How many trains do you use ?

[mbutton15]

Just been reading another thread where they mention how many trains they have in use. The figure was 500+ whereas for me, 200 is about my maximum.

I'm quite happy at my 200 figure. Well, I have to be really as at that kind of number I do notice lag, so my PC is beginning to struggle around that figure.

So I'd be interested to know how many trains people use ? I only have the base game (and, as yet unplayed, UK DLC) so figures for USA maps are of most interest to me. But it's probably also worth knowing how the DLC compare.

[Thineboot]

I don't count them, I add as few as possible and as much as necessary.

Freight trains run with a minimum of 8 cars.

City-to-city connections run at a 14 day frequency. Note that the more trains you add the waiting time raises and thus the frequency drops. So 14 days are a rule of thumb to prevent losing passengers and mail. But with various inventions that extend the period passengers and mail are willing to wait you can lower the frequency in mid and late game.

[mbutton15]

Originally posted by Thineboot:

I don't count them, I add as few as possible and as much as necessary.

I don't count them either - There's a stat on one of the info panes, somewhere in the financial stuff iirc.

How does the 14 day rule change when you play a 100 year game ? I'm currently doing a 100 year free-play map and think I read somewhere the 14 day rule is different, but can't remember how ?

[Thineboot]

Best way would be a "short" test and measuring how long the basic frequency is to provide nearly 100% train usage between two cities. I'd guess it's somewhere between two and three months but I haven't measured it so I'm only guessing.

Please provide real number as soon as you've done some tests. I'm pretty sure there are a bunch of serious players that would appreciate your efforts, not just lazy me ;)

[IndianaJones]

I usually use about 300, that was also my average for base game.

In Sweden DLC I gone quite above that figure up to 500. I needed to transport a lot of goods over very long distances in short time.

My game now stutter frequently when zooming in and out, I'm not sure it due to number of trains or maybe recent driver or Windows update. I haven't been playing RE lately until new DLC came out.

[Empty1958]

In the base game I am usually between 250 and 350 at the end of a 100 year game. The shorter the runs the least number of trains you will need to satisfy anything.

[chaney]

I'm not sure I've gone over 300, your 200 figure seems about right for the USA maps. I play to meet the game goals and then usually stop, but I could see a fully developed map going over 500 trains easily.

"as few as possible and as much as necessary" is a perfect abstraction of how I operate, too.

What does it mean practically?

For Freight, to the extent practical keep Cities stocked with everything, but keep in mind if your trains are waiting at the sources to load because the destination is FULL, you have more than necessary. In some cases, because you can't operate a fraction of an engine, you can't keep supply always in stock without going a little over, so that's ok to do - the City will likely grow into higher demand. You don't have to stock all types of goods, it may be better to expand to other Cities rather than connecting everything, but nearby goods are a steady, sure, and easy profit source.

For Express (Passengers and Mail) I'm not convinced it is worth ensuring you capture EVERY possible load when the Cities are small, but it's not hard to at least get close. Passengers will only wait at a Station Platform 14 days (20 year scenarios) but once on a train, they will wait patiently for months, so you can set such trains to min=8 cars and keep operating costs down while capturing all those fares with a small number of engines. This does delay payoff, and I'll estimate getting $90 today is as good as $100 in a month for a rapid expansion strategy, so you can make that trade-off against lowered operating costs.

For most 2 City routes, this means a minimum of 2 trains - one to sit at each City loading, which then ideally switch when full. That's not going to stay synchronized, so that can cause problems. The 14 day delay for me means not having a train arrive/depart every 14 days, but not leaving a Station without a train to load express for more than 14 days. There is another trade-off for the long-loading express train: it will likely not reach Express Status, which pays an extra 10% apparently. That's a pretty small payoff compared with the cost of extra engines, so I usually ignore it. Once Cities grow, they can fill a pretty steady line of trains. Then you're targeting all the demand for the high income it will generate. Keep in mind we don't get to schedule timing and traffic between Cities is usually not symmetric, so things can go a bit out of balance as trains bunch up. Watch that and manage as you prefer.

Personally, for intercity trains I usually don't set max=8 and let trains run on Automatic early on, exchanging some freight to improve growth. Once the initial trains (2 for nearby Cities, maybe 4 for a longer haul) start to fill up, I may add dedicated Freight lines, perhaps getting separate track if it's easy. Then it's time to keep adding express trains to make sure there one loading at each City with an empty Station for no more than 14 days (approximately.)

[Thineboot]

Originally posted by chaney:

[...]
For Express (Passengers and Mail) [...] min=8 cars [...]

Keep in mind that you're dealing with two cities. The demand for passengers, mail, and industrial goods may vary dramatically. I tend to set min=3-5 cars to keep the trains separated after a breakdown which can easily end up in clustering. That way they spread out again without any further effort by myself - lazy me prefers to let them know what I expect without babysitting them constantly ;)

A good rule of thumb you can use in early game is just checking routes from time to time. When most trains run with 7-8 cars I just add one. 14 days is just a number, a benchmark, nothing that's cast in stone. Lately most of my trains got their Express status without checking them. If I want a train to get it just forget it ;)

During Transport revolution I only used Automatic and Freight (simplifies upgrading with one or two engines). Any industrial goods were shipped by express city-to-city trains while any food or raw war delivered to two warehouses beside cities which were balancing each other out. As I've said before, it was boring. I'm looking forward to play Germany. Dray seemed to have fun dealing with all those obstacles the scenario presented to him.

[mbutton15]

One thing I have never done is set trains a minimum load so they wait at a station - I've always just let them pick up what is there !! For intercity trains I have usually specified them specifically for freight or passenger/mail. However, on the current free-map I have done two things differently.

Firstly I left all my early intercity trains as 'auto'. To be honest, I've not noticed a glaring downside to this !! Should there be ? One of the last tasks is to haul 500,000+ parcels so I've started introducing dedicated passenger/mail services and even set priority to parcels to help boost the parcel count.

The second thing I've been doing is to use basic stations (I usually use signal controlled stations even when money is tight early on). This time I've basically run each station with track going to the two middle platforms and then just fan out to give access to the outside platforms. So each end of the station just has a single in/out pair of tracks. So far, most stations have managed to cope. To be honest, I've been a little surprised I've not run into problems with just the single in/out pair of tracks. I think it might be because I've bought out all competitors so I'm able to run two main-line stations in each city. Usually that's all a city has, just the main-line stations. Occasionally I've added warehouses to free up some space on the main-line stations.

I've also been a little surprised at how big some of the cities have grown to. One is over 200,000 and I think it's on the very left edge of the map. I've also not done anything special to it either. There was a requirement to grow a number of cities beyond 81,000 and I've just left each city to it's own devices once it's passed the 81,000 population. So it really did surprise me it had managed to grow so large all on it's own, as it were.

[Al Capwned]

From resource to city/warehouse, 1 is usually enough though you may need an extra train or two depending on demand

Between cities generally I shoot for 3 trains.
Less trains, you're not making as much as you could. More than 3, you do make good money but you also start to see diminishing returns, especially in later years when locomotives become more expensive.