other included Class 86’s variants. The High-Speed Panto allowed a capable loco (which to be clear, this variant of the 86 is not), to run up to 125 MPH whereas the AMBR type was only allowed to run up to 100MPH

COACHING CONUNDRUM

In this, our latest In-dev update for our upcoming Train Sim World 5 BR Class 86/2 & Mk2F Coaches pack we focus on the exterior of the coaches but also aim to help demystify the naming system that is applied to them along with some information on what made the different types what they are.

The Real Coaches - A brief overview:

The Mk 2 family of railway coaches were British Railways second design of coaches. They were built in the UK from 1964 until 1975 and were of steel construction.

The Mk2 has a semi-integral construction, which gives it more strength than the Mk1 coaches if an accident were to occur. The changed construction method was used to overcome a previous corrosion problem on the Mk1 coaches where the body was attached to the underframe.

Some Train enthusiasts nicknamed them "Coffins" as it was the first set of coaching stock that had no opening windows aside from the drop-down one on the entry/exit doors.  

The Mk2 f stock are air-braked and all have air conditioning. They are electric heated and so if they were not connected to a loco with an electric heater supply the heating did not operate.  

The Model Coaches:  

Using extensive research we have carefully modelled three types of the MK2 and have applied two types of liveries, BR Blue Grey and Intercity.  

Whilst creating the textures we have employed an optimisation technique that improves the resolution which you will be able to see in the game v/s previous textures that did not employ this method.  

We have carefully and subtly applied weathering effects to ensure that the coaches really look the part!  

Decoding the names:

Each piece of railway stock has a title applied to it and this title designates what type it is.  

In this pack we are supplying three types, the BSO, TSO and FO.  

BSO: This stands for: Brake Second Open. This coach has a Second Class passenger seating area along with a Guards compartment and luggage area.  

In the Guards compartment there is a hand-operated brake that is applied to keep the rake of coaches static when not connected to a locomotive.  

The passenger area contains a toilet compartment.  

FO: This stands for First Open. This is a First Class only coach with a toilet compartment at each end. The "Open" part of the name means that the coach is not a compartment coach.  

TSO: This stands for Tourist Second Open. This is an Second Class all-passenger coach with no compartments but with a toilet compartment at either end.

So, that's it for today's entry. We hope you enjoyed the read and that these latest WIP screenshots of the various coaches help to whet the appetite further.   More from the team, next month.

CLASS 86/2 CAB CREATION

Excellent progress is being made on the Class 86/2 and this latest in-development update covers the internal areas and in particular the differences between the Class 87/0 and Class 86/2 cabs. General consensus is that the class 86 and the 87 are ‘basically the same’ and although that is not untrue in some areas, as normal, the devil is in the detail! We will let the (lovely we think!) images do the talking but for those who want more details here they are!

CLASS 86/2 V/S CLASS 87/0

CAB AREAS

- Three cab windscreens
- Many more screws!
- Older style front panels with lifting handles
- Older style wiper switch
- Manual wiper washer valve
- Horn missing rubber surround
- Additional ‘Driver Safety Device’ hold-over button on the driver’s side
- Bank of switches presented in one line
- Only one notch indicator gauge
- Vacuum brake pipe and chamber dual gauge
- Wiper motors -Manual wiper handles
- Smaller driver and Secondman windscreen blinds
- 'Max Speed 100mph’ sticker
- No parking brake operation panel
- Double armed wipers

MID-CAB (THE AREA BETWEEN THE CAB AND BULKHEAD)

- Smaller partitions
- Missing vents on partition ends

BULKHEAD AREAS

- Window in bulkhead door
- Visible ‘Protection of line’ clips
- ‘Electric Shock’ poster moved to right hand side
- Handbrake Wheel
- Altered top equipment area
- Fire bell moved down from top equipment area and now next to the door
- Two types of Heating rings. Small in cab 1 and large in cab 2

We hope you enjoyed this latest update including these tremendous looking screenshots below.  We'll be back next month with the next Development update for you.

 

Welcome to this the first of our Development Entries for our BR Class 86/2 & Mk2F Coaches.

Our first entry shows the Class 86/2 model in various states, firstly with no textures, which is the state that the physical model gets created in. When we are happy with the model then we apply the textures. Both the Intercity Executive and BR Blue liveries have the distinctive yellow front area which is designed to make the locomotive as visible as possible as it approaches.

A quick and easy way to tell the differences between the Class 87 and Class 86 is that the Class 86 has three front windscreens v/s two for the Class 87. These pictures show the stage before the Locomotive gets placed into Train Sim World.

That's it for now, we'll be back soon as development work progresses on the loco and the coaches.