Route list?

[Bram]

How do you edit a route with many many trains on it?

What my brain wants is list ordered by routes, I really don't give a **** about individual trains.
I want all the settings of a ROUTE not a ****** individual train, so when I change anything its automatically copied to every singe train on the route.

I really don't understand the way the devs want us to play this? Did they test this? Am I missing something?

The way I approach this problem now is delete very frikking train on the route, then make my changes and copy over the train 40 times. This can take up 30 minutes of totally wasted time and makes me want to trash this game again.

Anyone got a better approach?

[gardlt]

This game has heritage from games like Railroads! and the railroad tycoon series. Those games don't have routes. They have individual trains. Of course this game plays differently to those. However, the game mechanics in my opinion give no competitive advantage to complex over simple routing.

Almost all my trains have just two stops. One of the big ones here also is that freight is flat rate, you get paid the same amount no matter how far you haul it. Obviously you have less expenses for a local delivery and local gives better return on the infrastructure expense. You probably knew all this, but 40 trains on one "route" sounds like too many.

I do feel that the game would be helped by some form of bulk train management. At the moment this is not available.


What I do:
The train list is sorted alphabetically. The Next/Previous train arrows are placed conveniently close to the "Insert rail line" button, under the option "Setup rail line."

You can consecutively paste copied lines to multiple trains. All trains on one line should normally be grouped together in your list. You don't need to confirm for each train.

To main part of updating a train manifest therefore requires two clicks: "Next train" then "Insert rail line" with a very short mouse transit between them. This can be done very quickly after practice. Even doing 40 trains would take me less than a minute.

[Dray Prescot]

I also try renaming my Stations and Warehouses, particularly the Warehouses, with Names that are more useful in Route Names, usually what Item or Items can be picked up there. This can generate default (or the automatic) Names that are more Useful in a the Train list to you when you want to look for certain things.

Also use the ability to click on a section of Track and you will get a List of all Trains that use that section of track. It is rare for me to have more than 4 Trains with the same exact Route (except maybe early in a game then the trains are very slow), although sometimes a new Train may start as a clone of an old Train Route which I then edit to add and delete City Stations plus change their cargoes.

Clicking on the track to get the Train list using that track makes it easier to find all of the trains that you might want to edit.

It helps that that they made it easier to upgrade 2 Track Signal Control to 4 Track Signal Control, now you do not have to bulldoze the Station or Warehouse to build its upgrade, which means that you do not have to edit all of the Trains that stopped at the bull dozed Station or Warehouse.

[Bram]

Thanks for the advice! Makes the game way more playable

[Dray Prescot]

@gardlt, many of my Train Routes may start off as a 2 Stops when I first create them, i.e. Resource Site to City, but I will often pickup something at that City to drop off at a 3rd Stop (which I add to the Route) on the way back to the first Stop, either Mail and Passengers or something produced at the 2nd Stop's City (or possibly something stored at a 2nd Stop's Warehouse). The 3rd Stop is often a City (or Warehouse) close to the Resource Site.

Most (practically ALL) of my Resource Sites are Warehouses (which I generally rename) now, particularly when there are 2 different Resources. In some cases, I might want to store something at the Warehouse for another train to pickup at the same time they picked up the Resources, (I normally do not do this often, but it is a possibility). When I am very cash poor, I might build Small (cheap) Station(s) at a Resource Site(s), but when I have more money, I prefer to build a 2 track Medium Station or Warehouse. Sometimes, I will build Large (4 Track) stations or Warehouses, if I can get 2 different Resource Sites in range of it.

@Bram Renaming Trains to something more meaningful to you, will help in managing a large List of Trains. (I mentioned that in my post above also). I have suggested to the GMs adding options to control how the default (or automatic) names are generated, but that is a low priority change to them.

The problem with more than 2 or 3 Stops on a Route Manifest, is that you end up needing more Trains with the same Route Manifest, to keep up with the supply and demand of the goods being transported. I prefer to avoid many trains all doing the same thing. Once the Cities have grown into larger populations, a Trainload of something might only last for a few weeks, particularly resources feeding industries, so you do not want long round trip times for those trains.

Express (Mail and Passengers) Routes can be an exception to my policy (or goal) of only a few trains doing the same thing, such as Baltimore to New York City, if there is a LOT of supply (Mail and Passengers at large Cities) to be transported quickly.

[NetPCDoc]

In addition to the "All Trains" Train List (on the left side of the screen?), the station and warehouse panels (on the right side of the screen?) also have a Train List - that list just the trains that are routed through that station or warehouse.

[snwkill]

Has anyone actually tried to upgrade one of their stations to one of the new switched stations? You have to end up deleting your station, deleting a good majority of track, and since we can't send our trains to depots you have to delete a handful of trains as well, the problem with that is like OP says since we can't view our routes, I have no clue what trains I have deleted to put in the new switched station (the double click to reset train doesn't work 3/4 of the time for me).

[Dray Prescot]

I have upgraded from the old original style to the Signal Controlled many times before the most recent update. That is why I was one of the first people putting in messages complaining about it as soon as the first 1.8 beta came out. The newest beta has not been out long enough for me to do it yet, (I restarted the Great Lakes with the newest version)(and I generally start with the 2 track Signal Control versions). I am not sure if I will use the new version of the maintenance stop much (I have not used it yet).

The biggest change I would like to see would being able to build a Station or Warehouse on top of an existing track or doubletrack, which may not be at the same level as the surrounding landscape because of earthworks or digging, and have the new Station/Warehouse connected up to the tracks at the same level as the tracks. Or as an alternative, be able to raise and lower the station during the original placement of the Station/Warehouse.

[jhughes]

I use 3 letters at the beginning of a train name.. A- or F- or P-. Specifically for freight lines, I do names like:

F-Chicago Corn.. Or F-ChicagoWH Corn.

Automatic lines would be A-Chicago-Indianapolis.. A passenger line would be P-Chicago-Indianapolis

Then I know everything I need to know from the train list and all like trains are together. I can easily pick a passenger train for a Conductor or a non WH freight line for a Security Guard, etc.

[Dray Prescot]

There are various schemes for Train names that can be adopted, try to develope one that best fits your needs, and makes it easier for you to find the right trains in the Train List.

There are several possible needs: Cargoes, Train Types, Starting Locations, the main Destination location (which is often not the last one on the Route Manifest), etc. (Although those are probably the biggest and most common needs in train names).

I often combine Cargoes and Starting Locations by renaming the Warehouses/Stations at my Resource Sites. Although that does not work for Industrial Goods. Names like Grain A or Grain Wood B, etc. (I like to distinguish between different sources for the same item with letters A, B, C, etc.) Others might want the cargo being delivered in the Destination Site's part of the name, as suggested by jhughes. Either way can work for you.

A City Name in the Train Name could include either the Industrial Cargo being picked up there, or the Cargo (Resouce or Industrial) being delivered there, as you prefer. I prefer to associate the Cargo with the Source rather than the Destination, in most cases. Other people (like jhughes) might want to leave the Resource Site sources out of the name, so they would put the Cargo being delivered with the Destination in the Train Route Name. This could make for shorter Names but at the cost of less information about the Route in the Name, but that may be all they want in the Name; and it works better with Industrial Good Cargoes. (This paragraph is somewhat redundant with the previous paragraph).

You will probably want to use short names (abbrievations) for many Cities, like we do today for major airports.

[jhughes]

You can also get a smaller 'list' of trains that use a specific track by clicking on that track. Also if you click on a station, on the right top of the screen (on a second menu bar), you can get a list of trains that use that station (a train icon).

[theo20185]

My naming scheme is cargo type (Express, Goods, Freight, etc.), terminal city code, terminal city code, optional consist, train number.

Examples:

Express SAC SF 1 (An express line with passenger/mail only).
Cattle SF 1 (Rural business to industry in SF)
Goods CAR SAC Beer Meat 1 (City to City line with manufactured goods)
Freight CARW SFW Corn Grain 1 (Warehouse to warehouse freight line)

I can easily find the types of trains to specific destinations. When I check on the trains to see if they need another engine, the numbering system picks up where we left off.

[blank]

Begendi

[Profound]

Originally posted by Dray Prescot:

@gardlt, many of my Train Routes may start off as a 2 Stops when I first create them, i.e. Resource Site to City, but I will often pickup something at that City to drop off at a 3rd Stop (which I add to the Route) on the way back to the first Stop, either Mail and Passengers or something produced at the 2nd Stop's City (or possibly something stored at a 2nd Stop's Warehouse). The 3rd Stop is often a City (or Warehouse) close to the Resource Site.

Most (practically ALL) of my Resource Sites are Warehouses (which I generally rename) now, particularly when there are 2 different Resources. In some cases, I might want to store something at the Warehouse for another train to pickup at the same time they picked up the Resources, (I normally do not do this often, but it is a possibility). When I am very cash poor, I might build Small (cheap) Station(s) at a Resource Site(s), but when I have more money, I prefer to build a 2 track Medium Station or Warehouse. Sometimes, I will build Large (4 Track) stations or Warehouses, if I can get 2 different Resource Sites in range of it.

@Bram Renaming Trains to something more meaningful to you, will help in managing a large List of Trains. (I mentioned that in my post above also). I have suggested to the GMs adding options to control how the default (or automatic) names are generated, but that is a low priority change to them.

The problem with more than 2 or 3 Stops on a Route Manifest, is that you end up needing more Trains with the same Route Manifest, to keep up with the supply and demand of the goods being transported. I prefer to avoid many trains all doing the same thing. Once the Cities have grown into larger populations, a Trainload of something might only last for a few weeks, particularly resources feeding industries, so you do not want long round trip times for those trains.

Express (Mail and Passengers) Routes can be an exception to my policy (or goal) of only a few trains doing the same thing, such as Baltimore to New York City, if there is a LOT of supply (Mail and Passengers at large Cities) to be transported quickly.

I saw the thing that said that warehoues could harvest from a resource, but when I actually tried it, it would not work.