Slow tranfer of food from processing plant to outbount train station.

[Raezzor]

So, my setup is as follows: I have 1 farm serviced by a train line with 4 cars, production is around mid 200ish, train runs about 90% full on each run, and is connected to a food processing plant. I then have a seperate line (complete with it's own station) for the outbound food serviced by another train with 4 cars (all box cars ofc) running to a nearby town. I then use a truck cargo station to catch the food from the railline and truck it into town so as not to waste thousands of dollars trying to fit a cargo rail station into the middle of the town. The outbount food line runs about 20% capacity, the trucks (12 of em) are never more then 10-20% full in regards to total capacity, and the town sits at 10-15% of demand satisfied. Yet the transfer of processed food from the plant to the outbound station is TERRIBLE. They literally produce the food at almost twice the rate it gets move to the outbound station and this has resulted in a massive stockpile of food at the plant when I could move far more if they'd just get the stuff to the platform. I have the road between the rail station and the plant fully upgraded, the stations are RIGHT by the plant. The inound grain/cattle get moved almost instantly (after a very small delay.) So what gives? Stuff is moving, but most of my line is being held up by this one bottleneck that I can't understand.

[Raezzor]

I just noticed the farm has a CRAP ton of stuff sitting at it as well, but the farm's outbound station is almost empty, and my train never runs more then 80-90% full.

[Krischan]

Do the stations in your town you deliver the food to cover most or all of the commercial district? Also did you try adding more trains? The frequence of a line with only one train might be too low.

[matrix47]

The processing plant tries to mantain its production rate. If it has cattle stored, it will process it at the stated rate and output to the station.
The plant's storage is also filling up to a certain point while there is cattle in the plant.
The storage is put into the station only when the farm is out of cattle. Then it outputs it with the rate of its current production. When storage numbers go down, production rate will also go down.

In your case, I think one train between a farm and food plant is not enough if it runs 90% full both sides. Tjis seems like your bottleneck, so try to add one more train.
My guess is that the farm doesn't increase production because potential for cattle delivery is limited by this bottleneck.

[WardogUnleashed]

I'd go with Krischan's question. Do you have full coverage of the commercial district (the one that utilises food) from the truck station that ultimately receives the food at the end of the supplychain. That is the station that is dictating demand.

Also, does your food processing plant's food ultimately have other final destinations? Does it service more than one town? If it does, chances are high that the food it's stockpiling is ear marked for the other towns. - I'm not 100% in that but in my experience, products are made 'to order' with a set destination in mind, not just produced and then assigned.

[matrix47]

Originally posted by Napoleon:

Also, does your food processing plant's food ultimately have other final destinations? Does it service more than one town? If it does, chances are high that the food it's stockpiling is ear marked for the other towns. - I'm not 100% in that but in my experience, products are made 'to order' with a set destination in mind, not just produced and then assigned.

But I hope this destination is only selected from where there exists an actual service, otherwise that would be really stupid...

[WardogUnleashed]

Originally posted by matrix47:

Originally posted by Napoleon:

Also, does your food processing plant's food ultimately have other final destinations? Does it service more than one town? If it does, chances are high that the food it's stockpiling is ear marked for the other towns. - I'm not 100% in that but in my experience, products are made 'to order' with a set destination in mind, not just produced and then assigned.

But I hope this destination is only selected from where there exists an actual service, otherwise that would be really stupid...

It 100% does only ship to places that it can link to. The game is actually incredibly smart in that regard. If there is no link (Or a broken link) to a town in the chain, it will not produce anything for that town. It's the same reason why setting up a new supplychain to a factory that's already servicing several end destinations takes a few months to start producing. It looks like there's an abundance of supplies but those supplies were all made ready for other end destinations, not the new one.

[Raezzor]

Originally the food was only going to one town and the coverage of the truck station in the middle of the town covered all of that towns commercial plots.

Eventually, after letting it run for a year or so, the processing plant started transferring more quickly though. So now the train is running at 100% moving food to the inbound food station by the town, I've added a 2nd line to another town, and it still is keeping food on the outbound food train station.... so what previously couldn't move enough food to keep 1 line at 100% now keeps 2 at 100% and then some?

This game baffles me.

Thanks for the replies everyone, appreciate the help. :)