Tips and Tricks

[AyrA]

After playing over 15 hours I figured out some things to make your life easier. I don't play with VR so keep in mind that some tips don't apply to the VR version.

Inventory and items

The inventory is not very large, which can become a problem fast. Map, Station Map, Shovel, Lighter, Remote Control, Job description and Wallet already occupy most of the slots.
To free up inventory slots you can toss your stuff into the lost and found shed that is next to the station office. No need to carry the remote control with you if you're going to use the steam train. The items teleport to every shed, so you can pick them up at any station.

Items that you don't own are eventually teleported back to the source location when you get too far away (no stealing of calculators you thief!), the lost and found shed also won't work for them.

Controls

If you don't play with VR, learn the keyboard controls. The controls work as long as you are in (or on top of) the locomotive, so feel free to control the shunter while standing on the roof to get a better view point. This kind of defeats the purpose of the remote control though. Direction, brake, throttle and coupler can be controlled in both locos. In the steam loco you can additionally control the fire box door and the water injector with the keyboard, which makes this a lot less stressful than using your mouse.

Jobs

Before taking a hauling or shunting job, look at it, then step out and make sure the tracks are clear and you don't have to "extract" the cars from others. I've had it occasionally that I had to shunt stuff around for 10 minutes before finally being able to couple the cars I needed which cost me my time bonus.

Try to unlock longer trains. They pay more and also give you more time to complete.

If you find that the track at the destination is blocked, don't hesitate to just couple and push whatever is there away, the game only cares for the cars in your job. See the cheating section below on how to do this fast.

If you want a job that has a certain destination, check the industry chain. It's shown next to the world map in the station office. The arrows don't show this but the chain is often bidirectional. For example you haul coal from the mine to the steel mill, but then can haul empty cars back to the coal mine.

Speed

Rule of thumb for me is to stay between 30 and 40. You have to go below that on switches (unless they are going straight) and tracks that snake along rivers. If you're going around a curve and you can't hear the wheels squealing you can go faster.

Transportation

Train cars have unrealistically strong brakes and essentially brake just as good as your loco.

The steam train is more powerful than the shunter. I recommend it for anything over 6 cars.

To flip a locomotive you need to go to the nearest Wye junction (also known as triangular junction). Drive into one of the two possible tracks, then reverse into the track you did not use yet, then you can go forwards into the direction you came from. Driving a train backwards is less of a hassle with the keyboard controls. but still a pain, especially for the steam loco. If you bring your own loco, approach terminal stations in reverse to pull out stuff going forwards.

Always pull cars. Pushing them has weird physics.

The fastest way to get around is teleporting by spamming the F key. This is possible while looking at the world map which makes this method very convenient.

If you like to get around the map without teleporting, get bobs key. This unlocks the pause menu option to spawn the crew vehicle to the closest track.
To find Bobs garage: Drive across the map and search for a switch that is not marked on the map. If this is not enough hint, search between these stations: Machine factory & town and Iron ore mine west.
To use the vehicle, teleport on it instead of stepping on it manually. You will face the direction it considers forward because it looks almost symmetrical. Press and hold F1 to go backwards and F2 to go forwards. Press and hold F4 to brake. You can spawn only one but you can do it as often as you want, teleporting it to you (even if derailed).

Borderline cheating

You might consider these tips cheating.

• You can look at jobs and prepare them. Place the loco in the correct spot, set all points, then accept the job.
  
• You can uncouple cars while driving. Cars remember the brake setting too. Apply the brake fully, decouple the cars, then release the brake and drive off. This can speed up shunting portions of jobs a lot.
  
• You can use the engine to brake by switching the reverser into the opposite direction and accelerating. This increases the total brake power. Works for both types of locos.
  
• The brakes work indefinitely without the engine. Turn off the engine whenever not needed, this saves on fuel (provided you care about this sort of thing).
  
• You don't need to set the throttle back to turn off the engine. Once you found a good position, leave it there and just work with the start/stop switch. This also saves on fuel a lot.
  
• You can leave the water injector open in the steam train and then you don't have to worry about it while driving.

[BroJo]

Excellent guide! One nitpick:

Originally posted by AyrA:

To flip a locomotive you need to go to the nearest Wye junction (also known as triangular junction).

"Turn around" a locomotive might be better wording than "flip." When I read "flip," I imagine the engine derailing and landing on its top!

[Wolfie_]

Speed

Purple_Finch produced a very handy modified game map annotated with suggested speeds, which is part of the guide linked below.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1682909951

[ThePrussianRussian]

why dont you need remote for steamer?

[alucia]

Originally posted by ThePrussianRussian:

why dont you need remote for steamer?

The steam locomotive can't work with the remote, as everything is mechanical with no electrical control systems like the Shunter would have, the remote literally would not be able to connect to it. So, unless you are using it to control a shunter behind the tender for a bit of extra power (Multiple Unit, or MU driving), carrying the remote is just a waste of inventory space if you are using the steamer.

[Aaron]

noone one to cheat but thanks its ben one year and still thewy added no damage effects this is BECASE THEY WASTED TIME DOING shoddy vr

[alucia]

Originally posted by Azza35:

noone one to cheat but thanks its ben one year and still thewy added no damage effects this is BECASE THEY WASTED TIME DOING shoddy vr

....? This game was built from the ground up for VR, and the initial demo was VR only, so what are you even complaining about?

[[C.D.F]Grassy_Knoll]

Originally posted by Azza35:

noone one to cheat but thanks its ben one year and still thewy added no damage effects this is BECASE THEY WASTED TIME DOING shoddy vr

the update has taken a year because the game has more or less been completely rebuilt to fix alot of non-VR issues and bring the game to the point the devs wanted it to be when it first released to early access.