How to pick trains

[danielenfemke]

Hey ppl, I have a question regarding how to pick trains for certain lines. I do understand the discription says something on how the train is used; the crocodile (which I love in real life, such a awesome train) is a true cargo locomotiv, where the 4/4 is more of a passenger train. But how do you determain with the description like own weight and power which train is best for your goal? I'm in 1949 with a game now. I have a crocodile doing grain with 10 wagons to a food factory and a baden 6 with 8 carts carting the food out. The baden is faster, costs less money buying and running costs. I dont see a very big difference on when top speed is reached with each having a similair track in height difference.

So in short my goal of this discussion; on what criteria do you determain which train is best for the goal?

[MuddyEdg]

When hauling cargo I believe power is the most important but also watch the speed. If you think a locomotive is not enough you can always put two on one train. With passenger I look mostly at speed but also making sure it can carry it and it doesn't take one month to reach top speed.

[neldot]

You have to balance also the maintenance cost of the locomotive with the expected income of the line (at least at hard level). For example, a loco with huge power and/or speed (and huge maintenance cost) would be wasted with less than 7/8 passengers waggons or 25/30 freight waggons.

[SBGaming]

It's been trial and error for me, figuring out how many wagons a certain train can manage. Using the American trains as an example, I've found the 4-4-0 General (45kph) can handle 3 Passenger (50kph) or Clerestory (80kph) wagons (though you're better off with the base Passenger wagons since the General can't take advantage of the Clerestory's speed, and they are far more expensive.

The 2-8-0 Baldwin (60kph) I run with 4 Clerestory wagons. It still isn't capable of taking advantage of the Clerestory's speed, but it won't be limited to the speed of the base wagon.

Jumping up to the 2-6-0 Mogul (75kph), I go 4-5 Clerestory wagons depending on how much passenger demand there is.

With the 4-4-2 Atlantic (100kph), I tried going with 5 Six-Axle (110kph) wagons for a faster run and to keep with the capacity of the Mogul+5 Clerestory, but it was sluggish and struggled under the weight of 45t per wagon, versus the 25t per wagon of the Clerestory, and never got to top speed. With this engine, I'd probably stick with Clerestory wagons accept the lower top speed, but just put more of them on for busy routes to take advantage of the Atlantics power.

Your choice of configuration will depend on the track that it'll be running on. If you have sections of track that are like a rollercoaster, you'll probably want a more powerful engine, and fewer wagons than if the train were to run on a flat stretch.

If the numbers seem conservative (ie I could be running more wagons per train), it's because I often plan a route that goes up a massive hill without realizing it, and not wanting my trains to bog down to 10kph, though I've been getting better at route planning.

There is a formula here on the forums where you punch in some numbers and it'll calculate what you could expect, though when I ran the formula, the result didn't make sense.

The question I have is if there is a difference between a full 20t 1850's Passenger car, and an empty Passenger car, or does the game assume for simplicity sake that whether full or empty, it weighs the same. My guess is if there was a difference, the weight value would be a range such as 20-25t for empty to full.

[Ser_Bunnylot]

Whatver train suits the length/gradient/curve/traffic of the track.

If your train's top speed is 140km/h but the track is so short/steep/bent/busy that its average speed is like 80km/h you've got the wrong train. Might as well pick a cheaper train that'll get up to 80 and stay there.

Expensive, fast trains work well on long, straigth track where it can accelerate to it's top speed and maintain the speed. If your expensive train is forced to take slow routes, it takes too long to deliver you'll pay more in maintenane than you make in revenue.

[Saint Landwalker]

Pick the locomotive that looks the prettiest. (Sorry, Crocodile.) It is the only way.

[Tossi]

Just so you know you get paid more if your train is faster on paper - has higher listed maximum speed even if it never reaches it.

[SirLANsalot]

Originally posted by Landwalker04:

Pick the locomotive that looks the prettiest. (Sorry, Crocodile.) It is the only way.

Most of the EU locomotives are pretty ♥♥♥♥, but the Crocodile, the TFV and the Flying Scotsman are not too bad looking of locomotives. Stat wise there good too, just the US set pretty much doesn't have a locomotive that isn't "bad". Where as the EU set, there are a lot of locomotives that just are bad and not worth the upgrade, not to mention the horrible mis match of wagon speed vs locomotive speed. In the US set, I know I don't use the 4-12-2 much, but that things a strong locomotive before the Big Boy rolls around. The Mikado is a good locomotive too, but sadly it comes after the 1900's instead of before (like in Train Fever) and the 4-12-2 out classes it in only a few years, so I don't use it as much as I used to in Train Fever (man I loved that loco in TF).

[Saint Landwalker]

Originally posted by SirLANsalot:

Originally posted by Landwalker04:

Pick the locomotive that looks the prettiest. (Sorry, Crocodile.) It is the only way.

Most of the EU locomotives are pretty ♥♥♥♥, but the Crocodile, the TFV and the Flying Scotsman are not too bad looking of locomotives. Stat wise there good too, just the US set pretty much doesn't have a locomotive that isn't "bad". Where as the EU set, there are a lot of locomotives that just are bad and not worth the upgrade, not to mention the horrible mis match of wagon speed vs locomotive speed. In the US set, I know I don't use the 4-12-2 much, but that things a strong locomotive before the Big Boy rolls around. The Mikado is a good locomotive too, but sadly it comes after the 1900's instead of before (like in Train Fever) and the 4-12-2 out classes it in only a few years, so I don't use it as much as I used to in Train Fever (man I loved that loco in TF).

Man, I love the Mikado. Never played Train Fever, but the Mikado is one of my favorites in this game.

The Crocodile was probably too obvious a target, and I don't even really have an issue with it, but the Baden is just horrible. I still use it somewhat, but man. The thing that gets me about a lot of the European trains, especially earlier, is that their wheels seem so disproportionately large compared to the rest of them.

I actually like the European passenger cars more than the American ones. Some of them look a little funky, and there is that weird mismatch in speed (which wouldn't be the case if the Donnerbuchse was at all distinguishable from the Three-Axle) for a lot of the time, but the European cars are so incredibly light compared to the ridiculously heavy monstrosities the U.S. Is lugging around.

And yes, the Flying Scotsman is a good-lookin' locomotive.

[SirLANsalot]

The US locomotives are a lot more powerful too, since there cars are heavier. However the US cars carry more passengers capareitivly, thus less cars are needed per a train. That is why the EU cars are lighter, you NEED more of them to get a good capacity, where as with the US, less is more.

Its fun to use the Milwaukee Locomotive, to carry the Heavyweight cars, and have like 10 or 12 of them. Makes for a long train, and there is little to no loss in speed when going up hills, so it still can reach and keep its 70mph speed, even with such heavy cars. No to mention, it looks damn good pulling those orange cars.

[Saint Landwalker]

Originally posted by SirLANsalot:

The US locomotives are a lot more powerful too, since there cars are heavier. However the US cars carry more passengers capareitivly, thus less cars are needed per a train. That is why the EU cars are lighter, you NEED more of them to get a good capacity, where as with the US, less is more.

More powerful... and more expensive, just to carry the same number of passengers. =P But they do generally look pretty good doing it. Regardless of their inefficiency, though, I still like the Clerestory cars just for style points.

I like the Milwaukee EP-2, but man, those things are dangerous. If you don't watch out for them, they're so expensive that they'll just kill you. (Or at least, that's what they did to me... Lessons learned from Walker's First Free Play...)

[SBGaming]

When I compare the 1850 train options:
Baldwin Six Wheels + Passenger Car
- $444K Purchase Price
- $74K Running Costs
- 14 Passengers
- Weight of 40t (20t+20t)
- 40kph top speed

D 1/3 + 3x D 1/3 Car
- $406.8K Purchase Price
- $67.9K Running Costs
-18 Passengers
- Weight of 45t (30t+15t)
- 40kph top speed

Both trains have the same top speed, you get more passenger capacity for a cheaper purchase price and running costs, but the European version weighs slightly more because of the locomotive, and has less power overall.

Adding a second Passenger Car to the Baldwin, and 2 more D 1/3 cars to the D 1/3 you get:

Baldwin Six Wheels + 2x Passenger Car
- $716K Purchase Price
- $119.3K Running Costs
- 28 Passengers
- Weight of 60t (20t+40t)

D 1/3 + 5x D 1/3 Car
- 596K Purchase Price
- $99.5K Running Costs
- 30 Passengers
- Weight of 55t (30t+25t)

For still slightly more passengers, you get a train that has a cheaper purchase price, cheaper to operate, and weighs a bit less, but the engine is not as powerful as the American version. Does anyone know how many carriages the European D 1/3 can carry before it starts struggling? In my recent play, I've tend to wait until the 4-4-0 General shows up before getting into trains, but for an early game passenger line I'd prefer to have the European versions, just because they are slightly easier and cheaper to add more capacity. When you're looking to extend your passenger lines and add another train, it's overall cheaper to get it up and running. For under 100K, you can add an additional 6 capacity, whereas you have to save up (or borrow) $272K to purchase more capacity.

With that said, the American Passenger car does have a top speed of 50kph versus the 40kph of the D 1/3 car, so when the more powerful engines do come out, you can take advantage of the additional speed, but not fully until 1871.

[Saint Landwalker]

Originally posted by SBGaming:

Does anyone know how many carriages the European D 1/3 can carry before it starts struggling?

I've given my D 1/3s up to 10 D 1/3 passenger cars and they've done just fine.

Early on, the European passenger cars and locomotives match up fairly well. The Bavarian Coach (50 km/h) and the Borsig (45 km/h) become available at the same time. Since the early European trains are, frankly, slooooow (really their only strike against, aside from aesthetics), the Bavarian Coaches will last you through the Class 53 Prussian (50 km/h in 1875) straight up up until the PLM 220 (60 km/h) in 1890, at which point you switch to Compartment Cars (if you haven't already done so—they're available in 1883, have only slightly worse passenger-to-weight ratio than the Bavarians, and have better loading times). Then in 1902 you start using A 3/5s and Three-Axles at 100 km/h.

After that, the mismatches start happening, so you'll really only be using the A3 Flying Scotsman for either "Pulling More Cars at the Same 100 km/h," or freight (or both). The A4 Mallard runs into a similar issue later on.

The big strike against the European locomotives early on, I feel like, is that they're just so damn slow. Compared to the American roster, the locomotives and the passenger cars are cheap, and the coaches are much more passenger-to-weight efficient, so you get more bang for your buck capacity-wise. But they're just slow. The Americans win the race to 60 km/h by 19 years, and get 75 km/h in 1885 (five years before the Europeans hit 60 km/h). Europe catches back up in 1902, though (and frankly, the A 3/5 is significantly better than the Atlantic, even though the Atlantic looks more swanky).