No Clue What I'm Doing

[Steele]

Does anyone have any good guides to point me to? I've watched 2 YouTube Videos (40 minutes each) and followed the Tutorial until that ended. However, I am just stuck doing runs from Whittier to Ela. I have no clue how to unlock anything south of me, or start making more money.

[willist0]

Get a contract with the sawmill and start supplying logs also run passenger trains both are easy and will make you money

[sbmarauderman03]

At the start there won't be much to do and the pace will be very slow. Day 1 you should start up contracts, buy a passenger car and run passengers to/from Whittier/Ela. Run the log cars up Connelly Creek so they can be loaded for the sawmill. Day 2 will deliver your first set of cars for whatever contracts you start; deliver the cars where needed and wait for them to unload/load (will take 2 or 3 days). Run more passengers. When all tasks are done, advance to next day. Rinse/repeat. All of this is covered in the tutorial and watching the videos should've given you an idea of what to do.

[JE55BUNN1]

Run passenger trains to Ela / Whittier.

Start looking at the local companies you can move freight to / from. There are 5 tiers with each company, tiers are gained by providing a reliable service to the company over a few days. Tier 1 is the lowest, Tier 5 is the highest. Higher the Tier, more cars / products / work = money for your rail road.

The Saw Mill at Whititer is a good money earner. You'll need to accept a contract with them, you're then required to take the skeleton log cars outside the mill, up to the Connelly Creek for loading, and you then return them to the same track for unloading. When the sawmill gets going, cars will appear daily (6am) at Whittier Interchange, you need to position these cars behind the mill to be loaded. Use the TAB key to see where the cars need to go.

Start from here.

Run a regular passenger service from Whittier to Ela. Start servicing the Saw Mill, look at Stenzel manufacturing and the Oil fuel business in Whittier. Get to know the game.

Use the search engine on this forum to ask your questions, or even post a question here too. Take your time. Advance towards Bryson, NOT Slyvia

[Steele]

Thank you all. I'll try to keep at it :)

[x1Heavy]

Your starter engines are pretty precious right now. Take good care of them. One is to be held in the shed for reserve. (The one you rescued from the derailment) While it is sitting it will not burn fuel.

Your money will come from the sawmill, takes several days to gain a few thousand for I think four log cars. That should make your total 12. You can load four on L1 and 8 on L2 which is your standard loading track for sawmill. Once a day sometimes twice a day. 12 log bunks get you I think 36 logs which will support a T3 contract.

It will pay you for the log delivery every morning at 12:15 am game time.

Your passengers will be from Ela to Whitter for quite some time. At some point consider a palace car and observation at both ends which will boost your fares. The grind of the pax service is the hardest.

You will also see in whitter the manufactoror company and a tank car company, dont do contracts with them, leave them uncontracted. Save yourself trouble in switching as your priority is pax.

In your interchange each morning at 6 am should spawn cars for sawmill and maybe house tracks for whitter and ela. You deliver them and get paid. They get loaded and later that day will go out to interchange. Back and forth and so on.

Expansion to the south stops Whitter as your interchange and opens up Slyva as the new one I think 6 miles down the railroad through several depots and so on. Some of the industries are too small for contracting they are left alone. (My choice.)

The one to Bryson depends on a bridge to be built through from Ela. Theres a another bridge past Bryson to the coal mines up the railroad with two more towns with depots. So your pax run will become pretty important.

Keep whitter in coal hoppers. Water is infinite. Eventually you will gain money for converting to Diesel. The one advantage is you fuel once a week or more. The other is the tractive effort to get 12 loaded log cars up Connelly without too much struggle with the starter steam.

You will rebuild your starter steam engine several times as it reaches 95% go ahead and turn off wear and tear in your company tabs up in the top right to save yourself additional experiences in gathering repair parts and paying to fix the engine. If you broke your engine the other engine you have carefully saved will be the hero that saves the day.

I dont run with the caboose. Thats like 5000 dollars. So I sold it.

Your pattern will be the sawmill most always everything else is to be carefully considered. You can read various posts on forums about everything so far on the game.

The tuturol is your main guide and by the end of it you are introduced into your next several weeks of railroading based on pax and sawmill. Gather money, never take loans. Thats the discipline. Do not take loans, the money will come in a few days if you would just wait.

The tempting part becomes when you use sandbox mode and get more money and then back to company mode to spend it. thats what I did myself because I am in hospice and dont know when my time will come so I am interested in the full game experience, expanding the railroad and so on. It also is useful in absorbing losses. You can really struggle here in the money side if you are not careful in accumulating dollars that someday will bring your future with you.

I have about 120 hours in the game, some have hundreds. The game will be updated into 2025. Its a nice game and passes the time easily without certain other issues in video gaming today online.

I stay in company mode most of the time Theres no multiplayer or any of that. (It exists but I dont know how best to use it so I avoid it.)

You will decide for yourself how the entire game goes. Eventually you will have it all and quite a game. Engines coming out of your ears, freight everywhere, hundreds of pax demanding rides and so on.

[rcarmod]

I am going to disagree with some advice here. Take out a loan right from the start and buy the track to Sylva. It takes four days to repair the bridge to Bryson then another three or four days to build a bridge to get to the coal mine then another bridge and Alarka - all the while Sylva just sits there with passenger stations and contracts because now you are investing in engines for accounts expanding North. Sell the caboose and take the loan to get Sylva from the get go or you are just leaving money on the table. Yeah, it will be tough with under powered engines getting to Sylva but I definitely recommend not just letting Sylva sit there the first 17 to 20 days on the game. It will pay off in the long run to take loans to develope in the South while building in the North at the same time.

[rcarmod]

To answer your main question - you expand by purchasing "milestones". For example, go to milestones and you see the track to Sylva is $!0,000 on the first day. If you wait the second day and you picked up passengers at both stations your reputation will go up and you save 25%, If you pay to repair a bridge - freight cars show up the next day you have to haul to the bridge. The next two days you have to pay more to deliver the next set of cars. Sorry if you already know this but from your question I am not certain if you do or not.

[x1Heavy]

I will tell you that I am pleasantly surprised by the pax demand to slvya and other points south. Ive had 7000 dollar days which is not all from pax but some good days of it.

The land is beautiful along the river. The Thomas Valley in particular.

[Steele]

Originally posted by rcarmod:

To answer your main question - you expand by purchasing "milestones". For example, go to milestones and you see the track to Sylva is $!0,000 on the first day. If you wait the second day and you picked up passengers at both stations your reputation will go up and you save 25%, If you pay to repair a bridge - freight cars show up the next day you have to haul to the bridge. The next two days you have to pay more to deliver the next set of cars. Sorry if you already know this but from your question I am not certain if you do or not.

Hey no worries, thank you for the info. I've been learning quite a bit in the last couple of days, just keeping at it. I feel like the tutorial needs some serious work. Lots of things are kind of glossed over, and it leaves players unsure of whether or not this thing we just learned is one time only, or if it's an important game mechanic.

For example, I only just found out today that after dropping off a car, I actually have to take it back to the pickup/dropoff location the next day. I had no clue, and those were piling up lol.

Also, I have zero contracts at the moment, yet I'm still getting daily deliveries that I cannot turn off. Is this normal or did I mess something up?

[x1Heavy]

If you have a delivery to a House Track of say Ela... those cannot be turned off. As a Common Carrier your railroad is accepting freight of all kinds even US Mail. Which is not yet part of the game.

I consider them chicken feed in terms of revenue, I wont leave it on the table but sometimes i might just leave that track full for a while to prevent the computer from generating more cars at the interchange. If that does not work then the game is going to eventually bury me in house cars to deliver.

Milestones again dont tell you what you will experience if you for example decide to buy the railroad to Slyva. It will turn off Whitter Interchange for good. Then the interchange will be moved 6 miles down the line to Slyva where you have to take everything to and from now.

It takes three trains and several game days to open a new bridge (Route) to somewhere from anywhere. From Ela to Bryson will be a bridge that needs building. (Repairing from flood damage in the beginning) and three particular trains.

In my case I bought them dedicated engines so I drive them up from Slyva interchange (Pushing the bridge train cars) to just past Ela then sit at the bridge until its back to slyva with that first set, another train shows up to be delivered to the bridge. Repeat until all three trains is complete now you have a route to Bryson. With it's depot and so on.

Everything grows every new town repeats what you have done already and will need to do and grows freight in ways that are fun. Logistics. And passenger service.

You will be buying two observation cars with passenger cars in between them *Use the wye to build the pax train... to get 20% more in fares which is worth it. Gain several thousand a day on several trips up and down the entire line.

eventually the pax service will need automation and so on so forth which involves signals, switches and CTC and so on so forth etc.

Your freight will grow. You will buy more engines and so on. Everything gets bigger in terms of how much to do the more you expand the railroad. Always save your money where possible by not taking loans where possible.

Sometimes taking a loan is good if you can pay it off in a few days fast fast fast. Theres a way to make the loans PAY YOU but beyond the scope of this post.

Theres enough time in a full day to get everything done. But at some point you will find yourself dropping off unproductive industries that only get in your way and doesnt pay enough to interest you in spending a hour round trip to dig out one boxcar for 50 dollars out of a 30 car train in whitter.

Your costs will increase in coaling and also in fueling for the diesels theres no free ride. I converted to Diesel early asap. That cut the steam out with the exception of the pax train which got a big pacific for water reasons. Do a whole days run back and forth several times before needing water and coal at whitter.

[Steele]

Originally posted by x1Heavy:

If you have a delivery to a House Track of say Ela... those cannot be turned off. As a Common Carrier your railroad is accepting freight of all kinds even US Mail. Which is not yet part of the game.

I consider them chicken feed in terms of revenue, I wont leave it on the table but sometimes i might just leave that track full for a while to prevent the computer from generating more cars at the interchange. If that does not work then the game is going to eventually bury me in house cars to deliver.

Milestones again dont tell you what you will experience if you for example decide to buy the railroad to Slyva. It will turn off Whitter Interchange for good. Then the interchange will be moved 6 miles down the line to Slyva where you have to take everything to and from now.

It takes three trains and several game days to open a new bridge (Route) to somewhere from anywhere. From Ela to Bryson will be a bridge that needs building. (Repairing from flood damage in the beginning) and three particular trains.

In my case I bought them dedicated engines so I drive them up from Slyva interchange (Pushing the bridge train cars) to just past Ela then sit at the bridge until its back to slyva with that first set, another train shows up to be delivered to the bridge. Repeat until all three trains is complete now you have a route to Bryson. With it's depot and so on.

Everything grows every new town repeats what you have done already and will need to do and grows freight in ways that are fun. Logistics. And passenger service.

You will be buying two observation cars with passenger cars in between them *Use the wye to build the pax train... to get 20% more in fares which is worth it. Gain several thousand a day on several trips up and down the entire line.

eventually the pax service will need automation and so on so forth which involves signals, switches and CTC and so on so forth etc.

Your freight will grow. You will buy more engines and so on. Everything gets bigger in terms of how much to do the more you expand the railroad. Always save your money where possible by not taking loans where possible.

Sometimes taking a loan is good if you can pay it off in a few days fast fast fast. Theres a way to make the loans PAY YOU but beyond the scope of this post.

Theres enough time in a full day to get everything done. But at some point you will find yourself dropping off unproductive industries that only get in your way and doesnt pay enough to interest you in spending a hour round trip to dig out one boxcar for 50 dollars out of a 30 car train in whitter.

Your costs will increase in coaling and also in fueling for the diesels theres no free ride. I converted to Diesel early asap. That cut the steam out with the exception of the pax train which got a big pacific for water reasons. Do a whole days run back and forth several times before needing water and coal at whitter.

Thank you for the info :)

[rcarmod]

Always use the tab key and destinations appear above the cars that will tell you in plain site if the car is ready to be returned to the interval or not.

[x1Heavy]

Ty Rcarmod, I did not know that. Its welcome information.

[sbmarauderman03]

This game is set up so that you can run 'your' railroad however you wish. I'm still on my very first (and only) save that I started in July of last year. Over 1000 hours and i'm on day 28; have not taken any loans and have not expanded to Sylva, but am in the process of expanding to Andrews. There is not a right/wrong way to play (other than purposefully derailing trains all the time) so to 'disagree' with what other people are doing is a bit silly.

But you have to start somewhere and the game makes you start with E Whittier to Ela unlocked. Where you go from there is up to you. When I do start a new game, I will definitely play it differently than I am now.