how to replace train engine?

[DragonStryder]

how do i replace the front engine of a train without removing it / pulling it back to depo ? and without changing the carts. is this possible? so sorta like just upgrading it.

[Beep!]

No can do. You have to send the train back to the depot.

[apokulypse]

You can set up auto replacement in the line settings. You can also access it via one of the tabs in the train information. This is as close as you'll get.

[Havan_IronOak]

Most fiddly, most real-life, but cheapest is sending the train back to the depot and reorganizing your train there.

Generally, it's just too much bother. The replace now button makes coming up with a better consist and then just replacing it at the next train stop much, much easier, and with your old train being credited (at trade-in values) it's not economocally that bad.

[Fil«da»Thrill]

You have to go to a depot since when you use the Replace feature then it also replaces the wagons.

In some cases it's worth the extra price of renewing the whole train in order to save on the impact of getting trains into depots.

[rg-williams]

The most realiostic way is to return to a depot and replace the engine. However, if the wagons/coaches are 10 years old, that is counted as the age of the train, so you will end up with a brand new 10 year old loco

[SBGaming]

Originally posted by rg-williams:

The most realiostic way is to return to a depot and replace the engine. However, if the wagons/coaches are 10 years old, that is counted as the age of the train, so you will end up with a brand new 10 year old loco

The locomotive will still be new, and it's value and operating costs will be as though it was new. If you later send it back to the depot and sell off the wagons, it will retain it's actual age and not the age of the train it was pulling, so it's not a 10 year old locomotive. The trains overall age is just the age of the oldest component.

[꧁ logAnmalONE ꧂]

Would be nice to be able to switch out the engine wheels too

[exosolar]

While the depot route gives the correct flexability, it takes too long in the scale of the game time. It also can have bad effect on the supply chain if that chain has a very small number of trains, which takes even longer to correct.
It would be nice to see an engine pool feature, where a new engine could be purchased, then assign to a specific line pool. Within this pool, for a specific line, it would then be available to swap out when a train on that line arrived at one of those stops. The train would then never be taken off the line.

[chrisasnyder]

While the scale of the game tends to make depot swapping difficult, it's not impossible.

However there are ways to manage this in the game. Build staging tracks near the station you want the swap to happen. Add a few new lines that will travel the trains from the depot to the hold point, and from the station to a hold point at the depot. So for a line with 6 trains on it that you want to re-fit, buy a 7th with the new setup, send to the hold stop, As one train arrives and unloads, assign the hold train to the line, take the one at the station and assign to the depot hold line as it leaves the station. Then send to depot, refit, and repeat the process for each train.

This will avoid disrupting the cargo service.

I still build the yards for this purpose because they look neat, but I get lazy and just use the replace now. I even cheat by buying a single engine to leave the depot and replace it with the correct consist when it gets to the first stop to avoid the slow depot exit...

[ArnilsoN]

Hm. You all seem to be fine somehow with replacing trains the one or another way.

I started doing this just recently and always when I hit the "replace now" button my train replacement works but at the same time all of my wagons disappear. I can tell you this is getting quite expensive over time...

Anybody had the same issue?

I think Railroad Tycoon III was MUCH easier with this many years ago...

[SoftwareSimian]

Originally posted by ArnilsoN:

when I hit the "replace now" button my train replacement works but at the same time all of my wagons disappear.

If your wagons are disappearing, then it sounds like you're only specifying a locomotive as the replacement train? It doesn't work that way, you need to specify the entire train that you want to use as the replacement, potentially with multiple locomotives and/or multiple wagons. If you specify just a locomotive as the train, that's all you'll get.