Gumboots wrote: ↑Thu Dec 31, 2020 12:56 amCosmetic double headers can be done without repainting anything, and without making "ghost" locomotives. Repainting is only required if you actually want a different skin.
That's what I am going to do from now on. About half of my repainting so far was solely for visually telling trains apart. When I had several identical Kriegsloks or Northerns operating near each other, it was becoming confusing. Sometimes I happened to re-route the wrong train and realize it too late. From now on, I'll only resort to repainting when I actually want a livery veeeery much.
For the visual identification of trains, I'll prefer these Cosmetic double headers from now on, it allows numerous combinations with minimal effort.
It also helps visually enjoy locomotives which you'd otherwise never see due to their unsuitability for any duties (an unfortunate case with many of Tycoon's default fleet).
In the attached picture we have the "Adler" (more correctly: a Patentee) doubleheading with another Patentee featuring a different tender (the Planet's for that matter). So, I know instantly it is my Smyrna-Manisa-Cassaba run. The Smyrna-Manisa-Aydin has 2 identical Patentees, the Smyrna-Manisa-Balikesir has a third, different tender and so on. If in a scenario you have, say 4 available locos of which only 2 are worth providing the actual power, then your available combinations with the respective tenders are 32 ! If you are willing to do a repaint (or download one) for one of your leading engine classes you raise this to 64 !
I am intersted to know the alternative way for cosmetic double headers without making "ghost" locomotives,
but only if this already published somewhere or takes less than 6-7 minutes to write down. I don't want anyone spending valuable time to satisfy my curiosity. I searched the forum by keywords, but failed to find any such mention. I found out however that even experienced and highly productive developers of Tycoon stuff ignored this possibility.
WPandP wrote: ↑5. Unfortunately, I doubt there is any way to achieve doubleheading or helpers within RRT3.
Some interesting news, especially for the caboose enthusiasts : I just completed a new range of tests
- Converting the dining car to a banking loco instead of the caboose doesn't create any residual "ghost" locomotives or any other side-effects so far. So, the method I previously described does work at the expense of the dining car in place of the caboose
- If you sacrifice both the dining car and the caboose applying my method for the former and Gumboots' above proposed method for the latter, you have the option of 2 pusher locomotives uphill. I just tried it and it's a huge booster. By the way, I already had a permanent "ghost" loco in front. The latter of course purely decorative, with no participation in the total horsepower, yet the sight of the 4 exhausts and the feel of heavy haul railroading on a mountain route was superb! It is really worth it with the "articulated" freight cars available from users elsewhere in the forum.
- The converted "dining car" still generates that extra income from passengers, obviously so enthusiastic about the experience and eager to ride the banked trains!
I hope the gained experience will help me deal with
the steam railcar project soon.