Tag: Lord Nelson

IN THE WORKS #3

Posted on by steamlococollection in Lord Nelson

LORD NELSON PROGRESS UPDATE 29 MAY 2026

Hello everyone, hope you’re doing well. Nearly June already?! While work has been continuing apace on the Lord Nelson, other things have also kept me extremely busy, and I just haven’t found the time to do the renders and write a blog post, so apologies for that. Now, though, my focus is fully back on the Nelson, and I have a bumper update for you this time.

In the last update, I showed the completed frames. Next up are the bogies, cylinders, wheels and motion.

First, let’s focus on the bogie with two renders showing the bogie as fitted to No. 850 when it was brand new in 1926, and the bogie which is fitted to it in preservation.

Original Nelson Bogie
850 Lord Nelson Bogie as preserved

How many changes can you spot?

Across ‘Lord Nelson’s lifetime, there were at least 6 changes to various parts of the bogie. But that’s just No.850; across the entire class, there are over 10 variations.

The next renders show the completed work on the motion, inside and out, as well as the cylinders.

The steam-powered clutch for the reversing shaft, located on the fireman’s side of the engine, was a rather complex object to model, as being mounted between the frames makes it very difficult to photograph. However, I’m glad I persevered, and I intend to animate it on the finished model.

There are slight differences between the Maunsell and Bulleid cylinders (the Maunsell ones are shown in the renders). The original Maunsell single blastpipe is shown. Like the ‘H’ and ‘Z’ class add-ons I have previously released, the smokebox door will be animated, and you will be able to peer into the smokebox, so getting the blastpipe and inside cylinder top right is very important. I could make life a lot easier for myself by not modelling the inside of the smokebox, but where’s the fun in that!

You might also notice the short cylinder cock pipes. These only appeared on No. 850 and only for the first month of its existence. When the engine entered Eastleigh Works for painting toward the end of August 1926, the pipes were extended and secured via a bracket behind the front footsteps.

The Rod and Pipe drawing makes it much easier to ensure the numerous pipes are in the right place and are the right size. However, I must confess I’m dreading modelling the lubricator pipes!

Finally, I can’t fail to mention the nameplate. The letters will, of course, be 3d and for every other Nelson besides ‘Lord Nelson’ itself, the additional ‘Lord Nelson Class’ part of the nameplate will be included.

I’m really pleased with the level of detail I’ve been able to include thus far. The next job will be the smokebox, boiler and cab. I’d better get cracking then!

Until next time…

IN THE WORKS #2

Posted on by steamlococollection in Lord Nelson

LORD NELSON PROGRESS UPDATE 12 DECEMBER 2025

Hello everyone, hope you’re doing well.

I’m delighted to be showing off the first WIP renders of the Lord Nelson add-on. The first item I always model is the frames. Everything is either attached to or rests on the frames, so getting them right is paramount.

In the previous “In The Works”, I mentioned the numerous variations and modifications made to the Lord Nelsons during their working lives. Those modifications extend even to the frames. When ‘Lord Nelson’ was being built in 1926, great care was taken to ensure that the locomotive didn’t exceed the weight limit set by the Civil Engineer. Such was the attention taken that No. E850 actually emerged from Eastleigh Works, weighing 0.75 tons less than the drawing office estimate. Therefore, when the first production batch was being built, certain of those weight-saving measures were deemed unnecessary and the frames of Nos. 851 – 865 were different to Lord Nelson. 850’s frames were later modified, but it still retained a couple of unique elements.

After the frames are complete, work moves onto the front bufferbeam, rear dragbox and the frame stretchers, which help keep the frames nice and square.

Notice the underhung laminated springs and substantial rear dragbox. The hinged cover on the running plate provides access to the expansion and die block, making lubrication a little bit easier. The two valves bracketed onto the rear dragbox are where the water pipes from the tender connect to the locomotive. On top of the valve is the connection to the water feed controls in the cab.

Next time I’ll show the front bogie. If you think the frame variations are bad, wait till you see the bogie variations!

It’s worth mentioning that sometimes I’ll have progress to show, but which I don’t feel justifies a “In The Works” post. Anything that falls into this category will be posted on the SLC Facebook page and a dedicated development page here on the SLC website for the Lord Nelson add-on. This development page will also provide links to all “In The Works” posts about the Nelsons.

Until next time…

IN THE WORKS #1

Posted on by steamlococollection in Lord Nelson

LORD NELSON RESEARCH

Hello everyone, and welcome to the first ‘In The Works’.

Work on the ‘Lord Nelson’ add-on is well underway and I look forward to sharing some renders with you soon. However, long before I sit down to set up the drawings and start the actual modelling, research needs to be completed.

Research can often be overlooked; a bar on a progress chart, a passing comment. But research provides the foundation on which the add-on is built. But how do I go about doing research?

The first step is acquiring research material, this takes the form of books, photographs, drawings and magazines. Of course, obtaining a copy of every photograph and every book to mention a particular class can be a) expensive and b) not every item will contribute significantly to my research so a balanced view is required.

The next step is to start transferring all of that data and observations into a Spec Sheet and a Data Sheet

The Spec Sheet lists all the variations and livery changes I’ve identified across an entire class. The Data Sheet is where I dive down into the details and list all the variations for each individual engine, when they took place and any other observations.

Going through the books I have often reveals small discrepancies with information; dates might be different, engines might have a change listed in one book that isn’t mentioned in another. I have to work out which is the accurate narrative, not an easy task!

This whole process, of course, takes time and concentration. For the ‘Lord Nelson’ add-on, I estimate the process took about 3 months, but that doesn’t mean that I stop looking for further photographs and details, I’m always on the lookout for more information just not with the same intensity!

So how many variations have I identified? Discounting any livery-related changes, I have so far identified over 170 different modifications, some small and some large. This will mean that the ‘Lord Nelson’s will be the most detailed add-on I have produced, and that’s not including trying to create 3 different sound sets, different simulation setups, as well as trying to convey all this information in a easy to read manual!

Still, it’s all part of the fun.😀

In the next ‘In The Works’ I’ll share the first WIP renders of the add-on.

Until next time …

SLC Update 5 August 2025

Posted on by steamlococollection in Announcements, Lord Nelson

Hi everyone, hope you’re well and enjoying the summer.

Anniversaries. There have been several of them recently:

  • Flying Scotsman marked its centenary in 2023.
  • Several preserved railways have been marking anniversaries.
  • 2025 marks 200 years since the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway (can’t forget the big one, can we?!)

There have been several SR-related anniversaries as well. N15 ‘Sir Lamiel’ marked its centenary in June 2025. The sole N, no. 1874, is 100 years old in September.

If you’ve followed the blog for a while, you’ll know that I am a big fan of the ‘Lord Nelson’ class. In August 2026, no. 850 ‘Lord Nelson’ marks its centenary. What better time to have an add-on on the class available! Thus, I am excited to announce that the next locomotive add-on from SLC will be the Lord Nelson class!

For a class of only 16 engines, the ‘Lord Nelson’s have a complex history. There are lots of variations to include, as well as some details that haven’t been identified before!

As I build the add-on, I’ll be making more use of the blog and the SLC YouTube channel. All future add-on updates will be under the banner ‘In The Works’. These will be a mixture of posts here on the website and videos on the YouTube channel. So make sure you’re subscribed to both so you don’t miss out.

But that’s not all. My interest in railways isn’t limited to just Train Simulator Classic. So there were will be several other series appearing on the website and YouTube channel.

Like many other developers, I’ve built up a large library as I research projects. Some of these may not be so well known. So in the blog series ‘Behind the Cover’ I’ll look at some of these lesser known publications.

‘SLC Scaled’ will be focused on my model railway adventures; repairing/maintaining and otherwise mucking about with model trains. This will be primarily on the SLC YouTube channel, but there may be the occasional written article on the website.

Finally, in ‘Behind the Lens’ I’ll share my visits to various railways and museums as well as mainline steam.

There’s no schedule for any of these series. They will be posted when I have something to show/write about. Hopefully, though, they’ll be more interesting than the 6-monthly I’m still working on an add-on style updates of late.

So much to look out for and I hope you’re as excited as I am.

Until next time…

SLC Update – 2 April 2021

Posted on by steamlococollection in Uncategorized

The clocks have changed, the days are getting longer and spring is most definitely here. Work at SLC continues apace and I hope to soon release a scenario pack for the ‘H’ class.

I’m pleased to announce that V1.2 of the ‘H’ class add-on was released today. This update focuses mainly on improvements to the vacuum ejector and braking scripts, but there are a couple of other adjustments/fixes. Driving the ‘H’ is a much more interesting experience and I hope you enjoy it.

It’s been over two months since I last did an update on the ‘Lord Nelson’. While work hasn’t stopped, I like to try and show completely finished components in the blog posts. My focus has been on completing the bogie, bogie wheels, driving wheels, as well as the outside and inside motion. This task is made harder by the fact that across the classes lifetime everything except the bogie wheels received some change or modification. Oh well, they say variety is the spice of life, but right now I feel like I’ve got indigestion! Hopefully I’ll have a more visual update on the Nelson’s in the near future, so keep an eye on the blog.

Stay safe everyone.

James (SLC)

SLC Update – 27 January 2021

Posted on by steamlococollection in Lord Nelson

Hi everyone, hope you’re staying safe and well during these uncertain times. The end of November last year saw the release of the SE&CR ‘H’ class add-on and I must say thank you to everyone who has purchased the add-on so far, I hope you’re enjoying it.

With the ‘H’ class done it’s straight onto the next project the Lord Nelson class.

Examining drawings held at Search Engine in York has been an immeasurable help in finding some variations and details that would have otherwise been impossible to identify. So having got some new higher resolution drawings into Blender, the first step was to create as many animation rigs that I could without a physical model present. As a result I now have a rig for all four sets of valve gear, the cylinder drain cock linkage, the dampers and sander linkage.

With that accomplished, onto the modelling. Some like to build a complete base model and then in effect graft variations onto that model. Personally I prefer to have all the variations for a particular component modelled, ie all of the cylinder types, as it helps me ensure that everything fits together correctly.

So the current state of progress:

It might seem unbelievable, but in just these pictures I could show over 20 variations. Most are cylinder/blastpipe changes, but a few are frame differences.

You wouldn’t think the locomotive frames would have much in the way of variations, but steam locomotives have a knack for surprising you. As just one example of frame variation compare this photograph of 850 Lord Nelson with 857 Lord Howe.

Rail-Online: Lord Nelson 4-6-0 &emdash; 850 1930s Stewarts lane Rail-Online: Lord Nelson 4-6-0 &emdash; 857 1937-06 Eastleigh Works

Focus on the lightening hole between the middle and rear driving wheels. On No.850 this was a stadium shape (it is a little tricky to see on the photograph, look just above the coupling rod), whereas on every other member of the class a circular hole was made in the frames. You might easily miss that detail, but once you’ve seen it you can’t ignore it. Yet amazingly not one of the books about the class that I’ve read has pointed this detail out.

As I mentioned previously the drawings held at Search Engine have been a real help. If I have a drawing I don’t have to guess the dimensions, though interpreting a 2d drawing with no photographs is a challenge in itself. One of those challenging components was the Kylchap blastpipe.

As can be seen from the finished product, the curves in all three directions made it a difficult object to make, but the results more than justify the effort.

In other SLC news…

I’m pleased to say that the U class add-on is back on the website. The add-on was withdrawn in November 2018 due to a couple of issues being reported by customers. At the time I wasn’t able to fix them, but due to the influx of enquiries about the add-on as it is used in a number of scenarios that are available, I took another look. While I haven’t been able to fix all of the issues, enough has been done that I can justify putting it back on sale. However, the U class add-on is now approaching ten years since it was released and the add-on is not up to the standards of current SLC add-on’s. Therefore the re-release has a caveat. The add-on is ONLY intended for use as AI traffic in scenario’s. If you choose to use the add-on as a player-driven engine you will only be able to drive the engine using the keyboard or the HUD as I was unable to fix the inability to move the cab controls with the mouse. I can still only offer limited technical support.

While I won’t be posting every week, or indeed, every month, as progress on the Lord Nelson continues I plan to post an update whenever I can. Until next time …

SLC Update 17 May 2020

Posted on by steamlococollection in Lord Nelson, SECR H Class

Well, I haven’t done one of these in a while, let’s see how rusty I am!

It’s time for a long overdue blog post.

I can only apologize for my year of silence. Rather than creating a complete locomotive and then adding the variations and liveries, the way I tend to work is to create all the variations simultaneously; that way I can check that everything fits together correctly. The downside is that I don’t have any complete in game screenshots to show until shortly before the model is complete.

The ‘H’ class has been a bit of a rollercoaster to create. I’ve mentioned previously that some of the variations and changes which will be included with the add-on have never, as far as my research has been able to ascertain, been identified. The Search Engine archives at the National Railway Museum have been very helpful in ensuring that items like the pipes for the Westinghouse brakes, vacuum brakes and steam heat system, are in the correct places.

However, while examining some original drawings last year for the Lord Nelson add-on, I took the opportunity to look at the drawings of the cab, tank and bunkers for the ‘H’ class. The result of this was that I realised my model did not match the stated dimensions. In some places the difference was less than 1/4 in but in others was close to or over 1 in. At first glance that might not seem a huge amount, but the dimensions of the cab affect the position and dimensions of other components which in turn impact other parts, and soon what started as a 1 in difference has increased to 2 maybe 3 inches. Therefore, I took the decision to rebuild as many components as was necessary to reduce the dimensional differences, which in the end, resulted in around 75% of the model being rebuild or modified. But the results were, I think, worth it.

The SE&CR austerity grey livery, has quickly become one of my favourites, there’s something purposeful and workman like in it’s appearance.

I can’t give an exact date of completion for the add-on as there’s a number of new techniques that I’m testing in addition to the normal development cycle.

However, work has not been solely focused on the ‘H’ class. As I mentioned previously, research on the Lord Nelson class has included viewing original works drawings. Cataloguing the variations for any locomotive add-on is a time consuming task, but with the Lord Nelson’s it’s made even harder because of the more than 200 photographs I have to go through, many of which don’t have the date or year the picture was taken. But in the meantime, I decided to make a start on building what components I could with the aid of the original works drawings I viewed at the NRM. The first major component to be nearing completion is the cab for No. 850 when it was brand new in August 1926.

While this blog post isn’t a “The H class is now available”, I hope it’s given an insight into why things take longer than I want them to. I’m continually learning new things as a developer, where would the fun be if we didn’t keep learning.

One aspect of Train Simulator that I’ve been dabbling with recently is scenario creation. You may have noticed that there is a new section on the SLC website for scenarios. Here I’ll be uploading occasional scenarios that I’ve created and hopefully you’ll enjoy playing.

Until next time

James (SLC)