My strageties for RRT3 (Mini-FAQ)

[RRT3Freak]

I, in the few days I've actually played it, came up with some tips for playing RRT3. Some of these tips might not work unless you have updates installed; I am at 1.05.

1.
You know you can rename trains. You also can make it so some will yield to others. You already knew this, eh? Well, I have a trick with this. I catagorize trains into 3 classes:
Express - I always have the priority on Express, and these always carry ONLY express cargo on a 2 track mainline
Freight - Normal priority class, this always carries freight options (it has the possibility of carrying freight with the CONSIST) on the 2 track mainline between cities
Resource - Slow priority, these trains exist to get resources from places other than cities. If there is coal in the mountains, but no cities, I would reach a spur over there and pull the resource. These spurs are barely ever electrified, and are always single track.
I also rename trains with descriptive names.

2.
You know you can rename trains, right (I just told you, but it is control+click on the coins), but you can also move them.
I am trying a method which interoperates with the first tip. You take some number _n_, which, for this argument, will equal 50. You would enter a specific number into the rename box. This number is [ 1+_n_*_P_+_ID_ ], where _n_ is that number, _P_ is 0 for express, 1 for freight, and 2 for resource, and _ID_ is a train ID number, which you can decide on what it is, but each ID should be unique and 0 <= ID < n. So, if you have _n_ = 50, and you want to move your 23rd freight train (assuming ID=1 for first, =2 for second, etc), you would enter the number 1+50*1+23, or 74.

Post your own tips, with this numbering scheme.

[nedfumpkin]

I like to run mail and passengers separately whenever I can. I have my passenger trains run with 4 cars, a diner (first class in TM) and a caboose. I run that as a true express with priority. I run my mail trains on circuits.

[Grandma Ruth]

I do frequently move the trains about on the list but it's not quite straightforward. I've not worked out why, but if you move a train to position 1, it may go to position 3, for example. The next train you move up will go to position 4, and so on.

The other thing is when a train crashes, every other train moves up so you can get some anomalies there as well. I would imagine this would be very frustrating with a complicated naming/numbering scheme, unless you always choose to replace the crashed train.

Interesting idea, though!

[RRT3Freak]

Descriptive names are useful for if you're in the red and a train crashes, and you want to make another train cover the route. Which is better:

Train 4 has crashed!
Do you want to replace it with a train which duplicates it route?

...or:

NYC-CHG Express has crashed!
Do you want to replace it with a train which duplicates it route?

Sure, you could look at the routing table, but what about those messages like "Train 4 has arrived at New York.". How do you know it isn't a long distance express or a short distance freight? I wouldn't like my long distance express to not have made money, but a freight is OK with me.

[OilCan]

Naming trains is helpful early in a game when one is micromanaging their trains for profit, but once into the expansion phase of the game and when many of the trains are running on auto consists....naming them is not really needed. I do name special supply or raw resource trains or a few trains that I know I will re-route in the near future - just so I can find them easily on the train view list. I do agree that naming trains is more personable and meaningful than just a train number, but I often don't have the time (or forget) to name them.

[Jeremy Mac Donald]

I often name stations (Produce #1, Coal #3) but rarely trains.