Custom Consist

[PaulJohann]

Hi,
Possibly I have missed something but I have two questions about putting together the cargo of a train.
1. Is it possible to set a minimum number of wagons for several cargos individually or only for he train as a whole?
2. Is it possible to exclude cargos from a train (preventing that a needed cargo for an industry is carried away)?
Any help is highly appreciated.
PaulJohann

[Hawk]

aboard Paul.
Looks like we have another RT3 enthusiast on the Hawk & Badger Railroad.

Assuming, as the title of this thread would imply, that you are using custom consists, the answer to your first questions is no, kind of.
I believe that if all cargo in your custom consist were readily available at the station, in quantity, you could set up a custom consist of say 1 coal, 3 iron, 2 bauxite and 2 corn and it should haul just that amount.
But - if one of the cargo were in short supply the station master would load more of another cargo to fill the train up to the maximum set.

The answer to your second question is yes, by not adding that cargo to your custom consist. Of course then all trains departing from that station would have to be custom consists or else if that cargo is in demand somewhere else it will be hauled by a non-custom train going to the demand station.

[edbangor]

The answer to the second question, in the way I read it is probably "No".
You can't set up a train to take any cargo but the one, or two, that you want to keep there.
You are limited, as Hawk says, to just telling the train what to load, but you can't tell it what NOT to load.

PS: welcome, to the board, and before Ned says it, don't forget to check out Trainmaster, the all new, improved version of RRT3

[PaulJohann]

Thanks Hawk and Edbangor for your prompt and very helpful advice. I'm followig this forum for quite a while but hesitated to participate actively. Now having the chance I would like to express my deepest thanks for the incredible work you folk are doing here. This includes also oilcans's phantastic handbook and much much more. Keep on!!!
Paul

[Hawk]

Glad to have you on board.
If you have any more questions don't hesitate to ask. We'll try and answer them.

[KevinL]

aboard Paul.
I believe that if all cargo in your custom consist were readily available at the station, in quantity, you could set up a custom consist of say 1 coal, 3 iron, 2 bauxite and 2 corn and it should haul just that amount.
But - if one of the cargo were in short supply the station master would load more of another cargo to fill the train up to the maximum set.

I might be misreading your last sentence, but no, the "station master" will not add more of another cargo if one is lacking. In your example, if there are no cars of coal available, but 4 loads of iron, the game will only take the 3 loads of iron. And if there is only one load of iron and 3 loads of corn, it will take only that one car of iron and 2 loads of corn. If you want it to take other loads, you have to set up one or more cars as "any cargo" (or any freight or any express).

[Hawk]

Ah! Thanks for correcting me on that.

[belbincolne]

I'm rather late coming in on this but I've just been playing German West Africa where you need dozens of custom consist trains and noticed a few things which I'll list below but the interesting thing was that every now and then a train ignored what was set up and carried something else. It may be that it had previously been set up for that type of carrying and remembered its original instructions not the new ones.

Anyway (remember only full carriages count as a load carried):-

1. If you need to carry one class of cargo you should custom consist it for 8 loads and a a minimum carry of 8. It will then (eventually) fill up and set off with 7.6 loads so you will get a count of 7. You should make a list of such trains so that you can do the thing I hate - micromanage. Review them regularly and (depending on number of loads you need) set them off early WHEN THE LAST NEEDED CARRIAGE is 100% full. That way you wont waste time waiting for a 0.6 not counting carry. (Very important on GWA and many other scenarios where you can set it off with one full car). If you have dozens of such trains its b... hard work and (for me) removes some of the enjoyment.

2. If you need two different loads (GWA again needs 3 Ammo & 3 Weapons) set them for 1 more of each (so 4/4 in GWA) and again watch. It will set off when the last one reaches 3.6 so you will be o/k but if you set them at 3/3 you might well only get both with 2.6 (so a 2 count for each).

3. If you need several set them up appropriately but always with a minimum of 2 per item because with 4 x 2 most second carriages will not be full so wont count.

4. Obviously if speed is essential just put the minimum carry at one more than you need and dont overload the train with un-needed carriages which will slow it down.

[Wolverine@MSU]

I think this was discussed in another thread, and the conclusion was that the game does keep track of partial loads, but they don't show up in the "count" until the "extra" partial load is delivered. In other words, 2 trains with 3.6 loads each will, when both arrive at their destination, register as 7 loads total (with 0.2 loads still waiting to be "topped off"). It will show 3 loads after arrival of the first train and then 7 loads after the arrival of the second train.

[nedfumpkin]

Wolvy is correct on that.Load counts are 0-.9 =0, 1.0-1.9=1, etc.

[nmc_zmc]

Welcome everybody. Sorry for OT but I have quite similar problem.

It is possible to do something like in Railroads. Here what I mean:
- We have 3 stations (A => B => C)
- on A we set to get 3 cargoes of one type
- and on B we want to add TWO MORE of another type
- on C we unload all

I RRT when we arrive to B our train first UNLOAD cargo and then LOAD it again. Its waste of time.

[KevinL]

Sorry, there's no way to do that in RRT3 like there was in RRT2. In RRT3 all cargoes are unloaded at the next stop.

You can set up custom consists though, to take 3 loads of corn and 1 load of iron from CityA to CityB, and then another custom consist to take 3 loads of corn, 1 load of iron, and 1 load of coal to CityC, etc.

[nmc_zmc]

Im studing "Handbook" and there is a info about it. My question was after mission "The War Effort" where time is important. This handbook is great. Yesterday my playing style was "connect as many cities as you can" and I have problems with chosing where to invest in industries. Now I have concept how it works and its like a new different game. Its like first time playing.

[RayofSunshine]

Well, I guess I will put in my

The previous threads all have their merits, but one item was not given. And I know that it is part of playing, because it happens to me occasionaly. And that is that "IF" a given destination "IS NOT INDICATED" for a demand, that a player can "custom consist" to that depot, but may not get any revenue from the haul. I have had this situation is a number of different scenarios, so don't be surprised if and when it may happen to you

[belbincolne]

Thats right - but only in RT6. In RT3 it wouldn't haul until it could make a profit - one of the deliberate improvements.

[Grandma Ruth]

I'm not sure that the original question has been answered. My understanding is that Paul is asking this: if you want to carry coal and iron (for example), can you make the train carry at least 2 loads of iron on every trip?
And the answer is no. If you set it to minimum 2 cars, it will take 2 cars of coal or 1 of coal and 1 of iron, whatever's available. I've tried re-arranging the order of the cars but it doesn't matter whether you have iron-coal-iron-coal etc or iron-iron-coal-coal or whatever.
The only thing you can do is have one train dedicated to each cargo, so in my example you have one train all iron and one train all coal, each with a minimum 2 cars.
An annoyance, but not usually that crucial.

[Wolverine@MSU]

I think you can. If you set the custom consist to 3 loads of coal, it won't leave until there are at least two full loads and one partial load of coal. I often want it to take something else if available, so for every additional load of "any cargo", I raise the minimum loads needed by one. For example, a custom consist of 3 coal, with the minimum at 3 loads will get your two full loads. If you wanted to add "any cargo" then just bump the minimum loads by one: coal-coal-coal-any-any with minimum set to 5 loads. If there are other cargoes at the station, it will load two of them and then sit and wait until the three coals (2 full and 1 partial) are loaded.

[WPandP]

But Ruth's point is that a train carrying multiple commodities cannot specify X loads of coal plus Y loads of iron; it's just the total number of loads that gets checked. In other words, Z loads of any combination of coal and iron. So, if you want to ensure that X of coal is getting delivered, then you need to run it on a separate train, and do as you say (i.e. set the number of loads to X+1). If you have a train set to haul coal+coal+coal+any+any with a minimum of 3, then you can guarantee that at least one load of coal will get hauled, but you may be getting loads of any+any+coal. It won't load up any+any+coal and then sit there waiting for two more coal loads to come in, as the total Z has been met.

I typically do that a lot, where I do a consist as 5 Coal plus 2 Any plus caboose, then set the minimum to 3 or 4 loads; that way it will always carry at least some coal, but if coal isn't being produced fast enough or there are more valuable goods then the train can still run on time and profitably.

[Grandma Ruth]

but if coal isn't being produced fast enough or there are more valuable goods then the train can still run on time and profitably.

Thanks, WPandP, that's what I was trying to say but you explained it better than me.
I'm not sure about what you say highlighted above, though - I think if you're not careful you can end up carrying "any" goods that aren't profitable. I'm at work now so I can't check it out but I'm nearly sure I stopped doing what you described and dropped the "any" goods because they weren't profitable.
Also when I play, which isn't often now, it's TrainMaster !

[Stoker]

I have to agree with Wolverine here, you definitely can make a train carry exact cargo rosters. If you make a train with a consist of 1 car iron and 2 coal ONLY with the minimum and maximum set at 3 cars it will carry exactly 2 coal and 1 iron every time. Where it gets slightly tricky is if you don't want to make the train solely for some specific items. If you were to make a train with 1 iron 2 coal AND you set more cars to be "any cargo" you may or may not get your desired load. Example: You make a train with a consist of 1 Iron , 2 Coal and 5 "any cargo" with a minimum of 3 cars you may or may not get the 1 Iron and 2 coal in that train- the 3 required cars might fill with "any cargo". BUT , if you made a train with a consist of 1 Iron 2 Coal and 5 "any cargo" with a minimum train size of 8 you would get a train that had a minimum of 1 Iron 2 Coal and 5 of any cargo- which might include more coal and Iron.