Track Laying Techniques

[Ttimber13]

I would like to hear your techniques for laying track to create a successful Railway.

[elbowgrease]

Heya!
Here's my secret procedure:

Click-drag-undo. Click drag-undo. Click-drag-undo. Click-drag-undo. Click-drag. SAVEGAME. Go get a beer. Click-drag-undo. Click-drag-undo. Click-drag-undo. Click-drag-undo. Click-drag. *Happy Dance* Click-drag-undo. Click-drag-undo. Click-drag-undo. Click-drag. SAVEGAME. Another Beer. Click-drag-undo. Click-drag-undo. SAVEGAME.

Works like a charm everytime !hairpull!

But seriously, I just thought I'd *bump* this topic. Are there any tips/advice on this?
Like: Start building from the middle-point, or Build your bridges/tunnels first, or build track loops around your stations for service towers and such, etc., etc.

[ostlandr]

That's a toughie. If i'm allowed to build unconnected track, and the terrain is flat, I build the stations first. If not, or the terrain is rough at the spot where I need a station, I bring up the station in the menu, find the perfect spot for it, look where the station track is, then lay track to that spot (good luck.) Sometimes it's cheaper to have to bulldoze and re-lay the last few sections of track rather than have to upgrade to a larger station.

Tip: Borrow as much money as you can before you start laying track. If you have to switch to the money screen, when you go back you can't undo.

[Hawk]

Works like a charm everytime

Looks like I've got a smilie MIA!

Edit 1: Strange! It works in the quote but not in the original post.

[elbowgrease]

I've got smilies turned off in my UCP, but I just assumed that only meant for MY views. (i.e., I thought they'd show up for others when viewing)

guess I'll have to uncheck " []disable smilies " next time I use one


-g

[Hawk]

I thought that was for the particular users view also.
Interesting!

[steelm]

Here is a track sample from my current play. Important is that both stations at Dallas were placed in the same price square.
So even the AI would not run Dallas-Dallas, because there is no price difference.

Any suggestions, did I miss something or could have done better?

[WPandP]

What I want to know is how did you get such closely-spaced parallel lines? It seems to always snap back into a junction whenever I attempt to do this.

[steelm]

I cannot lay straight parallel tracks either. The trick is a bend at one end and a branch.
The red one is the original track and with the green branch I can go real close, which depends on where I start.
You have to try a little to get the right feeling.

/cu steelm

[Wolverine@MSU]

It helps to zoom in when trying to lay parallel tracks. Zoom way in and lay a short piece of track, then extend each end. I'ts much tougher when you can't lay unconnected track. In this case, you must lay a "branch line" first, then extend the branch. Again, it helps to zoom in as much as possible to get the first pieces laid. You may have to build a longer branch than you need to get it to go down, and then bulldoze a short section at the end to pare it back to where you can add track to paralell your existing line.

[steelm]

No, my tracks have been laid in one swift move, no bits and pieces. I've made another example with a foreign double track and my one single track. You can see (connecting costs $75k), that I'm still holding the mouse key and the track is not been laid yet.

[wsherrick]

I have tried and tried to lay track right next to each other and I have never gotten the hang of it. I see that it can be done. I guess I'll have to keep trying. My adjacent track always wants to turn into the track next to it.

[nedfumpkin]

Personally I have found that if you lay wasted track to start your second line, then bulldoze back a bit, you can do it easier without automatically snapping a connection.

[Penn Minuteman]

Why dont we just petition the game makers for triple and quadruple track for a patch to the game. I would love it personally. 1 station with 4 lines running to it. Would love it for Alternate USA scenario where i can have up to 250 trains running across country. My start zone specially at omaha and des moines end up with 4 to 6 trains piled up at each station waiting to unload.

Pennsylvania Minuteman (Bill)

[proudcanadian]

Unfortunately, Penn Minuteman, Poptop Software, the makers of the game no longer exist (I think they got taken over by Firaxis, Sid Meier's company). Thus, no new (official) patches are being made for the game, and I doubt that Firaxis would do that for us (I'm also assuming that they now own the rights to RRT3).

BTW, Welcome to the forums

[Penn Minuteman]

What a shame really. It the most played game on my computer.

And thanks for the welcome.