Refrigerator cars

[HEAVY FIRST RATE]

How exactly are you supposed to use refrigerator cars? Do you just put one in the lineup or substitute for food cars, and if substitution, how does that work with auto load selection like between warehouses?

[Thineboot]

8 cars are the maximum a train can pull. When you add an refrigerator car there will be only space for 7 more cars.

8 * 2,000 = 16,000
7 * 2,000 = 14,000; +20 for refrigerator makes 16.800
And refrigerator car only weights 1/5 of a freight car. Rest is simple math when you profit from using refrigerator or any other car.

Adding a refrigerator car and checking out the result will answer your question. Why ask a question you can answer yourself by just doing it?

Warehouses generate demand and whenever a train gets loaded it wants to fulfill any demand unless you forbid the loading by clicking on the good you don't want to be loaded. Again, just try it out, you won't blow up the game ;)

Note that warehouses don't pay for delivery. They are warehouses. A connected city will pay you 2,000 for each good it takes out of a warehouse. As there is no train involved not further bonus will be paid. Don't connect a rural and a city to the same warehouse as the city won't get access to goods never be transported by a train.

Edit: Not[e], thanks chaney

[chaney]

I'll try to answer a different parsing of the question.

On the train management screen (select the train, click train with pencil icon in the upper right) the lower central panel lets you manage personnel for that train. The other tab on that panel is for Railcars. Click it and then click the tick for Refrigerator car. That will add the Refrigerator as one of the 8 possible cars for that train, and it will stay on that train until removed.

Clarification on Thineboot's post: I think that last paragraph should start with "Note" instead of "Not" which implies that the rest of the sentence is untrue ... while the rest of the sentence is in fact true - Player built Warehouses don't pay for delivery.

[HEAVY FIRST RATE]

Wow Thineboot, if you are planning to become a teacher, then you best not give up your day job. Why do you even bother to answer with such a snarky attitude, especially since you have no idea how much, what I have already tried, or what information I have already obtained.

Certain aspects of this game are not particularly intuitive and don't have any or unclear instructions that verify anything you experimentally do may be the correct application or method. I am not asking because I am too stupid to experiment, but rather because the results really don't seem worth the effort expended in my current game to me so I am curious to whether I actually am doing what others are doing.

Just get over yourself bub!!!!

[Colonel Sanders Lite]

Something worth looking at is that the list of goods that do and do not receive the bonus from refrigeration may have some counter-intuitive surprises. Live cattle and salt get a boost from refrigeration for example. There's a list in the guides section that can be found here -

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1730827866

[rff1]

Experience has shown that it is, as a rule, better to go quite deeply into matters related to a question when trying to answer. That is because many questions are raised by less-experienced players who are not aware of all the quirks of the game and need to be informed of these in the interest of increasing their enjoyment. A new poster has a high possibility of being in that category.

[chaney]

Regarding Thineboot's above post, it may be useful to HEAVY FIRST RATE to understand the situation a little more.

Thineboot has been a constant and valuable contributor to this forum for quite some time. Although often coming across gruff, the content and though posted are generally well considered and accurate. English is not their first language, which can often result in a lot of unintended or mistaken tone being perceived.

Some of us have been here a long time. That doesn't get us any special rules, but building a reputation can earn some slack when a misstep is taken.

There have been a lot of people asking questions, which is natural for new players. The game documentation is not stellar, so the problem is more common. Some of us have come to be annoyed by so many basic questions asked, often repeatedly. This I suspect is the source of the tone to which you react. I have been guilty of being short with people, so I understand that this can happen easily. To give you some idea of the scale of the problem, I made a guide to compile the most basic mechanics of the game with the idea that people could find them quickly themselves. That was quite some investment in time. I can only hope it has been partly successful.

Communication is harder than most people think, so there may be a disconnection between the question and the answer. I hope by now you have the answer you sought. The interface is in deed not initially intuitive, so your difficulty is easy to understand. Thineboot's answers did cover a lot of very useful information, some of which is easily discovered by the player, some of which is not.

I hope understanding things better makes negative feelings less.

Do you have the information you needed about the cars?

[Totemych]

I don't recommend use refrigerator car on short routes (< 150 km) but if you assign Security then you may try to add this car to train. if route is too short you train consists of 3-5 cars mostly, until you use "manual" load mode to not oversupply city and train has more than 2 stops.

Last game version allows income from refrigerator car for trains arriving to warehouse connected to a city.

[chaney]

Even for a short route where 1 train is twice what you need to keep up with demand you can set Min=8 cars to ensure that the the train runs full. If the Platform where you load is used by other trains, too, you may end up causing a delay there for the others.

It's good to know the reefer bonus now applies to Warehouse deliveries.

[gardlt]

Originally posted by Totemych:

Last game version allows income from refrigerator car for trains arriving to warehouse connected to a city.

Interesting. I tried to confirm this in public beta, but I'm only getting $14k for 7 cars + Refrigerator car. I tried Cattle on Free Mode Midwest map and Grain in Free Mode Full USA map. 1850 era. Do you have some more details about where you saw this?

[Thineboot]

Originally posted by gardlt:

Originally posted by Totemych:

Last game version allows income from refrigerator car for trains arriving to warehouse connected to a city.

Interesting. I tried to confirm this in public beta, but I'm only getting $14k for 7 cars + Refrigerator car. I tried Cattle on Free Mode Midwest map and Grain in Free Mode Full USA map. 1850 era. Do you have some more details about where you saw this?

Same here. Just added a warehouse and redirected a train to it. Delivering Milk to a connected warehouse still doesn't pay you anything. Otherwise you could exploit it as a money cheat. For each unit of Milk the city took out of the warehouse $2,000 were paid. No extra for using a refrigerator car.

Originally posted by HEAVY FIRST RATE:

Wow Thineboot, if you are planning to become a teacher, then you best not give up your day job. [...]

Thanks for your interest in my job applications. I can assure you that no pupil or student was ever harmed during my time at school and university by me.

I think I've answered your question thoroughly except for where to find refrigerator cars which chaney added.

Originally posted by HEAVY FIRST RATE:

[...] Certain aspects of this game are not particularly intuitive and don't have any or unclear instructions that verify anything you experimentally do may be the correct application or method. [...]

True. That's why folks like chaney, rff1, gardlt, a few others, and myself are trying to help others.

Originally posted by HEAVY FIRST RATE:

[...] since you have no idea how much, what I have already tried, or what information I have already obtained. [...]

Originally posted by HEAVY FIRST RATE:

[...] Do you just put one in the lineup or substitute for food cars, and if substitution, how does that work with auto load selection like between warehouses?

Your question gave the impression that while you've checked out the Tips & Tricks (F1) and/or read the manual you haven't even tried to use a refrigerator car. Otherwise the question whether put one in the lineup or substitute for food cars would have made no sense. And

Originally posted by HEAVY FIRST RATE:

[...] I am [...] asking because [...] the results really don't seem worth the effort expended in my current game to me so I am curious to whether I actually am doing what others are doing.[...]

is proof that my interpretation was correct.

Originally posted by HEAVY FIRST RATE:

[...] I am not asking because I am too stupid to experiment, [...]

I would never treat someone with physical or mental disabilities in a harmful way. On the contrary, during my lifetime I've intervened more than once to my own disadvantage in favor of such persons. And I had not the slightest impression that you suffer of any mental disability. If I'm wrong I'm truly sorry and I apologize sincerely for any discomfort I've caused to you.

Originally posted by HEAVY FIRST RATE:

[...] Just get over yourself bub!!!!

I had to check out the meaning of bub and I must say that I would feel offended by you. But there may be a reason you have no control over why you have to use such language.

[HEAVY FIRST RATE]

I am 75 yrs old and seen every type of a$$hole in my life, you pretty much fall in the middle regardless of what your buddies say about you. Language barrier is not an excuse for being rude and yes I came from that time when manners were expected and those without could expect to be taught and usually not gently. You are pretty much wrong in everything you assumed about me. The internet is not an excuse to abuse people and if you would not say it to someone's face you should not do so here. I assure you, you would be rude to me in person only once! You should have been satisfied with your first post cause you just doubled down on your jerkiness!

[Thineboot]

Well, your language speaks for itself. I don't know what sort of manners you're referring to but I can assure you that I highly doubt we would ever meet socially in real life.

It's nice to know that you're not shy threatening others with physical harm when they don't obey. I hope for you that these are just words as society accepts such behaviour less and less and even law is adapting. While I respect elder people generally your age is no excuse.

[Dray Prescot]

So it is really a question of is a little more money more important or is it more important to deliver all 8 carloads of the cargo to the City to supply it's demands (Population and Industry) instead of 7 carloads (because of the Refrigerator car). When your Cities start getting very congested with lots of train deliveries, the Refrigerator Car reduces the amounts you are delivering per train.

It is also a question of how much micromanagement with details do you want to do or have the time to do, i.e. you might not bother to do it in Trainiac Mode instead of Manual Pause Mode.

[Timebobomb]

My Momma always says "if you can't say anything nice , just don't say anything at all" le sigh

[Thineboot]

In early game money matters. Depending on the route it's +5% money vs. time and cost for +14.3% water and maintenance (without Engineer). Small rural sites don't produce enough to keep a train running all the time. Faster delivery is faster money with a bonus. When city stations reach their capacity any rail car looses it's value.