USRA 2-8-2 Light Mikado

USRA 2-8-2 Light Mikado

Thank you Lskeetskeet for the excellent screenshots as always!
Hello folks, and welcome to a new era in steam from me! We have the United States Railroad Administration’s (USRA) 2-8-2 Light Mikado.

READ THIS PLEASE!
As heads-up folks, you will find this locomotive in your buy menu under “multiple units” under the steam category. You also MUST have Meatballhero’s Railroad Random numbers mod, or you will have blank white meshes all over your locomotive. The reason you see it under the multiple unit category is the Random numbers mod. In order for it to work, the locomotive must have cargo space. That cargo is 1 passenger. So no, you are not crazy if you see this on your freight trains. This is the workaround for getting the random numbers to work. Honestly, well worth it! You must remember to activate both the Mikado and the Railroad Font pack in your mods for this to work.

Slight history
During the first world war, the federal government enacted the USRA as an experiment to nationalize the railroads during a wartime emergency. This lasted from December 1917 to March 1920. They introduced standardized locomotive and rail car classes known as the USRA Standard.
Changes occurred quickly as once President Wilson issued the order for nationalization. All the railroads were organized into 3 divisions, East, West, and South. A reduction in passenger service occurred to help with the decongestion of freight. The current number of locomotives and rolling stock was augmented by new production of up-to-date and standardized types/designed to be the best that could be produced to replace outdated equipment.

Enter the USRA Light Mikado! These locomotives were considered well-designed, modern, and successful. The mikado type locomotive was the most numerous across the country. They worked all the way until the diesel started taking over. A total of 625 light Mikado’s were built during the time of the USRA’s tenure with 641 being built afterward. During the second world war, the railroads started referring to the mikado’s as MacArthur’s after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. At the conclusion of the war, the name Mikado soon returned.

These locomotives are excellent in freight work and mountain passenger service.

What’s with Mike?
We have 5 unlettered USRA-type Light Mikados in the pack here. The engine doesn’t change, but the tender does!

Mikado
– w/Standard short 4 Axle Tender
– w/Standard short 4 Axle tender with extended coal bay.
– w/Long haul 4 Axle tender
– w/Long haul 4 Axle tender with dog house
– w/4 Axle Vanderbilt tender

MC Couplers
– Excellent sounds by Mrcheesecake
– The first of my mods to use random numbers! Any and all locomotives with have a different number across them of the 4500 series.
– All tender variations have a corresponding asset with a FIXED road number.
– 8 different camera views

Stats
Availability – 1918
Speed – 59 MPH
Horsepower – 3500
Tractive Effort – 54,724 LBF
Weight- 238,700 lbs.

What’s next with credits
I want to thank Scott Brunner – This locomotive model was originally made for open rails. With taking the model as a solid base I transformed and updated it significantly to almost a brand-new model; well practically. Thank you very much for providing a solid foundation to build on. This helped significantly with the timing and movement of this model.
Beyond Scott Brunner this is also a mash-up of my models, and Meatballhero’s meshes. The nice part is during this time a lot of locomotives used very similar parts so using mesh that is already done, and tweaking them to fit the needs of this model was a breeze! Cisco for providing me the Bettendorf trucks with some edits.

So this is a bit of a departure of what I originally said at the end of the Hudsons. Thing is, this model came out of left field, and I’m glad it did! So what’s actually in the pipe? More USRA types. My Early ALCO pack is going to be sidelined for a moment while I build out the Mikados. Looking to do the PRR, B&O, NYC, UP, NKP, and C&O.
I was able to procure another mesh for a different locomotive as well. As for USRA, this Mikado is a solid base to create other locomotives such as the Heavy Pacific, Light/Heavy Mountain, etc. So needless to say, my plate is full of mods for the future. I may bounce around a bit, but we’ll see how I’m feeling. Enjoy the mod and I look forward to seeing your screenshots!

The USRA locomotives are also ones in which is you simply google USRA and the type of locomotive, you get so many hits on model locomotives.

HEADS UP
From this point, please understand that my mods are rather heavy in poly count. Sorry, I enjoy the detail. I put a lot of effort into these, to make them as best I can to be enjoyed. Sorry, if you don’t have enough disk space or computer power to run these.

Required items:
Railroad Fonts Base Pack