Straight track vs careful grading

[low_grade]

Just wondering what everybody thinks the best track laying strategy is looking at straight tracks v careful grading. Sure, a lot of trains slow down when they hit a grade, but not so much if it's only a few sections, right? And trains also slow down when they hit a curve, though not nearly as much on a very broad radius curve. So what's better? How do you decide? Of course straight track gives you a shorter distance to cover as well. And I know it's hard to say in general because it really depends on the situation (what engines do you have available, etc.) I just noticed that I have a tendency to grade carefully (thus my nickname) and have recently been doubting the universal wisdom of that strategy.

[Glaycyer]

I usually carefully grade, too ... but I think it counts on a lot of factors: the engine, the difference in grades, the distance, the cargo. I'm sticking to careful grading for now (it looks more pro).

[Grandma Ruth]

I usually do careful grades and curves but I have been wondering if it really makes that much difference, certainly with the 20th century engines. Also I have sometimes made a steep, straight track to a logging camp or suchlike, where the train's coming down full and going up empty. Because, as people have pointed out elsewhere, RT doesn't recognise the fact that going down a steep grade is as slow as going up one in real life and so the journey down is actually much quicker than on the flat.

[proudcanadian]

I typically try to find the straighest route, regardless of grade. Unlike RT2, where trains could take years to go over a 12.0 grade, in RT3, it seems that they have a much better climbing ability. That's not to say that I don't try to find the flattest route, but I prefer to go straight from town to town.

[Sugus]

Usually, I'm doing it as straight as possible (to connect the cities as soon as possible).

But there is a marvelous exception: when playing Scrimshaw (by Taleisin) I carefully graded!

[low_grade]

Is that map in the archives? Doesn't ring a bell...

[proudcanadian]

It was on the Railroad Tycoon Info website, which is where I downloaded it from, but since that's gone now, I don't know where you could find it.

[Glaycyer]

A little bit of net stalking provided this page: http://szliste.railroadtycoons.de/htm-s ... andere.htm

Is this the map that what you're talking about? (Scroll down to Scrimshaw)

[low_grade]

heh heh, stalking. unfortunately that link doesn't actually let you download anything as far as I can tell. So, how 'bout it Sugus? Still got scrimshaw on your HD? Wanna upload it to Hawk so we can all give it a spin? Anybody else hoarding maps that aren't in the hawkdawg archives?

[low_grade]

Oh, and I've also been testing straight track vs carefully graded a little bit, and straight does seem to be doing better than I would have expected. Even an American loaded with 8 20-ton cars (sandbox) forced to go up over 3-grades at like 7mph seemed to do just as well as the fairly straight but slightly (10%) longer detour that let it stick to mostly 0 and 1 grades. Unfortunately the sandbox doesn't report things like fuel usage, and I don't remember if it listed water and sand either, so I can say aha! but the tough grade route will require me to stop for servicing more often and cost more in fuel. I also didn't get to compare track laying costs.

[Hawk]

Here's the Scrimshaw map.

Scrimshaw.gmp.zip

(3.23 MiB) Downloaded 159 times

I have all the maps from RTI that aren't on my site yet. I just haven't had the time to get them added.

[Sugus]

@Hawk: I'm so sorry that I tend to produce so much scenario grabbing work for you!

[Hawk]

@Hawk: I'm so sorry that I tend to produce so much scenario grabbing work for you!

It's been on my hard drive for a while. I just had to attach it to a post.

[OilCan]

FYI. Here's another website which has a couple of RT3 games.

http://railroadtycoon.medialint.com/#SCENARIOS

It also has a tutorial on making RT3 map scenarios.

[Hawk]

Thanks for the link OilCan. I'll add it to my Links page.

[Hawk]

I've added this link to the Links page and sent an email to the owner.