This update adds a new official steam engine to the game: the Shay!
With the upcoming Sierra Logging map, there's no way that the game couldn't include the most iconic locomotive of the American logging industry.

The Shay is especially designed for steep gradients and sharp corners, prefect for the tight complex railway lines used for logging in the hills.

The best thing about the shay is its unique gear system!



You can find the new locomotive in the "Trains -> Steam" drawer:



This official Shay model is built upon the amazing community-made mod by:

HuskyDynamics & Globin347!

Massive thank-you to both of them for their incredible work!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2962779184

The official version has some additional details, effects and a different livery template.

You can find the livery template along with all the other official liveries, in the
"Rolling Line -> Modding -> templates -> livery templates" folder:

Creating your own liveries

Making liveries is easy! All you need is basic image editing software (even MS Paint is fine).
There's a guide here on Steam that explains how to make your own liveries!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1405658466

Downloading shared liveries

You can find other people's shared liveries simply by going to the Steam Workshop and using the “livery type” drop-down list:

New steam donkey

This update also adds a new variant of the steam donkey prop.
These older (and smaller) donkeys were often used for more light-weight jobs like skidding logs, while the newer more powerful ones were used for loading logs on to wagons.

Small details view distance LOD

This update makes some minor changes to the LOD (level of detail) system. Some smaller props like grass, rocks and bushes now have their own view distance layer which will be hidden at a closer distance than other props.
This means an improvement in performance since details like grass don't need to be rendered at such a long distance. You can disable this setting if you want in the "Pause menu ->Graphics -> advanced" menu.

Here is an example of the effect in action (left = optimization on, right = optimization off):

New "cylinder chug alt" mod particle preset

If you look at the GIF of the Shay's pistons you can see that there are two different particles which "chug" at alternating times. The mod system now has the option to make a "cylinder chug alt" particle to use this effect. They will simply emit particles at alternating times from the normal ""cylinder chug" particle preset.



And that's everything for this update!
It's been a while since there was a steam engine added into the game, and this is a really fun one. The Shay is a personal favorite of mine and it's so exciting to finally have it in the game.
The Sierra Logging map is nearing completion, and there will be lots of news about it in the coming month, so keep an eye out for that.

In the meantime, have fun with the new Shay engine!