This isn't the usual plea for an explanation of why a reskinned loco doesn't appear in the game but a question about whether it could be done deliberately. We can't simulate gravity shunting in the game so iconic things like hump-shunting yards can't feature properly. Another area where gravity was used was under the screens at collieries. Locos were never, ever allowed under them. Their exhaust would have made working conditions intolerable inside, risked setting them on fire or, at best, damaging the equipment. Wagons were pushed into storage sidings via a track that did not pass under the screens (where the red marker is on the linked OS map for Babbington Colliery on the outskirts of Nottingham) and they were then fed under the screens by gravity, via a weighbridge to record the tare weights, filled and reweighed before being assigned to one of the interchange sidings. We can't simulate any of that unless we have a loco involved but no loco ever went under the screens. We can ignore that stricture but it bugs me as an ex-NCB employee.
Is it possible to create an invisible loco, with invisible couplings for preference, that could be used with AI to give the effect of wagons moving under gravity? If so, would anyone consider knocking one up and uploading it to UKTS? I know that one is included in Wherry Lines and is used as a route blocker but (a) I don't know that it can be couple to anything and (b) I'm loath to add another commercial dependency for just that item. This one doesn't need to be very big, in fact the smaller the better so that when they take wagons into the interchange sidings they have as little impact as possible.
Keith
https://www.old-maps.co.uk/#/Map/453238 ... /13/101329