Train difference?

[Outta_Luck_Panda]

When is an actual circumstance where I would use the workhorse over the custom engine? Cause with the acceleration bonus alone why would I ever choose the workhorse unless the buildings are right next to each other?

[Boikinov]

The CUSTOM engine has lower rated weight capacity
For a long train, the acceleration and top speed will be greatly reduced

[0x143]

Every train has its own niche. For that specific combo, the custom has a poor time carrying lots of freight cars by itself. Thus players often combine the custom with another engine.

The workhorse meanwhile does a good job of six cars by itself. Think of the Workhorse as the Mario option.

[The Haney]

Workhorse is bae.

My usual setups are 6-car trains with the following:

1x Workhorse for flat routes, or routes with just 1x incline.
2x Workhorse for routes with 2x-4x incline while loaded
1x Workhorse and 1x Industrial for anything above 4x incline while loaded
1x boiler for low-throughput or extremely short routes
1x spark when it's late-game, I've got cash to burn, and I'm trying to beat the timer.

I pretty much only use the custom if I've screwed myself over with building placement and I need to build a very tight line with crossings; in this situation having smaller trains with good acceleration clears out traffic quickly.

[xBleacheDxSungasMx]

Edit: Good point you guys made about rounded 6 cargo units. I'm starting maps with Boiler+5wagon soon to 1-0-1-6 (which seems to be accidentally meta) and then after unlocking Spark Engine, 1 workhorse + 1 spark for 12 wagons.

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Old comment:

You only need one C.U.S.T.O.M. engine to lock any train at 4.0 km/h/s acceleration without being overloaded.

(boiler-workhorse-custom-wagon)
1-0-1-7 is cheaper with better overall stats than 0-2-0-8 minus 1 cargo.
1-1-1-11 is a balanced long train.
For single engine, 0-1-0-4 seems best for most cases.

I still need to unlock the other engines.
I've been ignoring boiler and making 0-1-0, 0-2-0, and 0-2-1 through region #7... Don't have to think much this way.

[ulzgoroth]

I'm very curious what the rules are on combining engines, it's not immediately obvious. (And with timers running it never feels like a good time to fiddle around.)

[gardlt]

Originally posted by xBleacheDxSungasMx:

1-1-1-11 is a balanced long train.

I like to run them with 12 carriages. Stations can be 6 cells long, so that's two load/unload cycles at a full length station.

Late on, when time is a lot more value than money, in some missions that require high throughput I stack these. Each 1-1-1-12 is treated as a "unit" in a multiple unit train. For example, (1-1-1-12)+(1-1-1-12)+(1-1-1-12)+(1-1-1-12) gives a 48 carriage train.

It doesn't matter the arrangement, we could put all the wagons first and the engines at the end of the train if we want, but keeping the same "formula" helps keep things organized if we want to make adjustments later, add or take out a unit at a time. :)

[Boikinov]

1 Custom + 1 Boiler + 6 Wagons is so far the most efficient combination
Unless there are lot of hill climbing, I will switch the Boiler to an Industrial
I usually setup a train in early stage with 1 Custom + 4 Wagons
Later add 2 more Wagons and 1 engine at back, choose either Boiler or Industrial based on route situation

[gardlt]

Originally posted by Boikinov:

1 Custom + 1 Boiler + 6 Wagons is so far the most efficient combination

Can't go wrong with this. For general use, >80% of the time, it's my go-to. It's also safe with ensured loading at a full-length station.

This combination has one engine per 3 cars. The twelve car setup is one engine per 4 cars. Although the Boiler has low cost, making it only a marginal gain. The benefit of this pattern is increasing throughput on the line. The risk of partial loading can be mitigated with branches to multiple loading bays, make sure one is always free, duplicated stations are costly though, or, just make one long train combining multiple "units" of this combination. Definitely only for high volume situations. :)

[The Haney]

Since I got it unlocked I've been having a great deal of success with the DeluxeDiesel. Runs 12 cars by itself pretty well on flat tracks.