Routine Operations

[Omogoto]

I was just curious how most others operate their trains. I have only opened up Bryson so far.
It seems like I get all the daily freight done in 2 or 3 game hours, then I park my freight loco for the day.
On passengers I do one full run in the morning, fast forward to around noon, do another full run, then fast forward to around 4 or 5 in the evening then do one final run.
Sometimes at the end of the day, if I have enough light, I may do any other freight runs that pop up at the end of the day.
When I run freight and passengers together, its kind of busy and hectic.
I was just curious if that's how the game in general works for most?
The reason I ask is looking at the map, it seems like opening up all the locations might be too much to handle if things got much busier? I cant imagine running 3,4, or 5 Engines?
So just wondering about early access, what comes later? and is this how the game is for most right now?
Thank You

[Imperial Strikeforce]

In the beginning, when you don't have much of the map opened up, and if you've not taken out contracts with a lot of businesses, then yes, it's easy to get everything done within a few hours. Those opening hours of gameplay, until you get enough money to keep unlocking more of the map, it will be this way.

The good news is, the more you unlock the map, the more businesses you take contracts with, your daily tasks will start to take up most of the day. At a certain point, you'll be so busy you'll probably think about reducing game time to 1:1, which is real-time, to have enough time to try and get all deliveries made.

In short, in the beginning, it's slow going and you have a lot of time to spare.

[coenvijge]

At the moment (day 6) I'm running a pax service Bryson -> Whittier -> Bryson every hour. It's makes a lot of money.

I have one engine for freight.

The engine starts doing local work at East Whittier and preparing the train from the interchange to Bryson.
After that I run one train from East Whittier to Bryson taking all cars (except the cars for East Whittier).
At Bryson I do the shunting work for the industries. After serving the industries at Bryson the loco returns to East Whittier.

If needed I do a logs run in the afternoon.

The cars for Ela and Whittier travel with the pax train from Bryson. The paxtrain is also taking empties and returning cars from Bryson and Ela to Whittier ('oil track').

In the late afternoon/evening the freight loco takes the returning cars from Whittier and East Whittier to the interface.

[Imperial Strikeforce]

While you don't have much of the map opened up yet. Good time to make decent money by delivering as many log runs per day as you can from Connelly to the Saw Mill in E. Whittier. Now that the devs reduced the unload time for logs at the Saw Mill, you should be able to get 2-3 runs per day if you don't have many other businesses to deliver to yet.

[Omogoto]

Great comments already, thank you. I usually operate my fright loco, and use AI Engineer for Pass. It seems a little difficult with the fuses. I am assuming their is no way to set up like an auto Pass run that will run on its own?
Ela seems like its hardly worth it and the single track a bottle neck. I read somewhere that at least one run a day needed to maintain my reputation?
One last question is should I now drop all my Tier 1 contracts and take only the level 3?
Thanks once again for the replies.

[bfcmik]

I have my deliveries to East Whittier Interchange booked for 4am. The time is set to 1:1 at first. I set all industries to level 3 OR the highest level below that I am allowed - I upgrade as soon as I can (every 3 days). I bought the S23 shunter as that is great for running trains up to 1100t to and from Bryson or Connelly.

I park my passenger train at Whittier overnight with all passenger boxes ticked - it is usually ready to depart by 5.15 :) It is run as a push-pull which was common on local lines and consists of a 1915 lightweight, the original coach and an observation car = 179 passengers. I run it every 2 or 3 hours depending on how full it is, I am comfortable running it anywhere above 50% as, apart from a bit of coal it costs nothing and brings in decent money. Running passenger trains generates bigger demand over time.

I then use my 2nd loco to run all the Bryson freight, including the Bryson bridge project cars, and the S23 for the 'locals' to Whittier and Ela. Once the S23 finishes the locals I move the time to 2:1 again and use it for the wood runs, I have 10 log cars, 6 for L2 and 4 for L1, which I shunt every time so the new load is near the buffers. As long as all the incoming freight is spotted by 11 am you get a cash bonus for each car.

PS: Now I have opened Alarka Junction I bought a Pacific P46 and run it double headed with the S23, dropping off all the Bryson freight at Bryson, as that makes it up the grade to Hemingway with over 2000t. I detach the S23 at Hemingway then run the P46 around so I can reverse the cars into the wye project and Robinson coal. The P46 can make it from Whittier Junction to Alarka Jct and back without extra water.

[Imperial Strikeforce]

Originally posted by Omogoto:

Great comments already, thank you. I usually operate my fright loco, and use AI Engineer for Pass. It seems a little difficult with the fuses. I am assuming their is no way to set up like an auto Pass run that will run on its own?
Ela seems like its hardly worth it and the single track a bottle neck. I read somewhere that at least one run a day needed to maintain my reputation?
One last question is should I now drop all my Tier 1 contracts and take only the level 3?
Thanks once again for the replies.

The devs have stated they are working on improving the AI. I'd imagine it will get to the point where it will be fully automated. For example, give a set of commands to the AI to stop at each station, wait x amount of minutes, continue to the next station, once the last station is reached, turn around and do the same in reverse order and just keep doing it over and over. That's what I'm waiting for before I start using AI because I don't want to mess with putting fusees all over the place either.

Yes, you need to make at least one run per day with your passenger train to keep your company rating up so you can get your purchase discounts, etc.

Change your contract tiers to what you have time to do. i think the higher you increase the Tier, the more cars you'll get to deliver to each business and a tighter time period to get them delivered within.

I unlocked the map to Sylva first, so currently I have all businesses all along the route from Sylva, Dillsboro,Wilmot, Whittier, Ela, to Bryson, and every business along the way, except Bryson, I have set to Tier 3. I'm able to deliver all rail cars dropped off at the Sylva interchange and return all cars from the businesses back to the interchange, plus make 1 log run, 1 woodchip run to Connelly, and one passenger train run to all passenger stations and back in the course of one game day, playing at speed 2:1.

I'm getting to the point where it gets to about 7-9pm by the time I get done, but it's still doable for me to get all that done in one game day.

[coenvijge]

There is (at the moment) no way to have a 'fully automatic AI'. Dev's stated that a better (completer) AI is one of the priorities.

Note that (as an alternative for the fusee) you also can stop the AI by 'setting a switch against'; if you build signals also 'red' signals are stopping your trains.

Ela has less pax, but you are passing there and a stop doesn't cost that much time.

'One train a day' is indeed the minimum needed to keep your pax happy (to maintain the reputation).

It's IMO better to move gradually up the tiers. If everything is running like you want move from 1 to 2 and, at the moment that 'tier 2' is running good go to tier 3. There a lot of comments from players that moved too soon to tier 3 and found theirselves at some point with a lot of freight work and not being reddy to handle it all.

[Lemon Friend]

I've got Sylva to Bryson. I run an AI train for passengers that has priority over freight movements. It runs around the clock - about 13-14 roundtrips a day. Then I have several single-purpose trains that I run manually, generally one at a time but switching back and forth among them as needed. It gets very hectic and I enjoy the heck out of it. (No CTC yet, none planned). I generally keep the time multiplier at 1:1 and never jump time.

[Imperial Strikeforce]

As long as I'm not doing AI, and playing solo, I have no plans to ever unlock CTC either. No point, no one is on the track but me.

[chadnesbit]

I currently have Whittier to alarka. First thing I start is a logging run w/G16. Then I use a C46 to pull back other freight leaving sawmill freight for an S23. I move the sawmill freight into position than start toward alarka with the C46 distributing as needed, including Robinson. Use T17 for Bryson freight shunting. I keep a pax train set loading at Whittier and it loads until after the morning rush hours 7-9. Run pax. Return sawmill freight w s23. Run another log run. wait till Robinson is done then return evening freight. Run another pax after evening rush hour ~19:00 hours. Really wish they had water at either robinson or alarka junction. I mean you expect heavy coal delivery without even buying me a drink? lol.

[Walta Gaming]

I am on my second playthrough since I made the mistake of going for tier 5 contracts on everything. That game was Sylvia to Alarka which is where I am at for my current game as well. In my first game I had 3 engines. One was constantly running logs (tier 5 contract) and when that was setup it would help out at the Whittier industries. 2nd engine would run freight. My 3rd engine ran passengers at 6 am and after that it would run the construction train. Got overwhelmed when I bought the line to Sylvia so I quit after that.

In my 2nd playthrough I am doing Diesel only so I just have 2 SW1's. It's possible if you sell everything except your passenger car while getting a max loan before you sell stuff (loan limit is based on the amount of equipment you own). The game was so slow with 1 SW1 I just listened to videos with the game on in the background. I am also only doing industries that require wood products and the mines to keep things manageable with one person playing. One engine runs a mixed passenger / worktrain / local dropoffs from one end of the line to the other. Sometimes the train needs to be split because its too heavy. The other one is fully in charge of switching the Sylvia factories, Connely Creek and the Whittier saw mill. When I get a GP9 it will run my work / coal trains and the SW1 will run passengers in the morning then switch Sylvia when that's done. Once the entire route is done I want to have 4 GP9's and 2 SW1's to keep everything moving. Might need even more then that honestly.

Also if you drop off the work train you can wait 1 hour at a time until the train is unloaded then take it back in the evening which is a great way to save time. Just means your trains will be running very heavy and you will need loans to keep money coming in.

[avgwarhawk]

Grow slowly. When your freight is done before noon run some logs. Run empties to the interchange. Run your passenger train. Advance time by a hour only. Your log cars will be full and ready to run to the mill. Your passenger cars should be filling up. Run it and make money. Keep doing this until the evening. Add another tier or two. Maybe one more company. But do it slowly. If you go full tiers things get out of hand.

[Vanguard]

Instead of starting a new thread, since this seems to be related, I have two cars at Stenzel, one is ready to go back to the interchange. Does it make sense to wait until they are both ready to go back, or is the bonus worth the time to take the single car? What would be the prototypical thing to do here knowing the second car will be ready the next day?

[thebear05]

Originally posted by Vanguard:

Instead of starting a new thread, since this seems to be related, I have two cars at Stenzel, one is ready to go back to the interchange. Does it make sense to wait until they are both ready to go back, or is the bonus worth the time to take the single car? What would be the prototypical thing to do here knowing the second car will be ready the next day?

It all depends on how much is loaded in the freight car. I look at both the ones being loaded and unloaded to see if is worth waiting for. I do not know how quick Stengel load their freight. Depending on the time of day I would wait for an hour or so. I had two cars at Bryson, one was empty and the other one only had a few tonnes left. Waited an hour and the second one was empty. The only business I have seen to be quick at loading cars is the Whittier Sawmill. I dropped six cars in the morning and by 2:00pm they are nearly all loaded. I will wait the rest of the day until they are ready. Remember the working day does not finish till midnight.

[Vanguard]

Originally posted by thebear05:

Originally posted by Vanguard:

Instead of starting a new thread, since this seems to be related, I have two cars at Stenzel, one is ready to go back to the interchange. Does it make sense to wait until they are both ready to go back, or is the bonus worth the time to take the single car? What would be the prototypical thing to do here knowing the second car will be ready the next day?

It all depends on how much is loaded in the freight car. I look at both the ones being loaded and unloaded to see if is worth waiting for. I do not know how quick Stengel load their freight. Depending on the time of day I would wait for an hour or so. I had two cars at Bryson, one was empty and the other one only had a few tonnes left. Waited an hour and the second one was empty. The only business I have seen to be quick at loading cars is the Whittier Sawmill. I dropped six cars in the morning and by 2:00pm they are nearly all loaded. I will wait the rest of the day until they are ready. Remember the working day does not finish till midnight.

I saw somewhere in the game (tutorial/help?) where the bonus (6-4-2%) was same day, next day or day after respectively, leaving me the impression that delivering stuff within 3 days is not only still 100% performance, but actually still considered a potential 2% bonus. Is that the case?

The second car still has 40+t in it and it's getting late at night. The reason I asked if it's prototypical is because it seems uncanny to move a car that's still being unloaded to get to the car behind it and take it away. I understand the game doesn't care if I move it, just seems weird to shunt a half unloaded car out of the way while they are unloading and then put it back after the shunt.