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Dawnblazer is a little tank engine, who lives in a station in Shaaloani. It's a cheeky little engine with 2 big wheels, 4 small wheels, a short... stumpy... wait...
As far as fantasy trains go, the Dawnblazer isn't so bad; yet the uncanny resemblance to a real-world object is really hurting the immersion, at least for me.
What's so bad about our oil (ceruleum) burning friend?
This. Right here. See the two big wheels that beg to pivot around and steer, almost like a boiler mounted on a backwards kei truck?
In reality, a 0-2-4 like this is exceedingly uncommon. [Wikipedia tells me] that only four were ever known to exist, but why might that be?
Now there's plenty of locmotives with only two driving wheels, The [Sterling Single] not least among them. Without taking magic into consideration, this means ALL of it's force is applied to two tiny points each no larger than a single gil. The merest hint of debris on the track or the most gentle of slopes and the poor locomotive would be stalling before you could say "Rroneek!"
Now why the Sterling single works as a fast passenger train however is that despite the limited area it can apply force to, it has a HUGE design hack: Leading wheels.
These unpowered wheels help carry the weight of the front of the engine and more crucially, help it negotiate corners at higher speeds. Else the locomotive will want to ignore the track and just keep going with it's current momentum, on a one-way ticket to derailsville.
However that begs the question: There's 4 trailing wheels; what are they there to support?
The Lightest part of the locomotive? Traditionally they've a minor role in suspension for the crew, but more practically spread the weight of the boiler over more axels. Yet broadly speaking, it's all focused over the drivers!
That said, the cab itself is HUGE. Out of context, you'd be forgiven for thinking this was a freight car, not the locomotive. This to me speaks of the need to design something to fit a camera inside, where you design for the poses and action you want, then build the rest of the vehicle around that. Get something that mostly works and hand-wave the rest with aether! Easy!
1/2
Continue reading...
Dawnblazer is a little tank engine, who lives in a station in Shaaloani. It's a cheeky little engine with 2 big wheels, 4 small wheels, a short... stumpy... wait...
As far as fantasy trains go, the Dawnblazer isn't so bad; yet the uncanny resemblance to a real-world object is really hurting the immersion, at least for me.
What's so bad about our oil (ceruleum) burning friend?
This. Right here. See the two big wheels that beg to pivot around and steer, almost like a boiler mounted on a backwards kei truck?
In reality, a 0-2-4 like this is exceedingly uncommon. [Wikipedia tells me] that only four were ever known to exist, but why might that be?
Now there's plenty of locmotives with only two driving wheels, The [Sterling Single] not least among them. Without taking magic into consideration, this means ALL of it's force is applied to two tiny points each no larger than a single gil. The merest hint of debris on the track or the most gentle of slopes and the poor locomotive would be stalling before you could say "Rroneek!"
Now why the Sterling single works as a fast passenger train however is that despite the limited area it can apply force to, it has a HUGE design hack: Leading wheels.
These unpowered wheels help carry the weight of the front of the engine and more crucially, help it negotiate corners at higher speeds. Else the locomotive will want to ignore the track and just keep going with it's current momentum, on a one-way ticket to derailsville.
However that begs the question: There's 4 trailing wheels; what are they there to support?
The Lightest part of the locomotive? Traditionally they've a minor role in suspension for the crew, but more practically spread the weight of the boiler over more axels. Yet broadly speaking, it's all focused over the drivers!
That said, the cab itself is HUGE. Out of context, you'd be forgiven for thinking this was a freight car, not the locomotive. This to me speaks of the need to design something to fit a camera inside, where you design for the poses and action you want, then build the rest of the vehicle around that. Get something that mostly works and hand-wave the rest with aether! Easy!
1/2
Continue reading...