Setting up routes and cargo

[scubadiver]

Hello,

I have returned to RT3 in the last 3/4 months after quite a long hiatus.

I have been playing Chicago to New York so to give an example if I create a track between Chicago, Fort Wayne and Cleveland I would set up the following route:

1) Chicago
2) Fort Wayne
3) Cleveland
4) Fort Wayne
5) Chicago

I presumed that if I didn't incude (5) the train would go from Fort Wayne back to Chicago without carrying anything. Is that correct?

The other thing is selecting cargo which I am not too clear about. If I click on each station in the above example and manage the cargo, I am selecting what I am picking up from that station and is taking to the next. Is that correct?

Clarification would be appreciated.

[Gumboots]

You don't need 5.

And yes to your next question.

[Just Crazy Jim]

After playing RRT2 for so long, I was a while figuring out the routing and consists in RRT3. But yes, as Gumboots already said, you leave off 5 in your example.

When you're managing the cargoes for a scenario goal, it's usually best to go about it in a half-and-half sort of arrangement. So, for a 4-car consist:

car 1: your choice,
car 2: your choice,
car 3: any cargo,
car 4: any cargo.

This sort of arrangement insures that you make money even when the cargo you need to haul is making little or no profit for you. I find that setting a minimum on a train very often reduces the profits of that train, so it is best to avoid setting minimums unless money is really tight.

Also, after the third year for most locomotives, you definitely want to add a caboose, even to an express-only train. But even with the most reliable locos, after the 5th year, you need a caboose.

[RulerofRails]

I have been playing Chicago to New York so to give an example if I create a track between Chicago, Fort Wayne and Cleveland I would set up the following route:

1) Chicago
2) Fort Wayne
3) Cleveland
4) Fort Wayne

Well I would describe this as servicing 3 cities with one train. There is no rule about how many cities to visit with each train. As a player it's up to you to work out how much cargo is in that area of the map (refer to the cargo map overlay) and provide the sufficient service that your trains don't run empty too often. As a game progresses and your network gets larger traffic will likely increase. If you build new industries to develop more resources, traffic will also increase.

The other thing is selecting cargo which I am not too clear about. If I click on each station in the above example and manage the cargo, I am selecting what I am picking up from that station and is taking to the next. Is that correct?

Yes. But only do that in special cases for trains to transport cargoes strategically either for a haulage count (goal) or to supply a particular industry of your choice operate. The majority of your trains should run "any consist" or alternatively "any express" or "any freight."

In RT3 version 1.05, the custom consist doesn't really load a car on the train, it just gives the opportunity that IF that cargo is available and IF it can be hauled to the next destination at a profit (must be $2k+ in price differential). A false on either count and that car slot is wasted.

[undertoad]

Hello scubadiver, and welcome back to RRT3!

There are good answers to your question already, but maybe I can add something to the conversation.

You don't need the extra Chicago as no. 5 in your list, as the list "wraps round": when the train gets to Fort Wayne at step 4 (end of the list), it'll go back to the beginning of the list to work out where to go next. I'm sure I've made train routes with two stations in a row (5 Chicago, back to start 1 Chicago) by accident, and it doesn't do any harm, but it makes the route more confusing.

The one case where I do have a station (typically the start station) in the list twice is to force-route train maintenance. I'd build a maintenance shed just outside Chicago, on a spur. Then I'd route a train like this (1 Chicago, 2 Ft Wayne, ..... 5 Chicago, 6 Chicago Maintenance Shed). At the end of each run the train makes a little empty run from Chicago to the shed and back. This makes for faster train times than the AI practice of putting maintenance sheds right on the main line in the middle of a fast run, requiring trains that feel they need a break to stop there and then slowly accelerate again afterwards.

Another advantage of this arrangement (which I picked up from a guide somewhere on this site) is that the train always visits the maintenance shed empty, so that it gets moving again much quicker after maintenance. And a passenger train on this kind of routing never carries passengers on its maintenance run (because it's running Chicago-Chicago, no-one gets on), which means you don't delay them and (if it's important, as it is in some scenarios) degrade your average passenger speed.

The disadvantages of this arrangement are that you have to make your own estimate about how far a train can travel between maintenance stops, rather than plonking down sheds all over the place and letting the trains use them as required. Sometimes I over-estimate: I see my trains running out of oil, and would end up putting another shed at Cleveland (in your case) and adding an oil-stop there into the route. And as Just Crazy Jim points out, trains get more unreliable after a few years, so you can get the maintenance routing exactly right but then overstretch a train as it gets older. (Personally I don't usually use cabooses, but that's a matter of personal preference - they do work). There's also a "crawl bug", which makes a train crawl from a station to a very close water tower or shed at a constant 1mph if the distance is too small - but I can't remember which versions it affects. Avoid building towers and sheds right next to a station (i.e. not as close as you can) to prevent this happening.

Custom consists are very difficult to get right. Things change all the time, prices fluctuate, so it's easiest to just set the consists to "any freight", "any express" or some combination of the two. If you look at a rival AI company's trains, you'll see that the AI has a habit of varying the route of its trains constantly - probably every time a train arrives anywhere - to get the best profit. That's just beyond the ability of humans (this one, anyway) once there are more than e.g. 6 trains to manage. I think custom consists, except on a very few trains for special purposes, are too hard to get right in the same way - and unnecessary, as with a more general consist (anything, any freight, any express) a train will always pick up the most profitable cargo first.

The standard A->B->C->B->A routing (which you're using for Chicago-Ft Wayne-Cleveland) works well, as no station gets left out. The one annoying consequence it has is that it can miss out on potential big end-to-end profits. You could e.g. have loads and loads of Alcohol in Chicago, which the Clevelanders will pay a high price for. If there's no profit for Alcohol at Ft Wayne, though, the train will never pick it up: if the profit at Ft Wayne is low, the train will only pick it up if its low profit margin "wins" against other cargos available at Chicago. You'd think that the train would pick up the Alcohol, knowing that though there's no money to be made at Ft Wayne, it can then just pick up the Alcohol again and make $$$$$ at Cleveland. It doesn't work like that, though: trains never think beyond the next stop on their route. (I keep a few "floating" trains hanging about, to be assigned to opportunities like this one which the regular scheduled trains are missing out on).

Enjoy the trains!

[Cash on Wheels]

The other thing is selecting cargo which I am not too clear about. If I click on each station in the above example and manage the cargo, I am selecting what I am picking up from that station and is taking to the next. Is that correct?

Clarification would be appreciated.

Yes and for frieght it picks up the 8 most valuable cargos

Example on the CH-FW-CVD route:

Lets say there are 2 loads of rubber in Chicago ($2) that want to go to the nearest tire factory in Cleveland($17)
The train will load both rubber carloads up for Fort Wayne for $8 then in FW reload the rubber on the cleveland train for $7. If there is room in the FW to Cleveland train. Now if you have a direct route from chicago to cleveland the rubber would be worth $15 a carload.

The rub xould even be routed to chicago Pittsburgh for like $3 then be brought back to cleveland for $12 a carload by another train.

The city to city approach you use has it advantages and disadvantages.

Express traffice OTOH have their own threads.