Electric trains?

[nekys]

I am building an electric line for the first time but the icon is not really clear..how do i use the electric connections? can trains pass through them? and how many does it take let's say per km?

[Silent_Shadow]

You just need to connect all of the electric track you plan on running electric trains on to a electric railway connection, which trains can pass through.

The number of railway connections you need depends on the sum of the powers of the electric trains/locomotives you plan to run on the track. Add up the power ratings of all the electric locomotives you plan on running at a time, and divide the sum by two. Ensure that the electric railway connections you connect to this track network have at least this much power capacity, and your trains will always have enough power available.

It used to be that the railway electric connections would block power transmission to/from other electric railway connections, but this is not the case any more; they will now split the power draw of all electric trains equally (I think). This is still the case for trolley bus trafos and tram trafos however, so do not build those in a serial manner; build them in parallel.

[Nokia 3310]

Originally posted by Silent_Shadow:

Add up the power ratings of all the electric locomotives you plan on running at a time, and divide the sum by two.

Oh. Does that means electric locomotives have about 50% efficiency? I've heared that locomotive power has nothing to do with electrical power it takes.
I was trying to manage some correlation between those, but I've failed.

Originally posted by Silent_Shadow:

It used to be that the railway electric connections would block power transmission to/from other electric railway connections, but this is not the case any more; they will now split the power draw of all electric trains equally (I think).

That is quite unbalanced. It means i just can build 20 connections near the nuclear plant and forget for the rest of the game.

[Silent_Shadow]

Originally posted by Nokia 3310:

Oh. Does that means electric locomotives have about 50% efficiency? I've heared that locomotive power has nothing to do with electrical power it takes.
I was trying to manage some correlation between those, but I've failed.

I found that electric vehicles would draw between 5% and 50% of their power depending on their current acceleration (with 50% occurring when accelerating from a dead stop), so the most power an electric vehicle will draw is half of their rated power.

Once they stop accelerating, their cruising power is about 5%. Electric vehicles are still much more efficient than diesel vehicles, but because they are a variable load on the grid, you have to maintain a capacity of power that will not be used.

Originally posted by Nokia 3310:

That is quite unbalanced. It means i just can build 20 connections near the nuclear plant and forget for the rest of the game.

Pretty much, but it might change.