Automatic, Or specialized trains?

[John Doe]

I'm full of questions today and I want to know what most people do and how they usually roll in the money. A trick I have been doing is two regular stations with the two tracks and using one as a freight line and the other passenger. Now the only difficult part of that is if they have to cross over one or the other its either costly or unlikely a smooth turn off lane will happen.

But I learned from a youtuber that a good means of running trains should be automatic in a pair of four trains between two cities if I understood it right. I am in the third campaign mission and I did pretty well and bought out both rivials within the first year or two so I can have breathing space. But, my question remains how do you guys in the community like to setup your systems? And do you have a effective way of having a straight shot that cuts off to either resources or cities? I want to run a single line that goes city to city to city so its easier to manage and plus looks less of a clutter.

TLDR: What way do you like to set your trains hauling mode? Whats a good system to set rail stations? And, if you have a good money trick, what is it?

A heck of a game to learn the nitty gritty of it but once I get the hold of it, it does get smoother. But does help to learn some ways to more simplify the process eh?

[chaney]

I'm not sure I understand the first paragraph.
(Interpretation 1) What is the advantage in constraining two stations to use one for only Express and one for only Freight? Keeping it "simple" in your mind or roll playing aesthetics are the only advantages that come to mind for me, so I look forward to learning.
(Interpretation 2) You use one Platform/track at each Station for only Freight and one for only Express. The apparent advantage is faster Express trips which pay a little extra and possibly attain the formal Express Status, worth 10% bonus. I frankly do not believe the small added income justifies either the extra cost or complexity in most cases.

The Automatic settings do a fairly good job in general. A double rail (1-way each) between pairs of neighboring Cities with enough trains running it to saturate demand works well. Initially connect the route to just 1 Platform on each side. If it gets too busy, connect to two Platforms on each side, with switches, and alternate platforms to avoid delays. If you need to adjust from Automatic, set Preferred and Prohibited goods in the route manager. This works well most of the time. If you end up with a very busy line, it MAY be worth investing in dedicated Express track separate from Freight, as well as specializing trains.

If things are not too busy, you can splice into that track to serve incoming rural goods as well. If that gets too busy, add more track to a dedicated Platform. A Platform can be used to serve more than one route *only* if the routes are low traffic, otherwise you just end up with trains waiting, and those might as well not exist. If a single Platform serves more than one route, it is helpful to serve from both sides - alternating sides will make swap times slightly faster.

What is the advantage in ease or clutter to have a train go city to city to city? I use almost exclusively routes with only two stops. Trying to do more - without a scheduling mechanic - ends up with bunching up which often leaves some demand unserved while trailing trains run less than full --- very inefficient. Also, low demand sections are over served, while this happens, which is a waste of resources. In my guide I "do the math" on why dropping off rural goods to more than one City/sortie is a bad thing.

TLDR;
Build some rail to connect things. Fill the demand on that track. Add more connections. That's the simple rapid expansion method for exponential growth with quite high returns.

I mostly use The Engineer so engines are cheap, but with another leader you may want to lean more toward expanding rails before saturation on existing track. That will let you start growing other Cities faster, which leads to more demand, and more profit. Figuring it out is the fun.

Try to keep City demand for goods well fulfilled. Bring in any nearby rural goods they want. Bring in any nearby factory goods they want. You don't need to bring in *everything* and typically getting goods from half way across the map is marginal, unless growing a particular City is important.

[Thineboot]

... a few hours and hundreds of pages later...

TLDR: Read chaney's post and don't ask for the perfect solution. You can solve the puzzles in many different ways. Some are faster, some are cheaper (monetary), some are elegant, some are flat, ... just test out different approaches and don't stick to a single strategy. Check out the setting (tasks), make a plan, adopt whenever necessary and foremost don't get distracted by the competition. When you know how to make money - an early rapid expansion is never a bad idea - you'll buy them out eventually. Don't overlook R&D. You can literally burn money by using the wrong engines or wasting precious invention point for nothing.

[John Doe]

Originally posted by chaney:

I'm not sure I understand the first paragraph.
(Interpretation 1) What is the advantage in constraining two stations to use one for only Express and one for only Freight? Keeping it "simple" in your mind or roll playing aesthetics are the only advantages that come to mind for me, so I look forward to learning.
(Interpretation 2) You use one Platform/track at each Station for only Freight and one for only Express. The apparent advantage is faster Express trips which pay a little extra and possibly attain the formal Express Status, worth 10% bonus. I frankly do not believe the small added income justifies either the extra cost or complexity in most cases.

The Automatic settings do a fairly good job in general. A double rail (1-way each) between pairs of neighboring Cities with enough trains running it to saturate demand works well. Initially connect the route to just 1 Platform on each side. If it gets too busy, connect to two Platforms on each side, with switches, and alternate platforms to avoid delays. If you need to adjust from Automatic, set Preferred and Prohibited goods in the route manager. This works well most of the time. If you end up with a very busy line, it MAY be worth investing in dedicated Express track separate from Freight, as well as specializing trains.

If things are not too busy, you can splice into that track to serve incoming rural goods as well. If that gets too busy, add more track to a dedicated Platform. A Platform can be used to serve more than one route *only* if the routes are low traffic, otherwise you just end up with trains waiting, and those might as well not exist. If a single Platform serves more than one route, it is helpful to serve from both sides - alternating sides will make swap times slightly faster.

What is the advantage in ease or clutter to have a train go city to city to city? I use almost exclusively routes with only two stops. Trying to do more - without a scheduling mechanic - ends up with bunching up which often leaves some demand unserved while trailing trains run less than full --- very inefficient. Also, low demand sections are over served, while this happens, which is a waste of resources. In my guide I "do the math" on why dropping off rural goods to more than one City/sortie is a bad thing.

TLDR;
Build some rail to connect things. Fill the demand on that track. Add more connections. That's the simple rapid expansion method for exponential growth with quite high returns.

I mostly use The Engineer so engines are cheap, but with another leader you may want to lean more toward expanding rails before saturation on existing track. That will let you start growing other Cities faster, which leads to more demand, and more profit. Figuring it out is the fun.

Try to keep City demand for goods well fulfilled. Bring in any nearby rural goods they want. Bring in any nearby factory goods they want. You don't need to bring in *everything* and typically getting goods from half way across the map is marginal, unless growing a particular City is important.

Appreciate it! I am still learning and I hope to find what works out very well for me, as I am currently doing the freight line and passenger line separate to avoid clutter. I only had one time as of thus far where my freight line got packed up but I again am still learning!

[chaney]

That's the most enjoyable part of a game for me ... figuring out what works and what doesn't.

I like that games have simplified rules that yield different situations. IRL, spoke and hub, long chains, etc. work, but don't count on it for a game. The mixed scales and representations of many things by a single thing in the game change what will work and what won't. No scheduling is another difference from reality and some other games.

You learn to work with the rules as they are. Except in EA :) The developers here did take a lot of feedback from the community and the game is better for it, but now it's pretty much set so it is up to us to work out how to play for our own satisfaction :)

[THE_RaBiD_CanuK]

I usually run automatic early game, and eventually build two separate lines, one for freight and one for passengers.
Freights for feeding and growing the city to make it really big, and mail cars for income and making a profit. The mail cars can really make you a fortune over the course of a game.
I've found that you'll eventually want two stations in your biggest cities, just to handle all the traffic. One for goods, and one for services.
Sometimes meeting demand for goods is more important than profit. Money doesn't really matter in the end, it's just a means to an end. You don't need to own the whole map - just focus on your goals/tasks.

[chaney]

Originally posted by THE_RaBiD_CanuK:

I've found that you'll eventually want two stations in your biggest cities, just to handle all the traffic. One for goods, and one for services.

I have never understood what the advantage is supposed to be in having a separate Station for Freight and Express.

I can understand separating the trains. It is sometime worth while.
I can understand separate track. It may occasionally be worth while.
But to separate Stations, I really do not understand. What do you think is to be gained? All I can imagine is an aesthetic preference or role playing value, but at the cost of worse track with unnecessary crossings.