maintenance stops

[RayofSunshine]

Periodically I run into the problem of thru trains not stopping at water/sand and mainenance locations. Hence the problem of those trains not only slowing down, but can "crash". The long hauls between these points being critical

So I have found, after some info form a couple of members, that a thru train will bypass such points, if there is an indicator for such a stop further "up the track". But that led me to experiment with some resolve.

eg. A thru B to C stop.
Engines usually will deplete its water before the oil.
Let us indicate, that due to the mountainous terrain after "C", we would like all maintenance. However, any previous maintenance stops will be bypasses.
SO, at point B, only indicate "water", which will only stop at that water/sand location. Such can be done at other "thru" locations, until the train stop at point "C".

I bring this as a suggest, as in one scenaio, I was losing to "crashes", and frequent "breakdowns", because they were getting inadequate service along the way. Naturally, another alternative is to get complete service at each thru maintenance location, but that isn't reality, and a waste of revenue in time.

Hope this helps when such a problem occurs during other member scenario playing.

[Hawk]

Trains won't stop at service towers or maintenance facilities until they're 50% or more low on sand/water or oil, respectively.
If a train goes by a service tower and it's 49% low, it won't stop to refill. Then, depending on the run of the train and the location of the next service tower, there is the possibility that it won't reach another one until it's run out.
Same with the maintenance facilities.

Just remember - trains will not stop for service until they're at least 50% low. 49% isn't enough. Even if you place service towers and maintenance facilities on spurs and use waypoints to get the trains to them, if they're not at least 50% low, they won't stop at them.

[Wolverine@MSU]

Trains won't stop at service towers or maintenance facilities until they're 50% or more low on sand/water or oil, respectively.
If a train goes by a service tower and it's 49% low, it won't stop to refill. Then, depending on the run of the train and the location of the next service tower, there is the possibility that it won't reach another one until it's run out.
Same with the maintenance facilities.

Just remember - trains will not stop for service until they're at least 50% low. 49% isn't enough. Even if you place service towers and maintenance facilities on spurs and use waypoints to get the trains to them, if they're not at least 50% low, they won't stop at them.

But there's a lot more to it than this, as Ray points out. This was discussed a bit in another thread, and from the limited testing I've done, I can't quite figure out the logic behind when a train will stop at "non-scheduled" facilities if there are "scheduled" stops in the itinerary. Trains sometimes WILL bypass services, even if they are below 50% (even completely empty) if there is a scheduled stop in the itinerary. It seems to be different between water/sand and oil; water/sand is much more likely to be bypassed, but I'm just speculating on this. I think this would be an issue worth some serious testing. We already know that placing facilities too close to an intersection (I think it's within 4 track pieces) will make them "invisible" to trains, but even that is not absolute, because a train may bypass it in one direction, but see it in the other direction.

[Hawk]

I don't believe I've ever come across this issue.

[Hawk]

I just wanted to add that I would be very interested in the results of testing on this engine issue. I wish I could help but as I mentioned, I don't recall ever having had this problem in the 10 years I've owned RT3.