Full sidings for shunting

[MaskMcgee]

I thought simulator was meant to fix this BS, playing the game still a waste of time can't even shunt the train I bought in. Are you ever going to do anything about this, like maybe have 3 or 4 empty sidings instead of every one jam packed?

https://steamcommunity.com/id/maskmcgee/screenshot/2008092738131287687/

[bolero3232]

Bonus time is a non-issue. Build your consist before you validate... like everybody tells people to do.

[Axehandle]

But it was an issue. The consist was picked up and unloaded. Backing up empty flat cars in the raining dark and could not see far enough without risk of hitting tank cars and making them explode. Pulling in engine first was faster and safer.

[Holyvision]

Shunting is the best missions to play to learn the game. As already stated, they are puzzles. I've had some on dead-ends I ended up pulling out the non-missions cars and moving them to open space in another siding, which allowed to reverse into full assembly without getting stuck having to break it up in the back-end.

[MaskMcgee]

Originally posted by Lanzfeld:

Is that the Harbor? C1S?

It's really not that hard MaskMcgee. Use the "triangle" in the Harbor (the section of track that forms a big triangle) to turn your train around and back it in to this siding, connect the cars that are already there (or don't, just push them if you want to cause small damage) and disconnect your train.

You have to use your head here.

Of course I solved it by backing in. That's not the issue. I was backing it in anyway when I set the points and found this. The issue is if you do 3 or 4 shunting missions, then try to take a freight or logistics mission and you find it's either sandwiched between two other consists, or behind 3 other loads, or you put it in a different siding and you can't find it now. And then to get to it you have to put the other consists in the way somewhere else, and since everything else is full you end up blocking the only through track. This was an issue way back when they'd just released Overhauled what, 3 years ago, and they still haven't solved it, like instead of having 10 sidings all with consists in them at the dock, maybe only have 6 consists in it then you have plenty of sidings to shunt into and out of.

[SeniLiX]

Originally posted by MaskMcgee:

Originally posted by Lanzfeld:

Is that the Harbor? C1S?

It's really not that hard MaskMcgee. Use the "triangle" in the Harbor (the section of track that forms a big triangle) to turn your train around and back it in to this siding, connect the cars that are already there (or don't, just push them if you want to cause small damage) and disconnect your train.

You have to use your head here.

Of course I solved it by backing in. That's not the issue. I was backing it in anyway when I set the points and found this. The issue is if you do 3 or 4 shunting missions, then try to take a freight or logistics mission and you find it's either sandwiched between two other consists, or behind 3 other loads, or you put it in a different siding and you can't find it now. And then to get to it you have to put the other consists in the way somewhere else, and since everything else is full you end up blocking the only through track. This was an issue way back when they'd just released Overhauled what, 3 years ago, and they still haven't solved it, like instead of having 10 sidings all with consists in them at the dock, maybe only have 6 consists in it then you have plenty of sidings to shunt into and out of.

How do you think they solve it IRL?
It is perfectly fine to move stuff around to make room. It's all part of the shunting operations.
On a very busy location, it is normal for the yard crew to have to move cars back and forth.
The challenge is to do it as efficiently as possible.
A perfect in-game example of this, is the harbour, which is a very busy place. If you want to find a place with empty sidings, try taking a look at the sawmill or sometimes the food factory.

[Wiseguy]

Originally posted by MaskMcgee:

The issue is if you do 3 or 4 shunting missions, then try to take a freight or logistics mission and you find it's either sandwiched between two other consists, or behind 3 other loads, or you put it in a different siding and you can't find it now.

Well, there's your issue. Don't put cars in a different siding and leave them there; put them back where you found them, and most of the problems you appear to be experiencing will melt away like snow in the sun.

Do that, and all your trains will fit on the siding the game wants you to put them. It will also drastically cut down on (non-shunting) jobs that have cars you need sandwiched between cars you don't need. It will still happen while shunting, because that's what shunting is about. The bonus time and profit should reflect that (you get more money for a shunting job where you need to move more rolling stock)

[Jackthedragonkiller [Chirch]]

Originally posted by Altfuture:

Note also that now there's a manual in the game that explains this and other things in a lot more detail.

The manual just answered me what the O, I, and S suffix mean on the signs, and I've never put two and two together that LH jobs go from Storage tracks to Storage tracks. Guess that answers the question I've had for years as to why the tracks are occupied on LH jobs but not FH jobs.

[Bosharoo]

Originally posted by MaskMcgee:

Originally posted by Lanzfeld:

Is that the Harbor? C1S?

It's really not that hard MaskMcgee. Use the "triangle" in the Harbor (the section of track that forms a big triangle) to turn your train around and back it in to this siding, connect the cars that are already there (or don't, just push them if you want to cause small damage) and disconnect your train.

You have to use your head here.

Of course I solved it by backing in. That's not the issue. I was backing it in anyway when I set the points and found this. The issue is if you do 3 or 4 shunting missions, then try to take a freight or logistics mission and you find it's either sandwiched between two other consists, or behind 3 other loads, or you put it in a different siding and you can't find it now. And then to get to it you have to put the other consists in the way somewhere else, and since everything else is full you end up blocking the only through track. This was an issue way back when they'd just released Overhauled what, 3 years ago, and they still haven't solved it, like instead of having 10 sidings all with consists in them at the dock, maybe only have 6 consists in it then you have plenty of sidings to shunt into and out of.

You are literally blaming the devs for your own lack of understanding. Crazy how confidently wrong you are, to the point of unironically telling the devs they don't know their own game.

[Uollie]

Originally posted by bolero3232:

I do all of the shunting jobs before taking a hauling job. I've never seen a shunting job that couldn't be completed. It's a puzzle, you just gotta figure it out.

Is it common to have shunting jobs where you have to take out one car that is sandwiched between a bunch of other cars? I feel like this is such a headache.

Seems really inefficient to do jobs like this, id rather just do jobs that use the cars on the "exterior" side of the tracks first. I guess that option is always available, but then I'd have to actually find the job in the stack of papers and that sounds like a headache too.

I just want to grab a job and not have to worry about potentially having to do a really tedious shuffling around every time. I just kind of assumed the jobs would logically always use the most accessible cars first. Is it not weird to be forced to use the middle cars in a sandwich? I don't know anything about trains, but I can't imagine this makes sense in real life either. Happy to be schooled if there's a good reason for this.

[Sunscreen]

Originally posted by Uollie:

Originally posted by bolero3232:

I do all of the shunting jobs before taking a hauling job. I've never seen a shunting job that couldn't be completed. It's a puzzle, you just gotta figure it out.

Is it common to have shunting jobs where you have to take out one car that is sandwiched between a bunch of other cars? I feel like this is such a headache.

Seems really inefficient to do jobs like this, id rather just do jobs that use the cars on the "exterior" side of the tracks first. I guess that option is always available, but then I'd have to actually find the job in the stack of papers and that sounds like a headache too.

I just want to grab a job and not have to worry about potentially having to do a really tedious shuffling around every time. I just kind of assumed the jobs would logically always use the most accessible cars first. Is it not weird to be forced to use the middle cars in a sandwich? I don't know anything about trains, but I can't imagine this makes sense in real life either. Happy to be schooled if there's a good reason for this.

My ideal world- persistant stock, persistant jobs, more storage sidings, ability to build your own franchise through owning stock, renting until then. I kind of wonder what that would be like.. until then like you I sigh deeply when the car i need is in the middle of a bunch of other identical cars that are also not being used because no one else is present in the world to use them.
Sad fact- Ive actually uninstalled and gone back to another train sim. Various reasons. Ill check back in 6 months or so.

[SeniLiX]

In-game:
All of the cars present on a siding are already part of a job. Sometimes a specific car is in the middle of a bunch of cars. It happens IRL as well.
A specific job might call for a specific type of car. In-game, the only reason a job calls for this specific car, would be how the game generates the job vs the job the player picks.

In real life:
There are more factors in play.
- Could be a specific car or set of cars have been found to have a fault which would require a service check, but the crew doing this task, haven't gotten to them yet.
- It could be that specific cars are owned by certain companies.
- It could also be that the cars in front have been marked for a different job already, but the train which were supposed to pick them up have been delayed.
- The cars could simply be placed on the wrong siding to begin with.

In real life, cars are shuffled around as well. Of course, it's common practice to plan ahead and do the job as efficient as possible, but like all things in life, things change and you might not be able to do everything 100% right all the time.

If you find the shunting operations tedious, then simply skip them.

[bolero3232]

@Sunscreen, I have other train sims as well, but this one is very different than most. What sim are you playing, if I may ask?

@Uollie, SeniLiX explains it pretty well, but I hope you don't take his advice (sorry SeniLiX) and just skip this part of a very good game. Man up and git 'er dun. :)

[Montuhotep]

Originally posted by bolero3232:

I do all of the shunting jobs before taking a hauling job. I've never seen a shunting job that couldn't be completed. It's a puzzle, you just gotta figure it out.

Exactly-- while I don't exactly shout with glee as I swing into a yard and see my assigned track is full, it's a challenge the game throws at me; another example is when the cars you need for your shunting job are scattered all over the yard and you need to push and pull to get to them. I took on an additional wrinkle when I got my caboose, since I always have to have a plan of where to park it while I do other yard work (but my great-grandpa was a brakeman and part-time conductor, so there's no way I'm doing it without the caboose!). All part of the strategizing.

[TheOofertaffy]

Originally posted by MaskMcgee:

Originally posted by Altfuture:

To add to what others said, the simplest (and proper) way to deal with the situation in your screenshot is to go past the siding and reverse the cars into it, to not get the locomotive sandwiched.

Yea you really don't know your own game. The siding and location is in the screenshot. It's a dead end siding with only room at the other end for 2 locomotives. So yea, back it in from the other end, I'd like to see you do that in this siding.

Did you take stupid pills today? no offence, There is literally a wye in the harbour you can use to turn your shunting operations around, use it to your advantage. Or like Altfuture said, only do freight haul jobs if you don't like the involved nature of shunting jobs. Also if you're getting sandwiched between 2 consists in a shunting job, you're doing it wrong, if it's a dead end track like the C yard in HB. push all the railcars in the siding to fit the jobs cars in the siding, if it's a doubled edged siding, example, steel mill's B yard, then go on the side that won't sandwich your locomotive. This may have already been explained, but i really don't feel like reading everyones responses, I just wanted to give my input, Good luck in your shunting work.

[meatballs_21]

Originally posted by Sunscreen:

I kind of wonder what that would be like.. until then like you I sigh deeply when the car i need is in the middle of a bunch of other identical cars that are also not being used because no one else is present in the world to use them.

If you play Run8, you have that persistence and other people interacting with the game world. You can spend hours getting a big yard like Barstow or Selkirk in good shape, only to come back the next day and find someone else has messed everything up, and you’re forced to fix it all or else things can’t get moving again. All part of the fun.