Just finished up a game. Random terrain and cities on US Southwest with 1 ai on mogul level 1850-1950. Early on, I had service between 2 metropolises. Built up a 4 track line and had 2 food trains running 8 cars each, then I had 2 cattle trains, one with 4 cars, the other 8. In the middle of all of this, I had a train running gold through this service along a fairly long route. I was running 2-6-0 Moguls on each of these most of the time. On top of this, I had 2 passenger and mail trains running 4-4-0 Americans back and forth through this busy freight route. Eventually I made a portion of this 4 track service into a yard because it was a very busy line! I often had trains passing each other back and forth. I learned from this experience the importance of track layout. I want my passenger/mail trains to run straight through without having to wait for a slow freight train. If they are waiting around, I would rather not run that passenger/mail route. Then if you have a sloppy track setup, then your trains will eventually get held up until you correct it.
I think a good way to do this is to build an express line, for passenger/mail. Have the freight trains run on a seperate line so they won't hold up the others. For example, say I am servicing two cities and I have 2 freight trains delivering to them and 2 passenger trains. Although not the cheapest way to do it, 4 tracks would be optimal. Each train will have their own track. At very least, a yard type track layout by each depot would probably be good too with 1 or 2 main lines. What I am getting at is I got in over my head. I was adding too many trains without figuring out how they would be able to efficiently arrive at their destination without too many hold ups. It all seems good, wow I have a grain farm just 8 miles from this city. Let me go ahead and connect a track to my main line and start getting this grain sent out and watch the cash flow in. Oh wow look at the food there now, let me get that sent out. Then, before you know it, you have full 6-8 car food and grain trains being held up just because you wanted fast cash. At least thats what I was doing
Then I would deal with the track layout afterwards. The track layout should be dealt with first. Of course you can play with easy or medium routing difficulty, but I am referring to hard. Another thing, the AI had alot less routes, probably half of what I had yet he was making alot more money! I know he owned more industries but I had alot more trains.
I think a good way to do this is to build an express line, for passenger/mail. Have the freight trains run on a seperate line so they won't hold up the others. For example, say I am servicing two cities and I have 2 freight trains delivering to them and 2 passenger trains. Although not the cheapest way to do it, 4 tracks would be optimal. Each train will have their own track. At very least, a yard type track layout by each depot would probably be good too with 1 or 2 main lines. What I am getting at is I got in over my head. I was adding too many trains without figuring out how they would be able to efficiently arrive at their destination without too many hold ups. It all seems good, wow I have a grain farm just 8 miles from this city. Let me go ahead and connect a track to my main line and start getting this grain sent out and watch the cash flow in. Oh wow look at the food there now, let me get that sent out. Then, before you know it, you have full 6-8 car food and grain trains being held up just because you wanted fast cash. At least thats what I was doing
Then I would deal with the track layout afterwards. The track layout should be dealt with first. Of course you can play with easy or medium routing difficulty, but I am referring to hard. Another thing, the AI had alot less routes, probably half of what I had yet he was making alot more money! I know he owned more industries but I had alot more trains.
