Why is the coal all the way back of the locomotive?

[Viewtiful Josh]

I'm no locomotive expert, but from what I remember (and Google images) the coal is located right after the driver cart (sorry I don't know the terminology-- again, not an expert). Why in the world is the coal cart all the way in the back? Yeah, let me haul coal in front of all the passengers. Oh you want hot coco? I hope you like it with coal dust on it too. It just feels really silly. Was it a game mechanic to make the game harder or after a few steps into development you guys realized, "oh snap, the player can't walk through a cart full of coal and serve hot coco to passengers! Oh, just put it at the back, like, aaalll the way back. Problem fixed". I mean, in Metro Exodus you can navigate through the moving train since you can walk over the place where a guy is throwing coal into the engine fire. There should have been a coal cart with a path in the middle if that was the problem.

It's a game about animals using a locomotive after all, but still, silly.

[lionboy.dragonking]

If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say it's probably because you can't walk through a coal tender, so having it directly behind the locomotive would cut you off from the rest of the train. They probably felt putting it at the back was a more elegant solution than putting a passageway through it or something like that.

[wolfknight]

Originally posted by lionboy.dragonking:

If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say it's probably because you can't walk through a coal tender, so having it directly behind the locomotive would cut you off from the rest of the train. They probably felt putting it at the back was a more elegant solution than putting a passageway through it or something like that.

They could also copy this train https://youtu.be/ghkqGfUy4xs?t=543

[MSJ-06II-C]

Originally posted by lionboy.dragonking:

If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say it's probably because you can't walk through a coal tender, so having it directly behind the locomotive would cut you off from the rest of the train. They probably felt putting it at the back was a more elegant solution than putting a passageway through it or something like that.

Mostly correct, there were corridor tenders IRL - as seen in the video above, but they were rare and mostly used on long distance trains or/and express trains that had multiple crews that would rotate between operating the engine and sleeping in a crew car behind the tender.

On another note, this arrangement IRL would make the water supply a pain as you would need to run a line from the tender to the engine that would go beneath every single coupled car (vs directly from the tender to the engine). Though of course, since the game doesn't simulate the water supply, that's not really a concern they had to think about.

(Also yes, I would absolutely love the option of having a """more grounded""" train arrangement with a corridor tender, but that's just me being a nerd. In the end, the game isn't trying to be an accurate railway simulation but instead on being a cozy and wholesome experience - and that it accomplishes.)

[krieglich]

Just hoard coal like I do

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3465641322