Understanding a basic freight route

[Lucas Kane]

In the campaign the first time they leave you "free" to complete a series of tasks, I have no issue connecting tracks and stations, but I do setting up a train that makes sense to complete the optional tasks: Namely Provide cattle to Denver and meat to Cheyenne.

So I've connected the line to a cattle farm, obviously I want the train to load cattle there, take it to Denver, get the meat there take it to Cheyenne and go back to the farm to get more cattle.

I'm getting meat from Denver to Cheyenne but in Cheyenne it's either getting "beer" for no apparent reason, or nothing at all. Then goes to the ranch sometimes empty but doesn't load, sometimes full of beer and ofc doesn't load cattle either, ends up unloading the beer in Denver sometimes. I've even seen it do the whole route just driving the beer around. If I add another city to take the bear, they load the train with more meat so still not room for cattle, and sometimes even if it's empty it's still not loading cattle.

The ranch has a signal like it's loading its production in carts instead ot the train for some reason. I don't even know where is Denver getting the cattle for the meat, 'cause I have failed the task, yet I've been able to deliver the meat.

Good tutorials on routes, loading the right things etc?

[Úr Corvus]

I'm not an expert BUT it sounds as if you haven't prioritized the freight that needs to be hauled between the cities Denver and Cheyenne and that the route hasn't been set up properly between all of the three points.

I would set up the route as "Freight Only", cattle farm to Denver (it will load cattle only), prioritize meat at Denver which is then routed to Cheyenne, then prioritize beer at Cheyenne which is then routed to Denver, then an empty train should head to the cattle farm.

You said "it's getting beer for no apparent reason" at Cheyenne but Denver needs beer and the game is trying to supply the need in an efficient manner by loading beer and taking it to Denver. When setting up the routes and clicking on the green circles, note that each rectangle with the station in it has a clipboard (at least I think it's a clipboard) that you click on to prioritize the cargo at each station.

OR you could click the green circles, when setting up the route, as Cattle farm, Denver, Cheyenne, then Cattle farm. What I described before included a return to Denver with beer for the sake of efficiency and I think that is what the game is trying to do.

I hope I didn't misunderstand and I hope my advice is/was helpful to you.

[Mudfog]

To prevent the train carrying beer from Cheyenne to Denver via the cattle farm, at Cheyenne set the train to leave with zero (0) MAXIMUM cars. Also at the cattle farm, set the train to only leave when full by setting MINIMUM cars to 8.

This may also help you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UsMdccy-Bc&t=1304s

Goodluck and enjoy.

[Sticky]

Basically Adeken has a You Tube for each option you can play. Its a great guide understanding the goal of the play you are running. Just search Railway Empire and the name of Map Quest like Gold Rush might be a name of a scenario on the West. Keep in mind that i feel Railway Empire focuses on the goals and time taken, and not always how pretty you make it. In some cases you need to be aggressive in different aspects to achieve the hard to obtain goals. Plan early helps but the credit flow is usually the issue and if you wait to build when you can afford it you lost out on time.

[chaney]

Simple description: if a train can pick up something for another stop on its route, it will. That's not always what you want.

If you have only 2 stops, Automatic works pretty well, but there are tools to optimize for your own intent.

With more stops, you have to use Prefer, Prohibit, Max and Min Cars to get what you really want, or wade into the clunky Manual if you want full control - be careful if things change you can get stuck waiting.

[Thineboot]

Adding to chaney:

2 solutions:

A use automatic: Cattle site, Denver, Cheyenne, Denver
+ add Denver and transport all. Denver needs Beer, so there is a good reason for loading it in Cheyenne.

B use two lines: Cattle site, Denver and Cheyenne, Denver
+ set min cars to 8 for the Cattle train; no need to run more often than needed.
+ use more than 1 automatic train between Cheyenne and Denver.

[chaney]

I like Thineboot's B approach. The approach of putting trains on routes with only 2 stops is almost always best. It gives a good balance of delivery of primary and secondary loads. It is simple and therefore less error prone. It tends to have close to minimum total cost (Engine plus operation) over time.

It seems appealing to run multiple stops because that is efficient in real life. In this game, that is rarely the case. If there is very low demand you can cover two trains' worth of deliveries with one train for a while, but eventually it is quite rare to not want dedicated trains running 2 stop routes (Point to Point, P2P) for just about everything. I go through the math in an example in my guide.

[Lucas Kane]

Hey y'all thanks for the tips and advice. Unfortunately I haven't had the chance to play some more, but I have seen the video which I need to see again really lol. There seems to be much depth to this game.

I see how maybe I was trying to make a single line do too much, as you said it sounded more efficient and intuitive than having a new train for each task. Now if I set up more lines what I fear is traffic congestion, already as it is I see trains waiting a bit too often for other trains to get out of the main track, even if I've set up parallel tracks in all sections. How do you manage many different lines on the same set of main tracks? Should I avoid lines going through many main stations or long distances?

[Sticky]

I really like to use those Switching Stations, they really help the Trains get around to different lines without needing to setup anything.

[Mudfog]

If you are looking for advice on how to manage traffic congestion I would start a new discussion as it can be simple or very complex. You have to consider many variables depending on the campaign , scenario, time constraints and objectives which vary from game to game.

Or check out this discussion: https://steamcommunity.com/app/503940/discussions/0/3441214221462739236/

[chaney]

Good reference thread Mudfog! There is a lot of detail there with many different points of view. Each player should evolve what makes them happiest. I'm happy to discuss the math if anyone is foolish enough to also enjoy that kind of thing :)

[Colonel Sanders Lite]

Originally posted by chaney:

There is a lot of detail there with many different points of view.

Since it was brought up here, I'll say for the record that my own style and POV has changed since that thread.

Back then I was doing
1 platform for neighboring city passenger/mail
1 platform for long distance city passenger/mail
1 platform for neighboring city freight
1 platform for long distance city freight
3 platforms dedicated to city industries
1 platform connected to area warehouse




These days, I do not do long distance express lines like that unless it's for a scenario objective and if long distance freight is required it usually goes to/through a warehouse.

Each city will connect with preferably 3 other cities. Although I try and minimize it, sometimes it is a practical necessity to connect a city to 4 other cities.

In the early part of an areas development, each city to city connection gets a simple mixed passenger/freight line with it's own dedicated platform on each end and each industry in a city gets its own dedicated platform. This is cheap and simple. Soon after, a warehouse connection is added to pull in various mixed goods from the area.

Once an area has developed to a certain point, the old setup just doesn't cut the mustard anymore. Each city to city connection gets a platform dedicated to express traffic and a second platform dedicated to freight traffic. Each industry still gets supplied through a dedicated platform as well. Depending on the number of city to city connections, this will likely require the use of an additional warehouse. Additionally, each city has a warehouse that pulls in goods from the area and trades these goods with a matching warehouse in neighboring cities Again, city warehouse to city warehouse trade line per platform.



So why the change? Mainly, it's down to a better understanding of the volumes involved and the fact that the bottleneck in well designed rail line is getting trains in and out of the station.

[chaney]

Nice evolution and discussion Colonel.

I still strongly favor P2P/Point to Point/2 stop routes with double track connected to a single Platform at each end.

I don't have a rigid formula, just connect whatever useful connections are nearby.

If near a map edge or mountains, use the Platforms in a way that minimizes crossings.

Platforms can be used for more than one thing most of the time, and I usually don't mind combining intra-City Express/Freight - to me the 10% Express bonus seems less worthy than the flexibility of combining loads to saturation. For busy routes, I may set up 2 Platforms at each Station and alternate to reduce/eliminate backup ... if you always have backup, you are wasting trains so delete one if you can't serve it.

The Warehouse between Cities still makes no sense to me. It seems "real life" logical (and is) but for the game, why not just ship direct? Unless the source is really far away, I am trying to make a very large City, or want to skip Tunnel/Bridge costs, the Warehouse is a rare building for me.

Oh, and never Signal Control. That's a Morlock attitude though.

[Colonel Sanders Lite]

Originally posted by chaney:

The Warehouse between Cities still makes no sense to me. It seems "real life" logical (and is) but for the game, why not just ship direct?

I use warehouses like that *sometimes*. I see a big downside and three good advantages to them.

The first advantage is - It lets you hook up several low volume resources from the surrounding countryside in an organizationally neat way. Sometimes that is very useful and less headaches is a good thing.

The second advantage is - In cases where a signal controlled warehouse will fit, you can do your train maintenance away from the city and can service multiple trains on the same route simultaneously while still not using signal control in the city itself. This hybridizes some of the advantages of signal controlled and point to point setups.

The third advantage is - In some instances, the layout of resources may mean that you don't actually need to move a ton of freight between two specific cities. We can imagine two cities, back to back, that both produce beer and cloth and supply them to 4 other cities. In this case, we can use a central warehouse to send many goods to both cities while only using a single platform in each city to receive several goods. However, this hints at the big downside.

The big downside - In a situation where there is a lot of freight moving between the two cities, the trains will consistently be full before they even get to the warehouse. This leaves you with basically two options. If you have a free platform at both cities, you can run an extra freight line so you have one express and two freight lines. One freight line for intercity freight and one for freight from the warehouse. The other option is to abandon the central warehouse and use a warehouse at each city directly to provide for shipping of these assorted rural goods.


Now sometimes, that downside isn't that important. If we suppose that your scenario goals and your own internal goals don't require you to grow those two cities beyond 150 thousand or so people, it can be "good enough".

[Lord Onad]

They should explain this better in the frickin game. I've been playing all these hours and still can't get past the 2nd scenario. I have to go online and research a paper on the game im playing to be able to understand. I'm pissed they should make sure to explain things like how to get grain from here to there and there and there, without me having to post a stupid comment on someone having a similar issue. my 2cents for someone who is bored.

[Úr Corvus]

Lack of or minimal instructions seem to be prevalent in many games and I understand where you're coming from, Lord Onad. I would buy actual paper book instructions or strategy guides if such things were available. It is great, though, that we have Thineboot, Chaney, and Mudfog (and many others) who can offer good, sound advice through this forum.